Congregations post sermons, notes on Web sites

By Steven Cook
Gazette Reporter

September 17, 2000
ALBANY - The standing-room-only crowd at Grace Fellowship Church listened intently one recent Sunday as their pastor gave his first sermon in several weeks.

The Rev. Rex Keener had just returned from Holland, where he attended the Rev. Billy Graham's Amsterdam 2000 evangelistic conference. Keener, known as "Pastor Rex" to his parishioners, told of all the Dutch Christians he encountered at the conference, including the pastor he'd met who sold two of his three cows to attend.

"We are part of a worldwide family, brothers and sisters," Keener said before the sanctuary's filled seats. "There's a special calling for us here in Albany."

Though he was speaking to the people in the church, the Dutch faithful he had just left days before and people from places Keener has never been would soon be able to hear his words. His sermons are recorded and posted on the church's Web site.

Churches and other religious organizations have been making the leap into cyberspace in increasing numbers _ melding some of the world's oldest institutions with the world's newest technology.

No fewer than a dozen Capital Region houses of worship easily can be found with presences on the Web.

Web surfers can find such things as the latest babies to be baptized at Amsterdam's St. Casimir's Catholic Church, the story behind Niskayuna's Congregation Agudat Achim Carrot Festival and the curriculum for Sunday School at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Schenectady.

The Web has benefits ranging from better communication to increased visability among young people, religious organizations have found. But they have also found difficulties, as churches and synagogues attempt to bridge the so-called Digital Divide between members on the Internet and members who have not gone online or cannot go online.

"We're at the very beginning of what this means for churches," says John Bookser Feister, editor of the Cincinnati-based Web site known as AmericanCatholic.org , which provides Web services for more than 1,500 Catholic church and religious organization Web sites.

"Even though the World Wide Web is an international phenomenon, Web sites are a place where parishioners can be aware of each other and pray for each other," Feister said.

AmericanCatholic.org provides church sites with such features as "Saint of the Day," which the particularly technology-inclined Web surfers can download using their Palm Pilots.

While it's difficult for church, synagogue and other organizations to tell who their users are, online guest books and counters show a fair amount of activity.

Tom Salamone, who maintains Grace Fellowship's site, estimated that about half the church's 1,000 members have visited the site at least once.

Web surfers have signed the site's guest book claiming to be from as far away as California, Spain and India.

Reviews sermons

Grace Fellowship member Gary Blanton of Duanesburg sometimes visits his church's site to refresh sermon notes after attending services with his wife and two children.

"It's an awesome way to spread God's word faster and to more people," said Blanton, 43.

Schenectady's Congregation Agudat Achim not only includes the standard congregation calendar and service times, but also includes candle lighting times to mark the beginning of each Sabbath and homework for Hebrew school.

But perhaps more importantly, the site includes an overview of synagogue life that is particularly useful to prospective members, said Agudat Achim member Stephen Schmidt, who maintains the congregation's site.

"We really have two audiences for the Web site," Schmidt, 32, said. "[Potential members] can visualize what we do, who we are, and get an idea of what they're joining. And current members can get information and distribute it quickly."

"It's an easy way to church shop and get a feel for what the church is like," said James Brooks-McDonald, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church of Schenectady rector. "We strive to have a Web page that adequately and accurately reflects who we are as a congregation."

Brooks-McDonald, 45, began St. Stephen's site three years ago. Updating it quickly commanded much of his time, and Brooks-McDonald has since enlisted the help of another parishioner in maintaining the church's site.

St. Stephen's Church Council viewed a Web site as a novelty in 1997, Brooks-McDonald said. Now, it's seen as essential.

As the church started referring to the site more and more, Brooks-McDonald said some parishioners without Internet access began feeling left out.

"We're trying to be more sensitive to that," Brooks-McDonald said. "We never put any information on the Web page that you couldn't get somewhere else in the church."

Printouts of each page on St. Stephen's site are posted inside the church where all members can see them.

Keith Barkevich, who maintains St. Casimir's site, set up a computer to show off the site during social hour one Sunday.

"Everybody was thrilled," recalled Barkevich, 34. "We wanted to try to do something more progressive and different. We wanted to try to get younger people involved in church activities."

Getting younger people involved is one reason many churches go online, said Feister of AmericanCatholic.org.

With many young people not attending regular religious service, opening good communication lines is key, Feister said.

"If the younger generation is using electronic media," Feister said. "Then that's how we'll reach them."

"I think the church sometimes is slow to change," observed Brooks-McDonald of St. Stephen's. "But a smart church understands how to use new technology for ancient purposes in bringing people to faith."

Grace Fellowship, Albany: www.gracefellowship.com
St. Casimir's, Amsterdam: www.stcasimirs.com
St. Stephen's, Schenectady: www.albany.net/~ststeph
Congregation Agudat Achim, Niskayuna: www.uscj.org/empire/schenectady

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