Pilot New Media collaborated with Our Sunday Vistor in the creation of their new “Faith In Action” websites solution. This was the same product we presented at our Forum last October on parish websites.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 2, 2012

CONTACT: Terry Poplava
Director of Marketing, Sales and Customer Service
Phone: 800-348-2886
Email: tpoplava@osv.com

OUR SUNDAY VISITOR OFFERS “FAITH IN ACTION” WEBSITES

Sites incorporate meditations, stories and Catholic news for parishioners to read

Huntington, IN - “Every one of the Church’s media vehicles is a ‘virtual front door’ to the Church and we want it to be welcoming, well cared for, and worthy of someone’s visit.” – Scot Landry. [The Church and the New Media](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592760333/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=pilo0e-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592760333), Chapter 7, page 117

When a person visits your parish website, you want them to “open the door and come in.” And when they step inside they should find compelling and useful information about your parish, the Catholic faith, news and events. Now your parish can have a beautiful and welcoming website that is simple to maintain with the new “Faith In Action” Websites from Our Sunday Visitor.

“Faith In Action” Websites are a pre-built, hosted web solution for parishes. They incorporate a full website structure that includes menu selections and site navigation, pre-loaded information about the Catholic faith and sacraments, and regularly updated meditations, stories and Catholic news. All the parish needs to do is add address information, staff information, Mass times and calendar items.

Our Sunday Visitor developed parish website structures that adhere to best practices defined by research from the Archdiocese of Boston Secretariat for Media. The Radius Web Tools programming team collaborated with the New Media group from the Archdiocese of Boston to design beautiful websites that have all the information a parish needs. The project also applied the results from the Catholic parish web site survey, “What Do Parishioners Value in Parish Websites?” presented in October 2010 by the Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova University.

The websites come preloaded with both static and dynamic content:

• Static content about the Catholic faith, what Catholics believe, becoming Catholic, the Sacraments and more.
• Daily Meditations: Readings to help parishioners and visitors find a way to set the day in context.
• Faith In Action: Stories about real people and their experiences, plus guides and games for family activities.
• Catholic News and Perspective: Regularly updated news items covering the most pressing Catholic issues.
• Convenient links for electronic contributions applications.

St. Edward in Palm Beach, Fla., is one of many churches that understand the value of quality, Catholic content. Deanna Bartalini, director of faith formation, says: “First of all, it’s Our Sunday Visitor. You know you are going to get good customer service and good information,” she explains. “And, it’s simple. I knew what I was looking for and this was basically push-button publishing.”

“This is ideal for those of us at the church with responsibility for the Web, but aren’t writers or have no Web skills at all,” Bartalini says. “And, you don’t have to write the Catholic content because it’s done for you and it’s correct.”

“Parish websites should be a key part of the parish communication and faith formation plan”, says Eileen Herrington, Our Sunday Visitor Website Product Specialist. “Sometimes it is difficult for the parish to keep all the material up-to-date. Our new offering makes this easy for the parish.”

“Catholic websites are one of many solutions Our Sunday Visitor provides,” Herrington adds. “We are building parish plans for offertory and communications, and we are now able to integrate the parish or diocesan website into those plans.”

Learn more about Faith In Action websites from Our Sunday Visitor.

About Our Sunday Visitor
Our Sunday Visitor serves millions of Catholics worldwide through its publishing, offertory and communication services. Established in 1912 by a local priest, Our Sunday Visitor has grown into the nation’s largest supplier of offering envelopes, parish and diocesan mailings, books, periodicals, curriculum, address management, websites and stewardship services. Our Sunday Visitor is a not-for-profit organization, returning a portion of net earnings back to the Catholic community through the OSV Institute. For more information, visit the Web site, http://www.osvoffertory.com.