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Ministry of Internet Evangelization
I. Our Mission
II. How We Help the Parish
III. Making A Good Web Site
IV. The Layout of StBernardine.org
V
What You Can Do To Help
VI. The People Behind the Effort
VII Links
I. Mission:
The Ministry of Internet Evangelization is
here to support the entire St. Bernardine of Siena Community in our mission of
proclaiming, sharing and defending
the Good News of Jesus Christ via the World Wide Web.
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II. How We Help The Parish
In general, it obviously behooves the Catholic Church to use the
internet. In fact, the Vatican
encourage us to do so. We of St.
Bernardine specifically avail ourselves of this modern mode of
communication so that the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, and
charity (as reflected in in our menu selection on
the left to pray, teach, and serve) can super abound in
our families
(the living cells of the
church), throughout our neighborhood, and
overflow into
the international sphere. We are here locally at www.stbernardine.org
to communicate our good
works, our faith filled prayers, and our trials and
sufferings so that visitors can not only benefit
but also can increase in grace. Our ministry is
here to facilitate each and every ministry in the parish (from the Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist
to the Missionary Brothers of Charity
Helpers.) We are reaching out to those who have the
internet at school, home or work. We also want to connect with those who do not own a computer
but who have access to one at their local public libraries, for visitors who
stay at one of the nearby hotels, and for our parishioners who travel abroad
with access to internet cafes' around the world. We want you to remember that we are happy disciples of Jesus
as was St. Bernadine of Siena residing in this wonderful Catholic
parish at the Western end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles California.
But not only are we disciples, but also apostles spreading the Gospel of Jesus
Christ by availing ourselves of the world wide web. In this day and age when John Paul
II said the whole world is a mission country, St Bernadine's Ministry of
Internet Evangelization is now assisting our parish ministries teach and administer the
sacramental life to the children, the youth,
and the prime timers.
Our very own Ministry of Internet Evangelization is important for a variety of spiritual, practical, and
noble reasons. Not everyone can attend the parish as often as they would like
because of their work or family. But with the computer, they are just a
few keystrokes away from finding current parish information via the on line bulletin. Others can quickly find the times
of masses without calling the parish
staff and thereby free up personnel. The website can create a greater sense of community by offering
directories of who is involved in what parish ministry whereby we can
associate a person face with his or her name. We consider it as another important
tool to facilitate communication among parish members and ministries. Email can be a convenient and almost instantaneous vehicle
for contacting
others when there is a list of email addresses on each ministry's web page. An
it can be a depository for important forms such as St
Bernardine of Siena registration form. Moreover, we should avail ourselves of other useful websites throughout the
world as resources by offering visitors an overwhelming number of links, for
example, the Vatican, the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishop, the Los
Angeles Catholic Archdiocese, and the Tidings. We
encourage the further use of the computer
resources that we already possess in our wonderful school and offices
thereby leveraging our assets. We hope to increase parishioner awareness and
participation by making information readily available such as the need for
volunteers. The web site can be another method to help support our parish
financially by informing parishioners about scrip, parish envelope,
possibly advertisement, and the finance committee recommendations. The spiritual,
intellectual, social, artistic,
and material needs and desires of parishioners are
foremost in our minds and we are here to help communicate their needs and
accomplishments.
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III. Making A Good Web Site
To achieve these goals the Ministry of Internet Evangelization looks to
create a great and Faithful website. So StBernardine.org ought to have
1.) good content, 2.) helpful navigation, and 3.)
beautiful
aesthetics. That is, our
parish web site must have what the visitors are looking for in an attractive
manner and in such a way that they are able to find it. Without anyone of these
critical components, we fall
short in accomplishing our mission and more importantly the parish's ministries
do not maximize their potential on the world wide web.
How does the Ministry of Internet Evangelization help the other ministries
and the staff create a great and Faithful website? Basically, a web site is judged
on:
- Content: that
is, does it have the
information that visitors want, is it updated, is the contact information helpful, etc?
- Navigation: that is,
can guests find what
they want, know where they are, and are the links working?
