"The World Wide Web has become the hottest place to build a church," AP religion writer Rachel Zoll wrote in her November 1 weekend report, which cites dozens of such projects already building audiences or perhaps more aptly, "congregations." "A growing number of congregations are creating Internet offshoots that go far beyond streaming weekly services," she says in a report that includes evangelical megachurch online projects and mainline denomination parishes that are using worldwide web pages to grow their ministries.
She says most of the online churches she surveyed follow the "contemporary worship" model made famous by evangelical magachurches like Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago, beginning worship with music by worship bands, exchanging greetings among worshippers in the next "seat," and exchanging personal contact information. Some even conduct communion services and baptisms online with the "worshippers" providing their bread and wine or grape juice, and water.
Some of the online churches have fulltime ministry staff members coordinating the projects which range from full-fledged interactive websites on church-owned network servers that can cost thousands of dollars to set up and maintain, to creative adaptation of Facebook pages and other social networking services.
Though Zoll's report was limited to Protestant use of the Internet, Catholic and Orthodox communions also have long been developing online resources. As early as 1989 the Catholic then-pontiff, Pope John Paul II, declared, "With the advent of computer telecommunications and what are known as computer participation systems, the Church is offered further means for fulfilling her mission." In the decades since, church agencies like archdiocesans ranging to local parishes have developed services including streaming video and audio presentations of homilies, prayers, fast and feast schedules and saints and angels being venerated.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America offers an "online chapel" (the logo of which appears above) that stops short of providing interactive divine liturgies but offers streaming videos of talks and daily Gospel and Epistle readings. The Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese also offers similar media and majors in podcasts that are widely circulated, downloaded from its affiliated "Ancient Faith Radio." These range from talks given as retreats and conferences to programs especially created for the online "radio" network.
Virtually every communion, diocese, and denomination has web pages offering varying resources ranging from directories of local churches to inspiring messages in print and other media, and probably most local congregations now have at least a fledgling website offering their weekly bulletins, schedule of services, driving directions, and links to maps to their facilities.
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