New Christian Website-Worth a Look

After all my huffing and puffing about having to embrace the idea of getting familiar with Social Networking, one of my stealth followers sent me a link to a new Christian website which is still on Beta but well worth a look and I'll promise to update you as new features are added. Although it's American with a lot of contributors from the Far East, it's a good example of how various Christian Churches are embracing new technology and the widening influence if the Internet. Clearly listening to me!

There's a variety of services offered (again not all up and active but we'll keep our fingers crossed) personal profiles, social networking (Meet Christians, Connect with Friends & Grow Your Christian
Network), expert advice (though it doesn't give much info on who they think is an 'expert'-one person's expert being another person's quack and all that), content exchange, job search, and chat. There's also a rather odd idea of earning points for getting people to join up but I suppose we all have to encourage others in what way we can! Good to see the need for this sort of site being embraced. Be aware that you need to sign up to avail of a lot of the services.

Let me (and them!) know what you think and let me know of any other recommendations!

New Media-Intercom Article-World Day for Social Communications 2010

The article below was just published in the May 2010 issue of the Intercom magazine and is posted here with the kind permission of the editor. Do feel free to take out a subscription!

In his message launching the focus for the 2010 World Day for Social Communications, Pope Benedict XVI called on the clergy to use the latest technologies, such as websites and blogs, to preach the gospel and encourage a discourse with all users of these “new media”, not just practicing Catholics. In an age when the Internet has surpassed all other media except television as the principal source of national and international news, the Church could not ignore communications developments, or allow itself to fall out of touch with them.

Pope Benedict underlined the fact that Church communities have traditionally relied on modern media to open the lines of communication. As the culture changes, the Church needs to use the latest technologies, especially if it wants to reach younger people who are increasingly feeling isolated from the community of the Church, many even believing that the Catholic Church makes no real effort to keep in tune with the increasing range of helpful and readily accessible forms of communications. Jesus used every forum of communication available to him during his earthly ministry; he preached to large groups of people in public places, as well as to small groups of disciples in quieter spaces. He spoke in the Temple and travelled great distances to tell people of the wonder of God. His dedication to this would not leave us with any doubt that had the power and means to access a large audience been available to him, Jesus would have been an avid user of the Internet to spread his Word.

Quick to explain the idea of New Media, especially in relation to its use in this, the Year of the Priest’, the Pontiff notes that, “Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, Web sites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization, and catechesis”.

The Pontiff acknowledged that new technologies call on priests to become savvier in their use recognising that these technologies can promote deeper types of relationships even across vast distances and will “enliven their pastoral outreach, but also will give a “soul” to the fabric of communications that makes up the Web.” He also urged those involved in ministry to not forget its primary obligation and message.

The Vatican has already made its own forays into cyberspace. In addition to its main website, the Vatican last year launched Pope2you, where users can access a papal Facebook application, see the Vatican on YouTube, and even download the Church’s iPhone application. At Easter 2009, the Holy See broadcast the Pope’s message with subtitles in 27 different languages - a YouTube record.

Interestingly one of the principal suggestions is that greater use should be made of images, videos, animated features, blogs, and Web sites and that those engaged in formation in a seminary environment should become familiar with new media. It is not difficult for a short course on information technology and Internet safety to be delivered in a manner that encourages, rather than prohibits clergy from engaging with these new media. Some religious groups in Ireland have already begun to positively engage with the papal sentiments by drawing up a list of guidelines for their members using the Internet-making sure it is done in an encouraging manner rather than a list of off-putting warnings.

It is vital to highlight that this mission to engage with New Media does not mean that every priest or nun must now start blogging, tweeting, or set up and maintain their own webpage. One problem that seems to have surfaced from initial reactions to the pronouncement, is that clergy are already busy, without the added work of updating your blog or emailing. However this misses a crucial point of New Media; it is designed for those who do not have much time to devote to it. Twitter uses posts of 140 characters and can be updated from most mobile phones (even without Internet connection). RSS feeds and customisable homepages such as igoogle make access to blogs and websites instantaneous.

If even all this seems too much you should take the spirit of involvement to heart and assess where you can improve and engage further with New Media. For example have a look at your parish’s website-is it updated as often as it could be? Is it accessible and easy to use? Websites are usually very easy to update and all parishes have at least one person who is skilled at web design and up-keep who is only too willing to help-often with only the expectation of a recommendation for future work. Why not collect some email addresses of parishioners and send around a weekly or monthly version of the parish newsletter? You could always include some relevant websites for people to explore while they browse the Net, for example the websites of the Vatican or a Bible Study website. Try asking a tech-savvy member of your congregation to give you a few pointers with how to improve your own use of the Internet or ask them to address your Parish Pastoral Council. Could you set up your own Facebook page to communicate with members of your parish? None of these ideas require a huge time outlay and will start you confidently on your journey of spreading the Good News to as wide a possible an audience.