- Design: that is how does it look; does it match
the audience's expectations, and is it pleasing to their eyes?
We sincerely try our best and heartily welcome all constructive and artistic
feedback in a combined effort with the other ministries to create the
best parish web site.
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IV. The Layout of StBernardine.org
The way we have structured our pages revolves around these three components:
design, navigation, and content
Our design is fundamentally a combination of keeping traditional elements
from our history beginning in 1962 and incorporating the new elements from the recent remodeling of
the church in the year 2000. Of course, we include a top header, a panel along
the left margin, and a bottom
footer as do many other good websites. The largest space below the top header and to
the right of the left panel contains the main contents of the web page.
We believe that this division of our web pages facilitates a good design, helps
tremendously with navigation, and addresses the need for meaningful
content.
The background to the top header is a
fadeout picture of the stain glass windows from the old church. This element signifies our great
past and the people that have come before us. On
the
left side of the header is a picture of the new circular stain glass window above the
main entrance to the church. Please notice the additional
text around the outer ring, that is, "St. Bernardine of Siena Catholic
Church." The entire top header serves as a very large button in order to return to the home page.
The
typeface for the main title of our pages, that is, "St. Bernadine of Siena Church and School" is
reproduced from letterhead used in the parish office. This mainline is appropriately in a sienna color with a dark tint. The blue bar that has our address and phone number is a great artistic
addition by the graphic designer David Galindo, an alumni of St. Bernadine
School. Notice the
saintly halo effect
at the
intersection of our logo and the blue address bar. Even the title of "St. Bernadine
of Siena Church and School" was particularly chosen because not
all Catholic parishes may have a school. We felt that by using the words church and
school in the
title instead of
using the words parish or community highlights the fact that we have an excellent school
In fact, we owe a tremendous thanks to the school and Raul Dijamco in particular for getting
the domain name StBernardine.org early on when it was still available. Below the
blue horizontal address bar is our sienna tinted navigational bar. A visitor by
placing her or his mouse arrow over anyone of its subject headings, (for
example, about us, schedule, sacraments, liturgy, etc.,) will find further
choices displayed just below them. He or she then can click on any one of those
topics to be directed to the appropriate web page. We sincerely hope
you like our top header.
The white left panel is also used for navigating the
web site. Beginning at the top, the picture of the St. Bernadine school children
remind us of our great school and its noble endeavor to raise the youth of the
parish with a Catholic
education. By clicking the picture, one is directed to the school's
independent web site. Next, each one of the navigational buttons underneath the children's
picture matches one of the colors from the stain glass window. Each of the three color was chosen to represent one
activity of Cat holism with 1.) yellow for praying, the mission to pray and
worship, 2.) blue for teaching, the mission to proclaim the good news, and 3.) pink for
serving, the mission to be servant-leaders. The left and right edges of the
three buttons are in a darker shade for an artistic effect. Below this is a
picture of the Madonna and Child between Saint Francis and Saint Bernardine of Siena by Benozzo Gozzoli from 1450.
Underneath the picture is a quick links menu, another
navigational tool to facilitate finding information. Further
down, there is a visitor counter and also pictures representing links to our
site sponsors. In addition to directing the visitor to our wonderful ministries, the
whole left side serves as a transitional panel between the top header and the bottom
footer
Along with the top header, the bottom footer has
again the stain glass background that represents the link with the old church
structure and the founders. As you know, stain
glass windows have played an important role in the life of church throughout
the centuries. The all important quotation of Jesus, that is, "Come,
follow me and I will make you fishers of men." is the inspiration for the
navigational buttons (the fishes) at the bottom of each and every web page. Don't forget to
visit our terms of use and please give us any kind of feedback and suggestions
to aid other to navigate our site.
The different content of each page is determined by what each ministry
wishes to publish at any given time. Our hope is that their layout
harmonizes well with the rest of the panels or borders and its presentation is
aesthetic and clear. Pictures, charts, tables, diagrams PDF files, and buttons
are more than welcome. We firmly believe what good is our
humble web site, if people do not visit it and tell others about it. We want
visitors to come back and tell others about the good news of Jesus Christ that
they found at stbernardine.org. Therefore, the layout and presentation of the web page's
content must ultimately be the responsibility of each of the ministries in accordance with our suggestions.
