Dear Parishioners and Friends of Bethesda,

I am delighted to announce that Bethesda has launched a new website. As you can see, the web address remains unchanged.

I am sure you will agree that the new site is more welcoming to visitors and newcomers, which was our primary aim. It is also better organized: all public events are posted to a calendar and all news items are located within latest news, and are searchable.

I invite everyone to explore the site: this page might help you understand more.

As you explore, keep in mind that many of the pages (such as About Us, Worship, Parish Life, and Newcomers) are designed primarily to guide newcomers who are learning about the parish (or even about Christianity and The Episcopal Church). You will notice that at every turn we encourage visitors and newcomers to contact us, introduce themselves, and ask questions. I hope that all parishioners at Bethesda will join me in receiving visitors and newcomers with open arms, and with patience as they ask questions and learn. Bethesda cannot survive long-term unless newcomers keep coming back!

Since I expect that most regular users of the website will not need to visit many of the website pages after they’ve seen them once or twice (since the information on them won’t change frequently), regular users will greatly benefit from accessing the calendar and latest news weekly. These pages will be updated frequently, and will contain almost everything found in the back of the Sunday Bulletin.

Speaking of the Sunday bulletin: if you are looking for, say, the bulletin for Sunday, February 27, simply go to the calendar, click on the 10am service for February 27, and there you will find it, along with a lot of other helpful information regarding that particular day. The most recent bulletins can also be found under Worship by scrolling down to the Service Bulletins button.

I realize that at first this will take some getting used to, but the great benefit of this design is that all materials for a particular date or event can all be found in the same place, and you can easily move forward and backward in time depending on what you are looking for. I am confident that after a few weeks of navigating the new site, you will agree that information can easily be found in predictable places, and is nicer to look at, too.

If you have any questions at all about the new website, please email the office. We’ll be happy to guide you through it.

Sincerely,

Fr Charles Wallace
Priest-in-Charge