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November 16th, 2006

Find a church

If you’ve surfed in looking to find a church I’d recommend A Church Near You which allows you to look at churches on maps and things. This is assuming you are looking for an Anglican church (other denominations are available). Oh, and I think it is only for England. I love looking at the deaneries on maps to see which churches have added their information – take this random sample, the Maidenhead and Windsor Deanery. Unfortunately the information provided can be a bit patchy – if you go to an Anglican Church in England why not add the info for your church?

One of the other church directory sites is Find a Church (here) which in my opinion isn’t anywhere near as good for lots of reasons. I attempted to update our church information as I am now the church webperson (currently without a website). I received this letter:

find a church

I thought the final paragraph rather remarkable:

The original vision for the directory was to provide enough in a consise overview so that anyone looking for a church can get a good feel for churches in their area. Because we cover our costs by charging £18 per year, it’s your choice whether you want your church to be seen as welcoming of newcomers.

Good heavens. No pressure then.

We chose to be unwelcoming.

Questions for study groups:
1) How easily can people find your church on the internet?
2) It costs £18 to be seen as welcoming. What would be the best ways to spend £18 on welcoming people?
3) People in the Bible were often welcoming, or not. What does this teach us about things and, to a lesser extent, the internet?

[My previous post on both these websites is here: Find your local parish church]

11 Comments »



This is a single Cartoon Blog entry, posted by Dave on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 10:45 am.

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11 Responses to “Find a church”


  1. Jeremy says:

    There’s always a bit of an awkward relationship between church and web, and between church and business.

    We’ve kicked off Jellyvan recently and are excited, and at the same time feeling rather odd about the whole thing.

    In effect, we’re subsidising websites for churches by charging about a quarter of what we charge other clients, but…

    Maybe if we added your cartoons at £35 p.a. we’d feel better :D

    November 16th, 2006 at 11:01 am
  2. David says:

    Yes, I also looked at findachurch for a listing for our church and decided against the 18 quid. ALthough I thought maybe I should have coughed up. I am glad I was not the only one!

    November 16th, 2006 at 11:12 am
  3. John Davies says:

    A Church Near You is great, and I thoroughly recommend especially this page.

    November 16th, 2006 at 11:48 am
  4. Mary says:

    Its also a good way to email your vicar anonymously…

    November 16th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
  5. James says:

    I too prefer A Church Near You (having previously used Find A Church). In the 4 months since completing the details for our 4 churches we have had about 160 visitors to each church entry (or 2 people have made 80 visits each….) and several email enquiries.

    As a Vicar, what I find especially helpful is the ability to identify which parish anyone lives in – essential when it comes to weddings (calling of Banns) and arcane Anglican legalities.

    November 16th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
  6. maggi says:

    i’m looking forward to your cartoon on the Archbishop and the Catholic Herald…

    November 16th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
  7. Emma says:

    I just tried A Church Near You to get a feel for the sorts of things on offer in Maidenhead, where I’m moving to. The closest one to where I’ll be living seems to be a bells ‘n’ smells type (not a problem in my book) although unless the description is a typo, I’d be worried about the prospect of ‘Holly Communion’. Getting back to their pagan roots, maybe? Very seasonal.

    November 16th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
  8. ruthe says:

    If I’d have known about a church near you I may have had less trouble finding my way around the deanery that has just employed me! Looked for a home Church on finda Church and the closest they came up with was a welsh chapel 12 miles away! Obviously the 8 churches within walking distance don’t use it! :)

    November 16th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
  9. jody says:

    Hey Emma

    I smiled when Maidenhead and Windsor came up, cos I live in Maidenhead, so ‘welcome to Maidenhead’, when you move here.

    if you want any more info about churches then let me know :-) (sorry Dave for using your blog as a chatsite…..)

    Jody

    November 17th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
  10. Dave says:

    Windsor and Maidenhead was used as an example because
    1) I lived there until 2 years ago (Cookham) and
    2) Being within the Oxford Diocese where the ‘A church near you’ project originated means that the data is more complete and so a better showcase for the site than in some other areas of the country.

    Hope you find a church there Emma. I suspect Jody might know more about many of the churches, but I do know some of them.

    November 17th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
  11. Rachel says:

    I inherited the ‘A Church Near You’ login for All Saints, Maidenhead not long ago and hadn’t spotted the ‘Holly’! Very festive, but I’ve edited it now :)

    December 24th, 2006 at 9:29 pm