I like Emmanuel Howard Park - it's quite dramatic & a bit different from usual - interesting use of black & white photography.

Also Gilmore Park United Church - it's a bit busy, but contains lots of great information (I especially like the "What to expect" section for worship - which they have graciously shared with others)

(Disclaimer - I'm not a member of either!)

Thanks Carolla. Here are the URLs for the two sites you mention:

http://www.ehpchurch.org/

http://www.gilmoreparkunited.org/home.shtml

No post, sorry.

We have recently started video recording our service and putting in on the web page.  I'm reluctant to give the link because our home page is an embarrassment compared to the two posted above (and I'm the webmaster).  Also I'm afraid we will get busted  for some sort of copywrite problem because of the music.  In fact maybe I should delete this post.

The congregation is just beginning to discover that are services are online, and there is a lot of enthusiasm about it.  Especially amongst the choir.  Our congregation has an average age over 70, I'm guessing, perhaps well over 70.  We really needs something new and exciting to energize us. 

I like our website at Westhill.  http://www.westhill.net/

We've just relauched and made a number of changes.  For members there is are other options available on the website that helps to build the community.  But even what the general public can view is pretty good, IMO...cms

I've been googling. I hope you don't mind if I add a touch of glamour....lol. Some of these websites took a bit of work and its ongoing.

P.S.  I need the words in order to post the pics.

 

(A Nursery is available for babies and toddlers up to 3 years old; belongs with  the pic. at the bottom..lol)

 

St. Paul's Fredericton, NB

 

Gallery: 115 pictures .....Wow! Terrific idea.

 

http://www.stpaulsunited.ca/gallery/index.html

 

Newtonbrook UC - Toronto

 

http://www.newtonbrookunitedchurch.ca/

 

(Hey look guys! Animation works on the WC!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trinity St. Paul's United in Toronto

 

http://www.trinitystpauls.ca/

 

St. Paul's Tilsonburg

 

http://www.stpaulsunitedchurch.info/main.htm

 

St. Paul's in Dundas, Ont. (church bells music)

 

 

 

 

http://www.stpaulsdundas.com/

 

St. Paul's in Midland, Ont.

http://www.stpaulsmidland.org/templates/System/default.asp?id=44777

 

Deer Park UC in Calgary, Alberta

http://dpuc.ca/

 

Beach UC in Toronto (http://www.beachunitedchurch.com/tp40/default.asp?ID=94892

 

St. Andrew's Markham, Ont.

 

Join the "Prayer Chain"

 

http://www.standrewsmarkham.com/index.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Paul's Thunder Bay Ont.

 

 

http://www.stpaulstbay.net/1010.htm

 

St. Paul's Petrolia Ont.

 

http://www.stpaulsunitedpetrolia.com/

 

 

Bridge St. United Belleville, Ont.

 

 

 

http://www.bridgestreetchurch.com/

 

St. Paul's Sidney BC

http://www.stpauluc.com/

 

St. Paul's Aylmer, Ont.

 

 

St. Paul's United Church A Covenanting Congregation with a Vision of "Reaching Others for Christ" through a Mission “To introduce Jesus Christ to those who do not know and love Him. To deepen the faith and commitment of those who already know Him. To demonstrate Christ's Way of love in service to the world.”

 

 

 

 

http://www.stpaulsunitedchurch.ca/home.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Paul's in Orillia

.

 

http://www.stpaulsunitedchurch.org/

 

Dominion Chalmers Ottawa

 

http://www.dc-church.org/home1.html

 

Montreal West U.C.

 

OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS, OPEN DOORS

 

 

http://www.mwuc.org/Links.dsp

 

 

 

 

 

Admin: I have tried to post this item twice, maybe someone is trying to tell me something....

Challenge:

Our site (www.wesleyunited.ca) is wickedly old....and boring. We know it.  We had a good site....it was transferred to someone else who said they could manage it. It was destroyed, rewritten poorly, and the original decent Dreamweaver code was lost...sigh. The original folks who invested so much time were disappointed to say the least, when it came back to them.

When looking at what to do, I actually contacted Gilmore Park (via rlj) and their coder and I exchanged a few emails about possibly acquiring their code. 

