Parish websites

[NewEnglandPriest]

In all honesty, most parishes start their websites with gusto and then over time the enthusiasm fades. The reality is that few people look at parish websites and when the original person who managed it moves away or stops doing it no one picks up the slack. It falls to the bottom of the “to do” list.

Parish websties are only good for contact information and directions, outside of that not enough people look at them and parishes just kind of stop updating them.

Also, you might want to consider that the pastor who had the website put on the web got transfered at some point and the new pastor is so technologically behind he has no interest.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Okay, I’m warning you in advance that the following is a bit of a rant.

I am just a little annoyed right now. Being young and not really settled yet, I have lived in several large cities in the last few years, and I don’t actually have a parish I call home. In fact, I often attend Sunday mass at a different parish each week, since I’m still trying to find a place I like. There is one parish in my current city that I have enjoyed attending, but as it is pretty far from where I live, I usually attend mass at this particular parish only once a month.

This morning, since I wasn’t especially busy, I decided to go to mass at this parish. Now, when I say it’s far away, I mean I have to take pubic transportation for almost an hour to get there. I arrived about 10 minutes before mass was supposed to start, at a time which they advertise on their website. I was surprised to find that there was already mass going on. It turns out that they had changed their mass schedule for this particular Sunday. I had glanced at the website for the parish this morning to check on the masstimes, but didn’t see anything about the mass schedule having been changed; now I see they did have something about it, but not in the most obvious place, for example on the first page of their website in large letters! So I had the choice to wait around for 1.5 hours until the next mass started, or go somewhere else. I left, to find a church that actually has mass at the times it advertises. I’m not sure I’m going back. Now tell me, what exactly was the necessity of changing the mass schedule? And if the mass schedule absolutely had to be changed, post it on the top of the webpage in large red letters. Seriously.

On a slightly unrelated note, priests often complain about how few people go to confession anymore. Maybe the problem is not that they don’t want to go, but that confession is not readily available. I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to go to confession at a church during a time they have listed on their website as having confession, and either the confession has been in some not very obvious place, for example, a back chapel, or the priest hasn’t actually been there at the time he was supposed to be there. If you run your parish webpage and confession is not held in the most obvious place (a confessional in the church) then please explain where confession is and how to get there. Signs in the church also help. Or maybe these parishes are trying to be unwelcoming to newcomers?

Okay I think I am done ranting. For now at least.

We really are at a technology crossroads. I find a very small portion of people actually read the Sunday bulletin for their information and even less look at the parish Website. However the amount of resources spent on these is way out of proportion to the actual number of people that use them. Most people either get their information from the telephone or by word of mouth.

 

[zab]

We really are at a technology crossroads. I find a very small portion of people actually read the Sunday bulletin for their information and even less look at the parish Website. However the amount of resources spent on these is way out of proportion to the actual number of people that use them. Most people either get their information from the telephone or by word of mouth.

While at the present it is true that most parishioners get their information from the telephone or by word of mouth, the number of people getting their information from the internet is growing. Many people of the older generation do not keep up with technology. But the are dying. And the number of people who use the internet is growing. Our parish website is fairly well maintained- but could be better. According to the site meter it gets an average of 1700 hits a month. It gets more hits when it is being maintained regularly and there is something new to look at such as new information or photos of parish events. Even the Vatican recognizes the importance of keeping up with technology. Did you know that the Pope has a YouTube channel?
youtube.com/user/vatican

 

[Frosty]

I wonder how many parishes actually do have their own websites? My parish doesn’t have one. A few months ago, I went to the website for the Diocese to find parishes in another city. There were several parishes but only two had a website. Curious, I then looked at all the parishes in this Diocese. Perhaps half of them had a website. Of course the Mass times were listed for all parishes in the Diocese but only through the website of the diocese.
I’m one of those “old-timers” who isn’t really bothered by this. I’ve never had a problem finding out what times Masses are held or where the closest church is. A simple phone call or asking around always results in finding out what I want to know. Not just in my own country but in every country around the world that I’ve travelled to over the years! At my parish we are encouraged to read the weekly bulletin. All parish schedules, changes to any schedule, announcements and important diocesan upcoming events are in it. Since our new pastor arrived a year ago, there are no longer any announcements made at the end of Mass unless it is something very important. Now the ushers stand at the doors after Mass and hand out the bulletins to ensure that everyone has one.
For those younger people who find such things as bulletins outdated in this modern world of technology, I still have the very first Sunday bulletin issued by my parish in August, 1961, tucked away in the back of my old St. Joseph’s Daily Missal. I can’t tell you how excited parishoners were at this “novelty” and how much we looked forward to and pored over each and every week’s new one. It’s hard to believe nowdays that a few sheets of paper could have elicited such excitement and anticipation, isn’t it?

