I didn’t want to blog twice about Pennsylvania websites yesterday, so I waited twenty-four hours. The thing is that the churches that give us these sites are really small.
While not technically super-fascinating, I was glad when regular reader Derek Parker pointed out that First Universalist Church, Girard, Pennsylvania — membership, 11 — has a new site. (I think they were once or are members of the Council of Christian Churches within the Unitarian Universalist Association, but I might be confused here.)
The Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship has fewer members (13) than syllables in its name (18) but a killer site based on Drupal, a high-powered content management system that gives their web presence a punch far above their fighting weight. Good going UDUUF!
Girard has not been in the Council, but a nearby church in Westfield, Ohio may have been. Westfield continues to use the Lord’s Prayer in their liturgy, and for many years have had ministers from the United Church of Christ, and the Church of the Brethren.
Girard seems to be doing a Judeo-Christian-Islamic thing in terms of theology. Sort of like Karen Armstrong’s free-lance monotheism. Does anybody know of other churches in the UUA doing such a thing in terms of congregational theology?
I was just thinking the other day how few UU church websites show up on uupdates.net. Is it because the news aggregator site doesn’t subscribe to them, or is it because the church sites rarely update?
Most UU church websites are a total bore. Since we travel constantly, we are often looking for a new church to attend just for one service. Most Sundays, I don’t bother going because either 1) there is no UU church nearby, 2) the one nearby has no website to find hours, sermon topics, etc, or 3) the site serves to make the church look dull.
The latter two are very, very sad and inexcusable! Is it really that hard to find some upbeat photos of your members, make basic information about your church easy to read, and write a blurb for each Sunday that is both welcoming and interesting?
BTW, the Upper Delaware church site above is a very nice one. I would attend this church as a visitor in a heartbeat. The site is clean, easy to navigate and full of info. I love that the first line on the home page is “We’re a warm friendly group…”
I went to the website, and the site is wider than my screen. The right hand column is cut in half. I’m on a 12 inch laptop (my only computer).