I ended up not proceeding, as the same situation would have occurred.  A lack of resources to keep it current.

Request:

It would be wonderful to enroll in a United Church hosted website program.

In a way, we already are.

Consider three levels of sites

1.  Basic -- the minisite on wondercafe

2. Intermediate -- a better site that had more areas, content layouts but again, basic functionality (though able to be linked to church's own url)

3.  Advanced -- secure site for documents, minutes and calendar function for groups.

Unusre if it is possible, but I know I would be thrilled to be able to say " we found a solution for $xxx that is hooked to the UC"

We have a few sites, actually.  The main is pretty straightforward and not super exciting, but informative: www.waltonmemorial.com.

The other is our alternative website which we are trying to cultivate into a community at blogspot.immersn.com and www.immersn.com. 

www.kingswaylambton.ca

great archival photos of the stained glass windows.

Library catalogue on line

No post. Sorry.

I'm so jealous of all those beautiful old churches with stained glass.  The church I attend is not a thing of physical beauty.  Why are there so many ugly churches in B.C.?  

Hahaha - I was just mentioning that on another thread: big ugly imposing slabs of cement you can see from Highway 1. Wonderful, isn't it?

Mely, don't know where you are from, but Mission's Westminster Abbey is beautiful and many quaint little Anglican churches (St. Thomas in Chilliwack as one example) offer something quite unseen in the conservative Christian movement.

www.edenunitedchurch.com - a nice site - there is a part about what to expect on a typical Sunday- good idea!

Shameless self-promotion. Our site, which is about to be upgraded, is dc-church.org

and kudos to Aaron for being mentioned so warmly in Diana Butler Bass' new book "A people's history of Christianity". Did you get an autographed copy?

Hi Stardust,

My wife and I were married at St. Paul's United Church in Paris in 1991!

Grace and peace to you.

John

Rev. John

Amazing! It looks like a wonderful church and wonderful people. I'm impressed.

If some site administrator wants info on how to make their church web site accessible and thus more effective, check out http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/abdesign.html.

This sites gives info on how you can make your web site work in anybrowser.

This is one of many llinks and some original articles on accessibility that you can find on http://sites.google.com/site/accessiblechurch/

Sorry, but I thought this thread was to show sites we would recommend, -- not just put up every possible united church site.

am i missing something?

 No post. Sorry.

O.K. Pinga! I just wanted to jazz up the thread a bit and show off some of the UC churches. Perhaps somebody will like a church and go there. No?

Some of these websites are very nice I think. I just figured not everybody has the time to google. Sorry about that; I'll lay off now.

Stardust, I am unsure what the point of putting all these sites up.

i would not say that pictures of empty churches make for an "interesting, intriguing, effective website.

In fact, I would say it is the exact opposite.

You want to attract me to a church, you surely don't put up a picture of an empty room.   ...

Pinga!

I can edit them all out with a stroke of my magic wand if you want.  I might have to leave one in a post so it doesn't look empty.

No problem! I'm easy. Just say the word......

Its cyber church or church on the net. I see these beautiful chapels or rooms and I can  stop to pray here...lol.

I think one of the problem with putting pictures of full sanctuaries etc. up is the privacy laws... especially with kids involved.

It isn't an issue, if you ask permission prior to taking the photo.

You can also do it from the backs of the room, so you get the backs of the heads.

So sorry if some of these sites aren't appropriate. I didn't understand .You guys know better what you're looking for than I do. O.K.?  There's a long post I'm not able to edit due to html problems and my computer I think. Admin. may clean it up if they choose to. Flag as offensive never appears on my posts; computer glitches galore....lol.

Since we're in the artsy mood, I've got some empty pictures to share.  My best friend is having her wedding there in May, and she is one heck of an amateur photographer.  Here are some of her shots:

A couple of points :

1)  Our church websites need to be accurate in reflecting the lived experience of people who come to our church - if the website is flashy & fabulous & youthful,  people may be drawn to try a church - but is that the personal reception they receive at the door, and experience in church programmes?   If not, it's actually detrimental to the image of church, I think.   If we're not 'walking the talk ...'   On the other hand the opposite can be true too ... basic, boring site but exciting church life!

