Dept. of Internet Ministry News

The team at antiochian.org, in cooperation with the Department of Liturgics and with the blessing and support of His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph, has launched an enhanced Daily Scripture Readings Calendar for use in parishes and homes across the Antiochian Archdiocese. Along with daily references, the complete Scriptural texts are now published in full for added convenience and spiritual enrichment. The readings can be accessed in the homepage sidebar, "Today's Scripture Reading," to the right of the Feature column.

"Creation of a complete calendar has long been a priority of His Eminence, who since his enthronement has wanted the clergy and faithful to be able to access the full Epistle and Gospel readings for both corporate and private worship," noted the Archdiocese's Director of Internet Ministry, Douglas Cramer. "Our Daily Calendar uniquely includes readings in honor of Antiochian saints, such as Ss. Sergius and Bacchus (October 7), and St. Abercius (October 22). Now our readers will be able to follow the annual liturgical guide of the Patriarchate of Antioch."

The readings will soon be published daily on the Archdiocese Facebook page as well.

A new prayer section was recently launched on Antiochian.org. The section is linked on the Archdiocese website's homepage "Worship & Devotion" sidebar and in the footer navigation, and is available across all devices. This means that the most popular sections of A Pocket Prayer Book, the well-loved Antiochian Archdiocese spiritual resource affectionately known as "The Little Red Prayer Book," are now readily available to Antiochian.org's many weekly visitors.

So far, the collection of online prayers includes: Morning Prayers, Midday Prayers, Evening Prayers, Occasional Prayers, Prayers in Preparation for Holy Communion, Prayers of Thanksgiving After Holy Communion, Self Examination Before Confession, and Prayers After Confession. Other prayers may be added as appropriate.

The original prayer book, containing Daily and Occasional Prayers as well as the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, was first published in 1956 and is in its thirteenth printing.

Order a hard copy from the Antiochian Village Bookstore.

The Archdiocese unveiled a new website design for www.antiochian.org on February 1, 2015, as part of a series of planned major improvements to her online ministry. The improvements introduced with the launch of the new design represent the cumulative work of a multi-year project of the Archdiocese Department of Internet Ministry.

Work on a new visual presentation for the website began in earnest in late 2012, under the leadership of His Eminence Metropolitan Philip of blessed memory. After a pause with his repose and the past eventful year in the life of the Archdiocese, the design has been concluded under the leadership of His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph, and the hierarchical overseer of the department, His Grace Bishop Nicholas.

The Archdiocese website has been in continual operation for twenty years, and since 2008 has been the primary responsibility of the Department of Internet Ministry. The website is one of the most popular English-language Orthodox Christian resources available, with an audience that has grown to 100,000 unique visitors each month, resulting in over a quarter million monthly pageviews. Included on the site are over 20,000 distinct pages, and extensive collections of graphics and documents.

The core team at the Department of Internet Ministry has been in place since 2008, and consists of director Douglas Cramer, and editors Virginia Nieuwsma and Andrew Frishman. Technical support has been provided since 2013 by SNP Technologies of Hamden, Connecticut, and their project lead Michael Brooks. Graphic design concepts and consulting for the new design were provided by Fr. Joel Wilson (OCA) of Rolla Creative of Rolla, Missouri.

The following report was delivered by Douglas Cramer, director of the Department of Internet Ministry, at the July 2013 Antiochian Archdiocese General Assembly, convened in Houston, Texas.

The Department of Internet Ministry serves the online communications needs of the Antiochian Archdiocese. The department's team works to share the wisdom and expertise that exists across the workers and ministries of our Archdiocese, by sharing their stories and vital resources with the more than 60,000 monthly visitors to our website at www.Antiochian.org.

History

The Department of Internet Ministry was created in 2008 to serve the communications needs of our Archdiocese by providing a professional-quality Internet publishing platform at our official website, www.Antiochian.org, focused on the presentation on the World Wide Web of the vibrant life and work of our Church. The department has been blessed with remarkable stability in the makeup of the team over the years, and good professional relationships despite working at a distance from each other.