We believe that we have a
good website that even exceeds peoples' expectations.
We are principally not selling anything here, so there is no flashy look to it.
We do hope to affect some sort of catecheses by having many links to other
outstanding internet
resources; and we are here to
respond to the parishioners' desire for information and the casual browser
surfing the net. But that is only possible if
our guests can find for what they are looking.
Navigation is another fundamental component
for our good web site. We have buttons and links and popup menus to help guest find
what they need when they need it. The primary tool to move around this web site is
the popup menu that appears when the cursor is placed over the brown horizontal
navigational bar at the top of the page and the three buttons on the left panel. We are
especially indebt to Father Mac's practical and spiritual advice concerning the
top horizontal menu bar. Visitors need to be able to find the information for which
they are looking quickly and easily. It will probably serve as the main
navigational tool for all visitors and surfers. Much effort and
brainstorming went into defining the recognizable headings and determining what
sub elements should fall underneath these main titles. We are also proud of the popup menu selections
on the left panel that are based on the
supernatural virtues. This gives our web site
the definite spiritual direction which we most seriously wish to convey.
We all know that we are pilgrims on a journey (As St. Augustine says, "Our
hearts will not rest until they rest in you my God") and even for the non-believer, we are all searching for the meaning of
life. We therefore based our
navigation structure here on this journey that entails the spiritual values of faith,
hope, and charity. Within each of these virtues, we have grouped the ministries at
St Bernardine. Faith / Pray encompasses the mission to pray and worship, hope /
teach encompasses the mission to proclaim the good news, and last but definitely not least,
charity / serve encompasses the mission to be servant leaders.. We are grateful for Father's
Albert's (our former associate pastor) for the inspiration to base our buttons
to pray, teach, and serve on the super natural virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
Other key parts of the navigation structure are the quick links bar,
the bottom footer, the
site map, and the search feature. As you can see, we welcome visitors to to "Join Our Ministries" first
by clicking, then by reading about them, and hopefully by joining us via contacting or emailing the
person responsible for that ministry.
The other navigation aids are strategically located
throughout the web site. Two of the other directional aids, the quick links and the
bottom footer links, remain on every page of the site just as does the principle
horizontal navigational bar at top and the other buttons based
on faith, hope, and charity. The Quick Links bar below the popup menu
leads users to the most commonly requested pages, for example, the mass schedule.
The links and "fish" buttons on the bottom footer direct visitors again
to some of the more commonly requested pages or steer the observer to the search
page or to the site map. In fact, the site map and the search page are two
pages exclusively directed to helping the visitor find their way around the parish
site. You will find them on any good web site.
Finally, we have multiple ways to find
that for which you are
searching. In fact, there are six ways to get to the St Bernardine school
pages: 1) through selecting education on the top horizontal bar and then choosing
school, 2) through the rotating picture of the school children at the top of the
left panel, 3.) through the pop up menu that appears when your mouse is
over the hope button, 4.) through the fifth item down on the quick links bar, 5.) via the site map, and 6.) via
the search page. Another instance
of multiple venues is the example of returning to the home page via clicking 1.)
the home page logo on the top left of the banner, 2.) the first item on the
quick links bar, and 3.) a link on the bottom footer of each and every
page. Again, we are interested in helping the visitor easily locate
that for which they are looking so that they will not only come back again but
also in order that they may refer others to the wonderful stbernardine.org.
The content is a
tremendously important component of any good web site. We especially depend upon
the parishioners,
each particular ministry, the parish staff, and the school's administration,
faculty, and students to provide information that will aid in our parish mission
statement. We are only as good in our Ministry of Internet Evangelization as
they want us to be.
