A Church Near You
| A Church Near You | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Web address | achurchnearyou.com |
| Commercial? | No |
Type of site | Web directory |
| Registration | Optional |
| Owner | Church of England |
| Created by | Diocese of Oxford |
| Launched | 1 December 2002 |
A Church Near You is an online directory of churches. A user-edited resource it currently lists 16,400 churches and has 7,000 editors in 42 Church of England dioceses.[1] It is notable in being the only officially endorsed guide to churches in the Church of England available online.[2]
Background
A Church Near You was launched by the Diocese of Oxford in 2001 as christmasworship.com[3] with a radio campaign backed by actor Jeremy Irons. In 2002 the site was renamed A Church Near You; it slowly gained traction among other dioceses wishing to improve the ability of internet users to locate churches. A particularly useful feature being its parish search which enabled user to identify the parish in which they lived. At the time a vital criteria for finding a church in which people could marry.
In 2010 the site was adopted as a national Church of England project but it continues with the same development team.[4]
A Church Near You enables parishes to maintain accurate location, contact and event information which is shared with other sites including the Church of England website, diocesan websites and mobile apps.
In 2012 it formed the data backbone of Christmas Near You[5] and in 2014 was used to promote harvest events with the Church of England's Harvest Near You initiative.[6]
References
- ↑ What is A Church Near You? Accessed: 6 August 2014
- ↑ Church of England Accessed: 6 August 2014
- ↑ christmasworship.com (archive.org)
- ↑ ACNY Credits Accessed: 6 August 2014
- ↑ Christmas Near You Announcement Accessed: 6 August 2014
- ↑ Harvest Near You Announcement Accessed 6 August 2014