A Covenant of greater unity was signed by the six churches in January 2009.  The website is intended to support the Covenant by providing information about each of the churches, their communities and their activities, all on one site. 

 

The website includes a joint calendar of all local church events, picture galleries for each church and information about each church, its people and communities. It is aimed at anyone interested in the churches and the local areas, not just the current church members.

 

Martin Gowdridge, website co-ordinator and administrator, said today: "The idea for a combined website was discussed early in 2008 at the time that the covenant details were being finalised.  The objectives for the website were simple - to be informative, easy to use and easy to maintain.  After a year's planning and development, early reports on the pre-launch demonstrator are positive and we appear to have achieved all of the objectives."

 

He added: " We had to work to a standard structure and page format that would apply to each church. This helped the churches to develop and approve the content of their own pages.  Although West Hallam Methodist Church already has its own website, we have provided a link to it so as not to have unnecessary duplication of information.  We worked with Homelands Computers to turn the ideas into a site of over 100 pages that even a novice web surfer could manage easily.  We then developed a set of administration forms with which to maintain the pages ourselves without the need for an experienced programmer."

 

The website will have an annual review at which any ideas for improving the site will be discussed and submitted to the WSSM Ecumenical Planning Group for funding approval.

ENDS