Lent & Easter Websites

Lent may be a time for penance and giving up chocolate and sugar in your tea (though if you're Irish you're already looking forward to St Patrick's Day-our national "Day Off" Lent and some Sundays. And your birthday if you're lucky enough to have it fall in the 40 days (though is it really 40? Can we squeeze another day off from somewhere?) but it's something that's being featured more and more on the Internet. Lent even has it's own hashtag on Twitter where #imgivingup is currently a trending topic on the site.

I'm trying to DO something for Lent rather than suffer misery and asked for suggestions on Facebook-some websites people recommended were:

CAFOD the official overseas development and relief agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has great ideas on what to do with the money you save over Lent (thank you Jane!)
LiveSimply hasn't updated their site for 2010 but the Lenten Ideas page for 2009 is excellent
The American Franciscan website (thank you Nancy!) has a great focus on reducing your carbon footprint. Accroding to Nacy this is all the rage stateside for Lent and something worth embracing all year round!

In Ireland it's Give Up Smoking Day so those addicted to the weed should check out the HSE website-good luck with that and may it last longer than 40 days!

Here's a few other websites concerned with the Lenten Season and some you could look at for ideas for Easter:

This Franciscan run website features a Lenten calendar, activities, readings and reflections updated daily throughout Lent, from Ash Wednesday through Holy Week and Good Friday. One particularly useful aspect of the site is the “Lenten Radio Retreat” which includes inspiring words and songs for Sunday Lenten reflection either online, or offline with a MP3 player. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, the site will post a new retreat each week for the duration of the Lenten season. There are also links to many articles from the publication “Catholic Update” that may be used for reflection including an excellent examination of the events in the Garden of Gethsemane, the significance of the Cross and some helpful FAQs on Lent which could be included in your parish bulletin. The e-cards on the site are slightly cheesy though-Have a Happy Lent?

The website run by the Global Catholic Network offers beautiful reflections on the Stations of the Cross with accompanying graphics. Websites such as this offer an excellent resource for small pastoral groups and even educators who may wish to offer a guide to the Stations but may not have the time and resources to attend a church or other physical representation. The ever popular Sacred Space website offers an online retreat on its well maintained site. The site also has an e-card resource and provides links to other sites that offer Lenten resources. One of the most admirable aspects of the content of the site is that its resources are translated into many languages making it accessible to practically all members of our communities.

Fr James McSweeney from Cork runs this excellent site that offers a “thought for the day” and is a good recommendation for those who resolve to take some time out from a busy day and focus on the philosophy of the site- that today is God’s gift to you. As a keen (and talented) photographer, James updates the photo on the main page each day and manages to blend the secular and spiritual with a reflective and inspiring approach that is worth a visit during the Lenten season.

Trócaire and the box with a wide-eyed child on it are synonymous with Lent for many Irish people and their website and provides background information on their Lenten theme, this year it is Hunger. There are plenty of development education resources for teachers and students featured on the site with information on Trócaire’s work with displaced people and an online form for ordering a Lenten DVD for schools. The colourful and easy navigable site provides not just information on Trócaire’s work with displaced people but resources that may be used in parishes. Clergy would benefit from reflection on the “thought for the week”, based on Trócaire’s ongoing charitable work throughout the world.

This site provides a beautiful resource on the Way of the Cross for use during Holy Week. The presentation is based on the “Bitter Journey” and provides reflections on Jesus’ last journey before his crucifixion through scripture references, reflections and religious texts accompanied by music and other sounds. The graphics that are used to portray a more modern, audio-visual contemplation on the traditional Stations of the Cross are the strong point of the site, promoting a real engagement with the material. The concept for the site is based on the traditions associated with the Tenebrae services, the Stations of the Cross and the Lamentations of Good Friday. In omitting some of the traditional Catholic stations, this feature refers to Pope John Paul II’s revised celebration of the Way of the Cross, which he led in Rome in 1991. The series of scenes is played using Adobe Flash player, which may be downloaded for free on the Internet. Teachers and those involved with small parish groups can easily download the montage using Real Player.

As our attention turns towards Jerusalem during Holy Week, it is interesting to use the Internet as a competent visual aid. This website provides a gateway to the holy city of Jerusalem with easy access anytime and from anywhere to the 3.4 billion people around the world have a special place in their hearts for the city. Those adventurous enough can record their own prayer to be broadcast by the websites owners through loudspeakers at various points over Jerusalem. The site offers educational resources on all areas of religious significance in the city, including video guides to the principal prayer sites. The option on the left hand side of the main page “Western Wall” provides a live feed to those praying at the Western Wall, a privileged view only those luck enough to travel to the city can witness. For more detailed images of the city, equirectangular images are used on Jerusalem360 to provide a 360 degree, virtual tour of Jerusalem. Sites such as the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, All Nations Church and the Western Wall (both a day and night view) can be viewed in a full 360 degree “sphere”-all the benefits of the tourist experience without the crick in your neck! You can also get a “feel” for the culture of the city by clicking on the “People” tag and see 360 degree stills of children at a history lesson in the Old city and a brightly coloured souk. The site needs Quicktime to load the images but provides a link to a free download if your computer does not already have it installed.