 

[KarenElissa]

I’m one of those “old-timers” who isn’t really bothered by this. I’ve never had a problem finding out what times Masses are held or where the closest church is. A simple phone call or asking around always results in finding out what I want to know. Not just in my own country but in every country around the world that I’ve travelled to over the years!

It isn’t really a matter of being able to find out when Mass is, I’m sure most of us know how to pick up a phone and find that info. It is more a matter of connecting to people who you are trying to reach, and the best way to do that for young people is the internet. If you want people to come to your parish, you don’t want to make it a challenge to see if they can find your info, you want people to be able to find it easily in the most logical place. And for most people my age and younger, that place is a website on the internet.

If I’m looking for a parish, either because I’ve moved or just visiting someplace, the first place I will look is on the internet. I’m MUCH more likely to go to a parish with a nicely designed website that has the info I need upfront. This really isn’t a conscious decision, it is just how it works. The same way I imagine that you would be more likely to go to a parish where you had a phone number and could call rather than having to drive around and ask what time their Mass is. Both are effective in getting the information, but one is how you are more accustomed to getting your information.

 

[Anne1964]

You really struck a nerve with this post. Our parish website is awful. It consisted of one page when I first joined the parish, and I offered at that time to design a nicer site, but was told there was little interest in that. The one page site was not updated for two years.

Later, the design of a new website was announced in the bulletin. I was thrilled. I once again volunteered to help, but was told it was being handled by so-and-so. The new design is quite nice, but the site has not been updated since the first day it went online and the connection is so sloooooowwwww as to make the site useless.

I would love to work on the website, but the reality is that our current pastor is older and has no interest in the internet. A few months ago there was an announcement in the bulletin that he does not want to receive email as he prefers communication by letter or phone. That pretty much says it all.

Our pastor is an absolutely wonderful priest, however, and I have learned so much from him. Our tiny parish has doubled in size in the last five years, mainly due to word of mouth about him and the many traditional practices he keeps alive at our church. He’s an excellent confessor and the line for confession is always long and on Saturdays he will stay until everyone has been heard, although confession is listed for only an hour.

I have learned to call to check on Mass times if I have missed a Sunday and don’t have the bulletin with the schedule for the coming week. Our Mass times don’t change, but as we have only one priest, we sometimes do not have daily Mass if our pastor is out of town.

 

[Chatter163]

Except perhaps for a modified summer schedule announced well in advance, including on websites and signs, in bulletins and from the pulpit, parishes should not deviate from their standard schedule, for reasons that have been discussed here. :tiphat:

 

[SMHW]

I worked for one company that provided software support to many parishes and for another that required me to contact many of the individuals on the staff of schools and parishes. As a result I think I got some kind of sense of parish (and school) websites, And what I can tell you is that I would never assume anything on a parish website is up to date.

It’s just not that high on the interest level for most parishes. Too often the type of people who are interested in technology are usually not the type of people who would be interested in working at a parish. That goes for priests as well as for other staffers. (I’ve met some exceptions but… well… that’s just it. They are exceptions.) Most parishes I worked at had email for their staffers but a large percentage of them had no idea how to check it.

I’m the type of person who prefers to check the internet or check a voice mail system rather than have to talk to a human being in person or on the phone. But the majority of the humans I know are not like me. And don’t take this the wrong way… but I think most of us here on this website are “abnormal”.

As for having a parishioner handle the website. In many cases that is what happens. But unless this webmaster is “in the loop” of what’s going on in the parish then he/she is not going to put the changes in. (In the OP’s case, it seems as if the change was on the website. It just wasn’t in the place that the person looked.) Most parishes are very reluctant to allow more than one person to have build access to the website. And most webmasters would be very reluctant to change a page that is true 50 weeks out of the year for a single time event.

But things are changing. Younger priests and staff members have grown up with the internet and expect that parishioners want to use the internet. Parish websites will probably start featuring scrolling feeds. I know my parish posts our weekly bulletin and in my former parish the priests have blog pages and actually use them. (Both are exceptional parishes. My current parish had a website way back in 1998 and the former parish has a rather tech-savy pastor.)