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Wardens, treasurers, and lay leaders from several dozen congregations met at Trinity, Williamsport, on Saturday, March 27 for the annual Wardens’ Conference. The day-long conference was designed to better acquaint lay leadership with the support resources available from the Diocese.
During the morning session, Bishop Baxter, Canon Joe Seville, and financial affairs manager Mary Ann Smida presented an overview of the ways in which the Diocese interacts with local congregations in areas of both support and reporting. A discussion session provided an opportunity for participants to ask specific questions so that others could learn from their examples.
The lunch and afternoon sessions were given over to a presentation by Patrick Herold, President of Digital Faith, Inc. The Diocese has contracted with Digital Faith to create a new web site and community that will enable congregations to create their own independent parish web sites under a Diocesan “umbrella.” This project grew out of last year’s work by the Communication Commission, which recommended that the Diocese reduce its use of print communication in favor of an expanded online presence that would create a regular two-way stream of information between the Diocese, it congregations, and the wider public.
The presentation emphasized the development of a communication tool that can help existing, real-world communities—whether congregations, committees, or “interest groups”—communicate more effectively, both within their communities and with other interested parties. Patrick Herold stressed that the new web capabilities are geared to helping people connect and interact as part of their ongoing relationships, not instead of them. At the end of the presentation, representatives of more than a dozen congregations indicated an interest in using the Digital Faith tool to create web sites for their congregations. That process is now underway. The Diocese anticipates that the new diocesan site will be on line sometime in the next thirty days; individual parish sites will appear as they are ready.
