Information on Creating a Web Page for your Church or Society

Christian Science churches, societies and college organizations in Connecticut are welcome to have a web page on this site.

Your web page will have a unique Internet address (or URL), which you may list in the Journal, add to your stationery and publicize to the community as a form of outreach.

Your church or society must follow the requirements below in order to have a web page.

What you need:

• Text describing your church, its services, Reading Room, and so on.
• Pictures (exterior, auditorium, SS, Reading Room)
• eMail address (Mail is forwarded to the email address you provide.).

Text

Please provide text for the sections described below, and provide lots of it, not just a sentence or two. A web page is not like a listing in the Journal. It is not acceptable to just give the address of your church and list the times of your services.

Pretend you are meeting with a visitor when you write the text (you are, actually). Pretend you are answering simple questions like:

• What are your services like?
• What is a Wednesday testimony meeting?
• Who is your Pastor?
• What is a Reading Room? Why should I go there? And so on...

You should view the text as an opportunity to tell the people in your community what your church, its services and activities are like. It must be written so that it is interesting to the newcomer. Text which uses jargon or refers to things that only Christian Scientists know about is not interesting. When you write, your words should explain why attending a service or visiting a Reading Room might be interesting for someone who has never been to one!

The web page for the Glastonbury church provides an excellent example of text that is appropriate. It is written to interest the newcomer and is both welcoming and informative.

Pictures

When people visit a web page, they expect to see pictures, and your web page would look very odd without them. Churches must take the required pictures listed below. (Societies may furnish pictures as appropriate.)

Please make sure the pictures you provide are well-lit and in focus. Dark pictures with low contrast or blurry pictures do not make a good impression. Also, please make sure each picture is identified in some way so I will know what it is!

You may take some pictures that include people, but be careful. The object of taking pictures is not to show members of your church or society what they look like on the Internet. It is to show people in your community who have never been to your church what it looks like inside, what the Sunday School looks like, what they can expect to see if they visit your Reading Room, and so on.

E-Mail

Your church or society will have its own e-mail address. Having e-mail is another way to make your church available and responsive to the community.

There is no need to create a special email account for your church. We handle that. You will never have to check your e-mail. It is automatically forwarded to the e-mail account of a church member you designate who already has a private e-mail address.

Please designate a member to receive email messages from anyone who may visit your web page and express an interest in your church. This is also how I will contact you.

Your church e-mail address will be of the form:

churchname@christiansciencect.org

Having e-mail can be very beneficial. You may receive interesting messages, such as an inquiry about books in stock in your Reading Room, for example.

Page Structure

Your page will follow the structure shown below:

[Church Exterior Picture]

Welcome and Introduction

Any welcoming message you wish. Points to consider including:

• Where the church is located. Give the street address and any nearby landmarks.
• How long the church has been established
• What time the services are held, including Sunday School
• How to contact the church (e-mail, phone number? Clerk's name?)

[Church Auditorium Picture]

Sunday Service

Assume that people are not familiar with the Sunday Service. Describe what it is like, but don't just list the order of the service. It would be well to explain who the pastor is, for example, and mention the hymns and solo.

Wednesday Service

Wednesday testimony meetings are a unique feature of a CS church. Again, assume the visitor to your web page has never been to one. Describe in words what the Wednesday service is all about.

[Sunday School Picture]

Sunday School

Explain where the Sunday School meets and when. Describe the age range of the classes, what the children are taught, and who teaches them. Also, you might describe interesting projects that may have been undertaken by your students.

In fact, it might be an interesting project for a Sunday School class to gather the pictures and text for the web page!

[Children's Room Picture]

Children's Room

Even very tiny visitors are welcome! Explain that child care is provided, when, and by whom. Explain how to find the child care room in your church, too. This is the first place a person visiting your church with a small child will want to find!

[Reading Room Pictures (2 required)]

Reading Room

Please provide both an exterior picture and at least one interior picture. More than one interior picture is recommended.

Explain what a CS reading room is, and what a visitor going to yours may expect to find and do there. Explain the hours it is open and exactly where it is located. Provide a telephone number, if available.

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How to submit your materials

Text

You may send the text as a plain-text e-mail message (no formatting, no HTML) to the webmaster. This is the best method. You may also send text as a Microsoft Word document, but any formatting you do will be discarded. (Note: Please do not try to create any HTML using Microsoft Word. It does a horrible job.)

Pictures

The pictures will be attached to the above sections. You may send digitized pictures by e-mail to the webmaster (this is the best way). Image resolution for all web page images is 72 dpi. If you send pictures with a higher resolution, it does nothing but make the file size bigger.

The best picture format is .jpg. (Note: Do not even think of sending pictures in the .bmp format!) All pictures should be sent as individual attachments or in a .zip file. (Please don't embed any pictures in a Word document. It ruins them.)

Alternately, you can mail ordinary prints of any size to the webmaster. I will scan the prints and return them to you. Please contact the webmaster for further information.

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What to do with your web page

After your web page goes live, you should do something with it! You should actively promote your web page as a source of information about your church or society and its activities. Some ideas:

• Make up a sign with the church URL and put it in the Reading Room window. Make the letters BIG- about 3 inches high. You want it to be seen and want it to be conspicuous. Leave out the http:// and leave out index.php. You can write the URL like this: ChristianScienceCT.org/southbury DO NOT CAPITALIZE THE PART AFTER THE SLASH.
• If you have a sign on a post in front of your church or society, add your URL to it and again, make it conspicuous. You want people to notice it and write it down.
• Your URL should be placed on your church stationery, and on anything else you give to the public.
• If you place a newspaper ad for an event, the URL should be included with words such as: For more information, visit: Then, give the URL.
• Lecture announcements should have your URL prominently displayed, so that people who want more information can go to your web page. Advise your lecture committee chairman to contact the webmaster IMMEDIATELY after a lecture is booked. Not a few days before, not a few weeks before- IMMEDIATELY.
• Visit the web site of your local newspaper and see if they have your church listed. It may not be. Ask them to include the URL for your church web page in their listing.
• Visit the web pages of every realtor in your area. They all have them, and they list churches in your area. Are you listed? Find out! Then, ask them to include the URL for your church web page in their listing. I have never found a single one that will not be happy to do so promptly!
• Search the web for any church whatsoever in your city or town. There are many listings of churches in so-called Internet yellow pages and state-wide directories. See if your church is listed. If you find a web site offering a listing and you feel your church should be listed, send an e-mail to the webmaster of that site. Needless to say, ask that they include your URL!

These are just a few ideas. The ways that you can derive benefits and blessings from having a web page are endless.

If you have any questions, please contact the webmaster for this site. Use the link below.