In December of 1995, the Pastoral Council, Finance Committee, the Pastor and others were presented with a new option for St. Cecilia's Parish to publicize the activities and events the Parish beyond the immediate audience of those attending Mass on Sunday. Grant Perrigo and Wallace Couch demonstrated the concept of Internet communications through the World Wide Web to the parish after all the Masses the following weekend in Conger Hall.

In January of 1996, the Pastoral Council unanimously recommended St. Cecilia's start World Wide Web and e-mail service which began on January 19.

The objectives of this project are to improve communication with our local congregation and provide an inviting and anonymous means for our non-Catholic neighbors and the local community to more easily find out about St. Cecilia's Parish, our activities, and the Catholic Church in general. We also hoped that it will be a valuable resource for families contemplating moving to our community.

In February 1996 the Distinctive Church Collection named St. Cecilia's Home Page among The Top 3 Church Home Pages of the month. In the first year of operation ending January 18, 1997, more than 2900 visits were recorded. Almost 2500 visits were logged in the year ending January 18, 1998 even though the counter was functioning intermittently.

The following are just a few of the comments we have received:

"Congratulations on giving us what a web page should look like! Local information and then, links to the world."
Oscar Barry, Sandycove Co. Dublin Ireland 15 December 1996

"Parishioners can find it all here. People looking for a parish to join would be instantly hooked after reading this web site. ... There is a wealth of information here. ... The site is very clean. It is light but informative. I'd like to go to it again and again. Bottom Line: 14/15."
Scott M. Fitzgerald, "Modern Liturgy" magazine, June/July 1997

"You have created a very nice web site. We are meeting tonight at our parish to begin the design of our page. It was good to visit the site and we will be using your work as an example! Thanks very much!"
Peter Barbernitz, St. Camillus Parish, Silver Springs MD, 8 May 1997

"I have come across St. Cecilia's Parish home page and congratulate you on such a comprehensive and interesting presentations. We have just completed a site for the whole diocese ...so have some idea of the work and creative energy you have expended."
P. M. Karam, Lismore Diocese, New South Wales, Australia, 7 October 1997

This Home Page was constructed using Microsoft's Internet Assistant for Word and Sausage Software's Hot Dog Pro2, both web publishing tools. We also use JASC's Paint Shop Pro for graphic design and manipulation. Internet Assistant is a free extension program which compliments Word 6.0 word publishing program. Both HotDog Pro and Paint Shop Pro are shareware programs (you may download and use them free for a period of time, after that a payment is requested - do it!).

Since April of 1998, we have been using Word97 and FrontPage  for our publishing.

Of the many excellent books about the internet, we have found Serving the Web by Robert Jon Mudry (Coriolis Group Books - (800) 410-0192) to be of immense help. We also recommend "A Guide for Creating a CHURCH HOMEPAGE" by Jim Mason

This Home Page was designed for best viewing using the Netscape World Wide Web browser and personal computers with at least 256 color capability and 600 x 800 resolution. Please note, the current webmaster is in the Microsoft camp and is using Internet Explorer 4.0 as his browser and is very satisfied with its presentation. We did use Wolfe Internet Access as our local provider, e-mail drop, and Web server. In October 1998, we moved the site to BainbridgeNet Internet Access which is providing us a less expensive package price and a little faster modem connection for e-mail and the Web server. In April 2000, Bainbridge Net offered a full domain for the cost of the name and we relocated on April 30 to http"//www.stcecilia-bainbridge.org. The local church computer is used only to make changes which are then uploaded to the server and to retrieve our e-mail. At no time is the church computer accessible from the internet.

The internet project is currently maintained by  Jim Decker using Microsoft FrontPage.