We sincerely hope that all donors will provide us relevant,
accurate, important, and up to date information. Staying relevant helps us to
meet the expectation of our guest, for example, having the email address of the
director of the music ministry. Accurate ensures that we are trustworthy in the
eyes of the visitor and that we maintain our Catholicity. Important makes certain
that we do not fail to mention significant items in our journey to the heavenly
Jerusalem such as the mass schedule or directions to our church and school. Up
to date reflects our primary concern that we are current with today's affairs
while remaining faithful to our past and planning for the future.
Our main page, that is the home page, has the most
current news; we are making every effort to change it on a weekly basis
thanks to Odil. She is doing an outstanding job! And
overall, we do not want a static site but one that flows with the seasons of the
church. Pictures are always welcomed and we will presume that you have given us
all the necessary permissions. Further material requested or posted would be
the ministry's mission statement, current news, possibly a brief history, schedule of
activities, profiles of members, location and times of meetings and or practices,
related pictures, available resources, minutes of meetings, upcoming
events, links to helpful websites, contact information, celebrations, anniversaries,
contest winners, award presentation, etc. The web master is responsible for
uploading this information and is in a sense a true gate keeper. The
organizations that wish to maintain a web site independently from the
stbernardine.org are requested to keep our primary St Bernardine logo on all of their
web pages as it is found in our top left header. In this way, all the ministries
of St Bernardine Church and School are symbolically connected as members of the
one body of Christ. These organizations are responsible for their own site and
any related inquires should be directed to them, for example, the web pages of
the school and the justice and peace ministry.
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V
What You Can Do To Help
We definitely would like your help in our Ministry of Evangelization by way
of the Internet. We are looking for your input and feedback regarding the
content of the web pages. Please provide your input or volunteer your assistance
by clicking here so that WE, the St
Bernardine of Siena Catholic Community of Woodland Hills, California, can share
the Good News via the World Wide Web. Photographers, data entry people, copy
right people, writers,
web programmers are all welcomed as volunteers to help us whenever they can
in a constant effort to keep our site updated, relevant, accurate and important.
Besides adding more content and constantly updating information, we have yet to
finish our enormous task of a parish archive and have yet to begin our parish
timeline. The timeline would associates particular stages in St Bernardine's
history to social, political, economic, and cultural dates similar to another
parish web site.
Material requested or posted would be a ministry's mission statement, current news, possibly a brief history, schedule of
activities, profiles of members, location and times of meetings and or practices,
related pictures,
announcements, available resources, minutes of meetings, upcoming
events, links to helpful websites, contact information, celebrations, anniversaries,
contest winners, award presentation, conduct
a survey, public addresses, sermons, or talks, music,
(yes, we can put audio and video on our website (just
like the Vatican or the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops if we are creative enough) etc.
And lastly, thank you for your patience while we are undertaking this enormous
and very fulfilling process.
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VI. The People Behind the Effort
 Hi, my name is John Sauder and I am a member of the internet evangelization
committee. It began when Father Albert asked for volunteers to redesign the St
Bernardine web site which was principally focused on the school. So I thought
that I would continue to put my spiritual knowledge into action for the good of
the Catholic church. Prior to this particular faith filled work, I had
volunteered at St. Mel's parish with religious education from grades six on
through youth ministry for over twelve years and with various one time
events. I am a certified web designer and happily wanted to put my certificate
in web design from Cal State Northridge to use at St Bernardine.org. I have
helped to build its navigational structure, contributed to the artistic design,
and provided the content and text on some of our web pages. For example, I took
the photographs of our church for the liturgical environment ministry, wrote the
material for several pages including the pages on hope, internet evangelization,
liturgical environment, terms of use, site map, search, and the mass schedule. I have attended
Catholic schools all my life starting with Louisville kindergarten,
St Mel
elementary, Crespi
Carmelite High School in Encino, and Thomas Aquinas college in Santa
Paula California. In my spare time from working at Office Depot as a sales
administrator, I like to garden, see the local sights, exercise, and read.
Presently, I am helping two other parishes develop their web sites and
wouldn't mind turning this into a fulltime job.
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VII Links
Secretariat for
Evangelization (USCCB)
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