Love God, neighbor and enemy.
    Treat others the way you want to be treated.
People matter.  Stuff doesn't.        - Jesus

Resurrection   Anglican Church

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The Hartford Institute
for Religion Research
conducted a study of Congregational Web Sites and rated Resurrection's as "excellent." The link to their review is here. If this link no longer works, a copy of the text is included below:

Church of the Resurrection's
Web Site

We suggest that you visit the Church of the Resurrection Web site and tour around it for a while. Then come back and read the review. Feel free to write us with your comments or criticisms at feedback@hartsem.edu.

Review: Finding a church Web site where the content and design work complement each other flawlessly is unfortunately rare. All too often the message and design don’t match up, leaving the casual surfer wondering which one is closer to the everyday reality. Clean, organized and pleasantly simple, this site’s peaceful design matches perfectly with its message. The overall impression portrays a kind, loving, down-to-earth community that’s not without a sense of humor. Nowhere on this site does one feel "preached to."

The opening page starts off with a description of what kind of church they are, both in terms of denomination, and belief system. The first paragraph even has certain words ("evangelical", "gently charismatic", and "Episcopal"), hyperlinked to explain what they mean to that particular congregation. There is an invitation to worship, a warm paragraph of welcoming, and then contact information. The fact that both contact information, and maps are so easy to find remind the viewer that this is a real community meant to be experienced in person – the Web site does not attempt to take the place of live worship as part of a congregation. Everything about the homepage screams out, "Come visit us!"

The first link in the menu system goes to a sincere, thoughtfully written letter from the Pastor, which honors diversity, emphasizes the healing, joyful nature of God, and successfully conveys the sense that belonging to this particular community is like coming home. He includes his e-mail at the bottom, encouraging readers to correspond directly with him. By looking at the order of the menu system, it would seem that the purpose of this site is to reach out to people on a personal level and get them involved, rather than serving as a mere information warehouse. Someone who is looking for a church to join, is new to their faith, or returning to faith after a period of abandonment, would most likely find this site gently inviting in terms of both design and ideology.

On the more technical/practical side, current events are listed in a prominent place on the banner, which is accessible from every page. This serves as both a convenience for members, and a draw for newcomers. Very little if any scrolling is required to access links in the menu bar, and the amount of text in the center is not overwhelming. Navigation is intuitive. It is easy to go between different parts of the site, and there is a Table of Contents index to help users who are looking for something specific. The content includes some resource material, such as articles and links that would be useful to people involved with this community. There is also a page where you can either read or hear recordings of the pastor's sermons - useful as a reference for those in the congregation, but also enticing for anyone contemplating trying out this church for the first time.

The one weakness of this site is that it is not very interactive. Its content seems most geared toward drawing in the public, yet there is no obvious hook that grabs people’s attention right away and keeps them coming back regularly. Unless they are already interested, and specifically come prepared to do a lot of reading and information gathering about the church, most likely they will pass right by it. Something like a message board for ongoing group discussions, or even a guestbook, might be a simple, low-maintenance way to make it less static. A searchable online library of research material would be considerably more work to create, but might draw both church members and the outside public regularly. What the site truly craves are frequently updated pages devoted to the different ministries the church offers, and special events as they happen throughout the year. The list of ministries is tucked away in a quiet place underneath the staff names/phone numbers, but there is no description of what they are all about. It would be great to see what these ministries are, and follow their impact, using that both to entice members into becoming actively involved, and to give the church higher visibility. The power of authentic, real-time photographs shouldn’t be underestimated either.

However, this seems to be a site, and a congregation, on the verge of expanding to a whole new level. Under the link "Soon to Come" there is a description for plans to open a Café in the basement, to offer special education courses, as well as to introduce an online bookstore [review written in March, 2000. All of these are now open]. Additionally there is a link to "YuThE GrUpE and ReZNeT - A project of youth group Cyber Freaks at Resurrection." It goes to a completely different part of the site, which was definitely inspired by and built for more youthful tastes. The opening page starts out with a mirthful warning that "this site contains content of a youthful nature - if you are offended by such content or if you are not of such an age please leave," followed by a disclaimer that the warning is a joke - anyone is welcome. Once you enter, it suddenly feels as if you've been transported to a different world, and the site becomes a lot more interactive, thought-provoking, and outspoken.

In looking over so many church Web sites, both humor, and the presence of youth involvement are consistently lacking, so this was a refreshing thing to discover. It is especially rare to find a church Web site that so openly accepts and embraces youth as they are, reaching out to them on their level, instead of expecting them to conform to a more conservative adult approach to faith and worship. Even though parts of this are still under construction and somewhat experimental, it could be used much more effectively as a draw to the church if it was placed in a more prominent location. Most Web-surfing youth are not going to click through the entire site to find this buried bit of gold.

Overall, this is a very well-thought-out site, which has the potential to become something truly unique and extraordinary among church Web sites. Hopefully as the elements in the "Soon to Come" section develop into reality, they can be displayed more prominently to draw instant attention. The open, friendly nature of the content, combined with those kinds of hooks could make this a truly remarkable site that will keep people coming back for more.

Always Accessible

This Web site is (and always has been) owned, paid for and operated as a courtesy to the people of Resurrection, by the webmaster, and may be withdrawn or redirected at any time at his sole discretion.