First Church of the Internet

Here are some of my favorite Episcopal websites--most of which are also linked to the right--------->

I love Anglicans Online. Completely independent, the site is the world's largest online Anglican resource. Updated every Sunday night, the site's cover page is an essay, sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, but always thought-provoking. The site collects links from newspapers and websites from around the globe with articles of interest to Anglicans. I scan the News Centre section each week. (You can also find links to the Book of Common Prayer in languages ranging from Afrikaans to Zulu.) This site often sends readers to Thinking Anglicans, which has many similar news resources but includes more analysis.  I find this site harder to navigate to find what I'm looking for.

I rarely look at the website for The Episcopal Church except sometimes to use it to find a specific church if Google hasn't helped. You can sign up for press releases from the Episcopal News Service.  I know I have.  Because I can never get enough news about various new job hires at The Episcopal Church offices headquartered in New York.

Closer to home is the website for our  Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real. The site has links to all the churches within the diocese as well as information and minutes for the Standing Committee and Board of Trustees.  Lots of information about the recent General Convention.  Access this site to sign up for the weekly email newsletter from the diocese "Along the King's Highway." This newsletter will keep the diocese up-to-date regarding the bishop search process over the next year or so.

Even closer to home is the website for St. Timothy's. Here you can find info on our various ministries as well as contacts for Stephen Ministry, the vestry and the preschool. You can also sign up for the Wednesday Weekly newsletter. (If you're a woman and Facebook is one of your guilty pleasures, request to be added to the Women of St. Timothy's page.)

Episcopal Cafe is a site for essays about living within our faith as Christians. My essay "Why Not?" from this blog was published on the site a few weeks ago. I enjoy the stories from Episcopalians lay and clergy, scholars and learners from across the country.

Started right here in Silicon Valley in the early 1990s,  The Mission of St. Clare posts the complete Morning and Evening Prayer services (including hymns!) from the Book of Common Prayer for each day plus links to noonday prayer and compline in both English and Spanish. (It was named for St. Clare because, according to the website "at the time, no one had designated a patron of the Internet and...she represented the idea of prayer available anytime and anywhere the best...she was already the patron of television.")

For me, the best site that can search various translations of the Bible is here. You can also enter keywords to locate a particular Bible verse.

I've written before about the Revised Common Lectionary, the three-year cycle of scripture readings.  Vanderbilt University has a great site that explains more about the lectionary and links to each week's readings here.

And just for fun is Lent Madness. This often irreverent site, sponsored by Forward Movement, runs through Lent (which surprise, surprise overlaps with college basketball's March Madness) and pits men and women of the Communion of Saints against each other to see who will take home the Golden Halo. Winners in the past have included Florence Nightingale and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bios of the saints are posted and readers vote for the most worthy among them. The comments and campaigns for candidates can be quite lively. (Ballot box stuffing has occurred, though no Russian involvement has been verified.) You can sign up for daily reminders to read and vote throughout Lent.

Of course most of these sites also have Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. But, really, there aren't enough hours in the day. Happy reading. --Amy Phillips Witzke