Blogspot and more

A few days ago when I published the first of the congregational blogs, I noted that it was one of three such blogs I was writing for the church – the others being one for session and a second for the community at large.

The community blog was started just before Christmas, 2010, and was designed to inform the community about Christmas services. It was also to be somewhat temporary as session has been working on the introduction of a church website, a project that was initiated by Rev. Mark.

 Rev. Wayne Irwin, a retired United Church minister, has been working on establishing the website through a company called Model T Websites and more news about the website should be forthcoming in the near future.

In the meantime, the Knox blog has had its ups and downs – down for a while, then up for the Easter season, then down again for a short while. Blogs, after all, are time consuming.

But when Rev. Mark passed away, the need for a blog became ever more apparent as large numbers of people were going online to get information about Mark, about Knox, and about our weekly services, and so it has continued on a fairly regular basis.

As the writer and also the administrator for the blog, I am able to get an overview of the usage, and really, it is quite surprising. As Aug. 25, there had been 3,539 page views since its inception, 409 in the last month, and 20 on Wednesday alone. That’s a lot of people looking at Knox Burlington, and so confirms the need to use this form of communication.

There is interesting possibilities woven into the format of this blog, and perhaps in the future they can be developed further. One of the options is for a regular poll, asking readers their views on various church related subjects. Who knows, sometime we might even ask why they log into the Knox blog.

The address for the blog has been listed in the church bulletin on occasion, but for reference, it is: www.knoxburlington.blogspot.com

Communion Sunday

This Sunday, the Rev. Linda Corry will be back in the Knox pulpit as we celebrate the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. As most of the congregation know by now, Rev. Corry has served congregations in both the Presbyterian and Anglican churches and now provides coaching and consulting to clergy and parishioners (corrycoach.com).

Bikes for Malawi

The following information was included in last Sunday’s bulletin, but we pass along this information for those who were perhaps still on holidays and missed this outstanding initiative.

The Quilters at Knox Church with the support of many others within the congregation have been busy this summer with a series of after church events, with ministers serving in Malawi being the recipients of the money raised through these socials.

The group held such events as a Sloppy Joe lunch, Sundae After Sunday, and a Corn
Roast and as a result, a cheque has been sent to purchase three bikes and repair kits for ministers in Malawi in memory of the Rev. Mark. The Quilters are now working on fund raising for the Community Based Orphan Care Centres.  Early in the fall, items made from the fabric from Malawi will be available for purchase with proceeds of those sales also going to the orphan centres in memory of Mark