The Church of Ireland has taken another major step forward in its use of modern technology through the introduction of its own Internet server. The Church of Ireland, which has been very active in encouraging the development of communication through the Internet, currently co-ordinates over 200 parishes who are online, many of whom have their own websites.
The Church of Ireland's own website already attracts several thousand visitors each month, providing information and resources on the work of the church.
The chairman of the Church's Internet Committee, the Ven Raymond Hoey, Archdeacon of Armagh, points out that the Internet is rapidly becoming one of the prime forms of communication in the world today.
"Within the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Church of Ireland is at the forefront of using the Internet as an effective way to develop internal and external communication. We hope to encourage every parish to establish a presence on the Internet by way of an email address and eventually a parish website," Archdeacon Hoey says.
The new Server will provide email and website hosting facilities for parishes, individuals and organisations linked to the Church of Ireland. This investment will also allow further development of the anglican.org email addressing structure in the Church of Ireland, a system that is being used by many other Anglican provinces around the world.
Plans are already underway to develop the Church of Ireland website to provide extensive coverage of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland, which will take place in Belfast in May this year.
The Church of Ireland Internet Committee is now able to provide church organisations with up to 100 MB webspace. "As a rough guide, 10 MB is enough for 100 pages with some graphical content," says the Rector of Drogheda, the Rev Michael Graham, who is the Church of Ireland's Internet co-ordinator.
Parishes, dioceses and other organisations within the Church of Ireland will now "have a domain name linked into the widely adopted Church of Ireland/Anglican.org network", he says. Parishes, dioceses and other organisations within the Church of Ireland will be offered full email facilities, Microsoft ASP Support, full CGI Support, and FrontPage 2000 Support.
For more information, contact the Rev Michael Graham at drogheda@armagh.anglican.org. The Church of Ireland Website: www.ireland.anglican.org