2)  I'm really interested to know if any churches are using web design/managment programmes that make it really easy for an "average user" to be the web-master - i.e. to update information regularly without getting into using code etc?  I see there are a variety of packages out there (mostly if not exclusively US based), at widely varying costs .... experience anyone?   

3)  Googling 'great church websites' hits on a lot of interesting resources (mostly US) - but I also did notice a link to WonderCafe in the ads column on the right!

Carolla -  I use Dreamweaver--just started a few months ago.  I'm probably not using it properly, but I manage to get the site online and edited with out doing any coding.    The only time I even look at the code view is to paste in the "embedded" code for a Youtube video. 

Faeranach - what a lovely church.  Our church looks like a shoe factory--inside and out.  Why did architecture get so ugly after WWII?

The simplest format for doing a church website is to use Forministry.com which is a program of the American Bible Society. The site is free. If you want to register your own domain name, it is $25 for 2 years. It is pre-formatted, so you don't need to know any HTML at all. You pick your layout, and paste your text and pictures.

My last church www.mwuc.org uses forministry.

so do the following congregations

http://www.westmountparkuc.org/

http://roxborounitedchurch.com/

http://www.carlingtonchaplaincy.org/

and you can be much fancier than what these congregations are currently doing with it.

carolla said:
"Our church websites need to be accurate in reflecting the lived experience of people who come to our church - if the website is flashy & fabulous & youthful,  people may be drawn to try a church - but is that the personal reception they receive at the door, and experience in church programmes?   If not, it's actually detrimental to the image of church, I think.   If we're not 'walking the talk ...' "

Couldn't agree more.  That's basically why we have at least two sites - we want to have something that's accessible and practical for those less impressed with technology, but we also want to have something that speaks to the more tech-savvy as well.

Thanks Mely!  It'll be 160 years old next year - started as a Methodist.  I think it's actually a recognized Historic site.  Which has its ups and downs.

I know of a church that is going to be 100 years old shortly. The centenial ctte put a blurb in the news letter. They said that they are going to focus on the building in their advertising etc. because it is a strong asset. I don't get this. A church can be huge and do no ministry or the building can be plain and do ministry daily.

back to the question, I think the website should be accurate of their ministry.

Thanks RevJamesMurray - forministry is just the sort of thing I was thinking about - I'll look into that further.  And FREE is good!  C.

Revjames, I think you found out about this before I did! lol. I just bought a copy and saw it!

This is surferguy's church:

www.standrewsunited.com/

If you want to go really cheap and easy to use and change, try google sites.  Like then Accessible Church Web Site. http://sites.google.com/site/accessiblechurch/. Its free.

You can also try other free web hosting services which but google provides everything you need if you do not not anything about HTML or design, calenders, disscussion groups, video, music, links and are easy to use, it you can use a word processor you can use Google Sites. Ease of use is very important in my opinion since for a web site to be most effective it neads to be up to date. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for web design, or over extending the one techie in your church, this is an option. Remember, usefullness of information, accessible for members to update are all as important as having something smart looking.

You can get a simple domain name for free at www.tinurl.com, like http://www.tinyurl.com/accessiblechurch which is free.  I one added one to my google site. You can also get a domain name for 10 dollars a year. http://www.10dollar.ca. My site is now available at  www.accessiblechurch.ca, or www.accessiblechurch.org. These should be functioning soon. The domain name can be attached to any site like thoses at google, but also onto your web site here on wondercafe, which I believe is free for churches, and make your wonderpage also your churches main web site.

If wondercafe was to register to be able register domain names, then I believe the costs would be even less

 What are the advantages to paying 200-300 dollars a years when there are so many free or low cost alternatives. Do this web hosting services have abilities that wondercafe.ca does not. OR do they have the easy of use of others?

I can not tell what direction the site will take so I registered both names in case I end up having an international group join the accessible church movement.

One of the important things is to have a committed web master.

We are so lucky that our person is actually a computer tech teacher and photographer so he is fabulous.

He updates constantly and i think that is also important.  The the info is up to date and timely.

Our web master also tracks hits and visits and such per page for us so we know what is attracting attention.