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Those who live intentionally as disciples are called to seek ways to proclaim God’s love, not only to our existing community, but to people who have yet to hear the good news of Jesus. Where can we find people? More often than not on their mobile phones and laptop computers. Nearly 90 per cent of Canadians (30.9 million people) are on the internet; seeking out an average of 3,238 unique web pages per month (2018 Canadian Internet Registration Authority Factbook). 

Ascend Collective founder Matt Morrison and Edmonton diocese communications director Margaret Glidden will offer a Parish Website Webinar on Wednesday, March 27, at noon. Topics will include:

  • How to Create a Welcoming Website
  • Building a Digital Presence in Your Community, Parish, Diocese and the Anglican Church of Canada
  • Introduction to the Ascend User Platform
  • Resources for your website toolbox
  • Question-and-Answer Session - Topic and/or question suggestions can be emailed in advance of the session to churched@edmonton.anglican.ca

Clergy and lay leaders are encouraged to share this info with your parish communities. The webinar link will be emailed upon registration. Register by sending your name and parish name to churched@edmonton.anglican.ca 

The response to the first Parish Website Workshop, held at Holy Trinity, Old Strathcona in November, has been positive:

  • “Very good speaker. I was inspired to do more with our online presence.”
  • “Matt did an excellent presentation and demonstrated the ease with which updates could be made.”
  • “Ascend has built a user-friendly platform for church websites.”
  • “Simplicity without complexity in execution but still exhibiting complex and attractively presented content.”
  • “Gives us a viable hosting alternative.”
  • “Very interactive session.”
  • “Explained how welcoming and easy a website should be.”  

At the first workshop, Matt shared the reasons why he thinks a welcoming website is vital to reaching people and building community in our digital world.

Recognizing that church websites are often managed by volunteers, Matt started a company to streamline and simplify this aspect of parish communications. Ascend is committed to helping churches meet their specific web design needs through a secure, user-friendly platform. For a monthly fee, Ascend will host your website and provide ongoing technical support.

“If you know how to open an email, add an attachment and send it, you have the technical ability to operate an Ascend website,” he says.

Ascend is continually updating its software and recently launched new design tools to provide parishes with a greater range of creative options as they design powerful and engaging ministry pages. Among the additional features Ascend provides are tools for sermon podcasting and weekly e-newsletters.