And if you're still stuck for ideas just donate some money to the people of Haiti and the relief effort

Follow Up on Social Networking-God and Facebook

Purely humourous but  to brighten up your day check out this mock up of God's very own Facebook page, created by Andrew B.-and as I've been telling my student's for years, God has a great sense of humour :)

Click on the two pictures picture below for a better look and be warned some of the humour may be a little crude for the delicate amongst us:

Social Networking

My website reviews for Intercom for February were based on my favourite hobby horse of the moment, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Bebo. Many people (Ryan Tubridy I'm looking at you) think that they're the the detriment of modern society and the root cause of all the world's problems from family breakdown to poor spelling. I managed to get most of the rant out in the 400 words allocated to the website reviews but I've reprinted a longer version here with the generous permission of my most wonderful editor, Francis.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph in August 2009, the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols voiced his concerns that social networking websites such as Facebook and Bebo encourage teenagers to build “transient relationships” that can leave them traumatised and even suicidal if they collapse. Nichols said that the sites encouraged young people to put too much emphasis on the number of friends they had rather than on the quality of their relationships. His comments follow an inquest into the death of 15-year-old Megan Gillan, from Macclesfield, England, who took a fatal overdose after being bullied on the social networking site Bebo. Nichols claimed that the Internet and mobile phones were “dehumanising” community life, and relationships had been weakened by the decline in face-to-face meetings.

“I think there's a worry that an excessive use or an almost exclusive use of text and emails means that as a society we're losing some of the ability to build interpersonal communication that's necessary for living together and building a community.”

Does the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales have a point or is his view of social networking sites outdated? A social network focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. The websites normally provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as email and instant messaging. As a subscriber and regular user of several social networking websites, I have found that using them actually helps me keep in touch with friends both from the past and to keep in touch with new people I meet either through work or socially. At a recent party, my group of friends laughed as we realised we did not have to spend time catching up on what had happened to us since we had last met as we can easily keep tabs on each others lives through out Facebook accounts. Reaching out to a friend now can be done instantly and a short message can brighten up a day and remind someone that you are thinking of them. Naturally this system is open to abuse, especially in the perilous social world of a teenager. Bullying started in the real, not virtual world and just as we have to teach out children the social skills and self confidence to face the taunts that they might face in every day human interactions, we need to do the same with online activity.


At the moment social networking sites that cater to a majority of Catholic users are small in number, but growing daily in their users and the resources that each site offers. There are five clear leaders in this area:

Flocknote caters for two types of users. If you are a Church or community leader the site facilitates the sending notes to the entire congregation or just a specific group without the frustrating job of managing multiple mailing lists by email. As a member of the site, you can get the latest news and information from the groups (e.g. Liturgy, PPC, Readers of the Word) you wish to subscribe to; through the website, email, text messages, and more.

The Catholic Community website is helpful if you run a group, organization or parish as this community enables to promote your aims as well as your news and events. When people link to your group you can not only keep them up to date, but they can meet other people who share a passion for your work. One of the fastest growing elements of the site is the section on sharing your skills and opportunities for volunteer work.

While 4marks is still a small community, the website grows daily and if you run a group, organization or parish you can use this community to promote your aims or your news and events. The website has weekly trivia, daily lessons, information on the Saints, and other interactive features as well as the usual platform for establishing networking with other Catholics. The site is very family friendly and very heavily moderated so that you can be guaranteed that the content is suitable for all ages.

This website MyCatholicVillage is quite small in terms of the amount of registered users it has but it is relatively new and the number grows quite rapidly. The majority of registered users are based in the US but this is slowly expanding. One of the benefits about the site is that it follows the outline of social networking sites such as MySpace which mean that it is very user friendly and efficient.

Xt3 which stands for Christ in the third millennium was launched for World Youth Day in Australia in July 2008. Since then, more than 35,000 people from 170 countries have signed up to the site. I feel the jury is still out on the "coolness" of a site that has as it's tag line "So good even the Pope uses it". It has the functionalities of the most common social networks, but with a broad resource base of the latest media that relates to the Catholic faith. Xt3 is a site to help you connect with others interested in the Catholic faith. The site is open to everyone, not just Catholics and provides a good list of Internet resources, a prayer wall and daily updates on the Vatican. One negative about the site is that it makes quite a song and dance about inputting your religious “status” in order that your correct ecclesial title can be used. This leaves lay users as myself, feeling as if the site offers a hierarchical structure, perhaps in the virtual Catholic community such vestiges of formality should not be given such emphasis.