The Assembly of Bishops convened a meeting to share ideas and discuss collaboration between the Assembly’s communications team and the internet staff of member jurisdictions. The meeting was held on the campus of St Vladimir’s Seminary in Crestwood, NY on March 6 and brought together representatives from the Assembly’s Secretariat, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, the Orthodox Church in America, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese. All of the Assembly’s member jurisdictions were invited to attend.

A main topic of discussion was how the Assembly’s website can be enhanced to include Orthodox news and resources on the Orthodox faith. The group agreed that the Assembly’s website and the jurisdictions’ websites can support each other in reaching the Orthodox faithful.

The group touched on other relevant topics including sharing parish information so that the Assembly's parish directory remains up-to-date; the creation of a clergy directory; the importance of providing the faithful with resources on internet safety for youth and adults; and mechanisms by which Orthodox news and information can be disseminated directly to parishes.

The group will meet periodically by phone to continue vital conversations related to information, technology, and faith.

The Antiochian House of Studies School of Orthodox Theology, home of the St. Stephen's Program, has launched a new website section. The project centered on the work of two House of Studies graduate students, Keith Buhler and Emmanuel Gergis, who worked with the staff of the House of Studies and the Dept. of Internet Ministry to update the web presence of this special Archdiocese ministry.

The new House of Studies section offers an introduction to the distance-learning school, a list of its academic programs, information for prospective and current students, and links for faculty, news and contact information. With affordable tuition and flexible scheduling, the House of Studies offers students, parents, or full-time professionals the ability to pursue an Orthodox theological education.

Browse the House of Studies section.

The Department of Internet Ministry has rebuilt our Discover Orthodox Christianity section, one of the most highly trafficked sections of Antiochian.org.

Education and evangelistic outreach is of the utmost importance to the bishops, clergy and laity of the Antiochian Archdiocese. In support of their efforts, Discover Orthodox Christianity now provides a topical library of links and reflections presenting the faith to site visitors in an engaging and accessible format. We hope this will be a useful tool for teaching of the faith, for both newcomers and for people who are rediscovering Orthodoxy.

Tour Guide: Carole A. Buleza

Thanks to the Internet, we have a twofold blessing: abundant resources, and a community of Orthodox Christians with whom we share our task.

Computer on? Internet connected? You’re ready to roll. Navigate to www.antiochian.org/christianeducation.... Welcome to the home page of our new, improved Christian Education website! Find our logo and you will be reading a letter of introduction that includes information about our office and also about the volunteer Diocesan Christian Education Coordinators. Look below and you’ll see several “featured” items—an event, an article, a program, a resource—that are refreshed monthly.

FeastOfFeasts.org is an Orthodox Christian celebration of Holy Pascha and the Resurrection of Christ. The site was created in 2009 through a joint effort of the Antiochian Archdiocese Department of Internet Ministry and the Orthodox Church in America Department of Communications. We encourage readers to visit the site's collection of articles, reflections and more on Holy Week and the central Feast of our faith.

The editors at Antiochian.org have launched a dedicated section of pages for parishes under the "Parishes" drop down button in the top menu. In addition to the already existing list of parishes, the three new pages feature news from parishes around the U.S. and Canada, resources for building missions and strengthening established parishes, and help for parish web editors. A centerpiece of the new section is a fascinating roundtable discussion between six mission parish priests, who share what they've learned about effective mission building.

Has your parish hosted a conference or sponsored an outreach event? Did your community just break ground for a new building? Share it with us! Readers of Antiochian.org are encouraged to submit their parish news and photos for posting, as well as suggested resources, via the editor's box: editor@antiochian.org.

The Dept. of Internet Ministry has added a calendar to Antiochian.org. Click here to visit. The calendar currently includes daily Scripture readings for all of 2010; major Feasts and Fasts; the feast days of selected saints; and events across the Archdiocese. We will continue to expand this resource over time. So if you would like to see an event added to the calendar, or have any other recommendations, please email us at editor@antiochian.org.