One of our longstanding clients, St. Clement’s Church, recently needed a refreshed web site, and we were excited to take on the challenge. Now we’re proud to say we’re done beta testing and its up and running. St. Clement’s, a historic Episcopal parish in Center City Philadelphia, is a “shrine church” whose membership, friends and supporters span the globe, so the church relies on the web to reach its large and devoted audience.

Having developed the original website several years ago, we were well aware of the elements that St. Clement’s needed in its new and improved web presence. The church is widely known for its talented professional choir and organists, and the site’s direct links and podcasts of weekly recorded music from church services are still a vital part of the new site. Access to the musical highlights, full length Masses and sermons has been made even easier. Visitors to the website also appreciate the quality and accessibility of downloadable photographs of the historic architecture and the visually rich services and special programs, and we capture those glimpses of the church’s storied ceremony and liturgy. We created easy web-based pathways for engagement by parishioners and broader community members in the church’s “Helping Others” outreach programs, and also for online donations.

The Rector, Canon Gordon Reid, writes a popular blog, and the website integrates his blog, the church’s Facebook page and the e-mail communications tools used to alert friends and church members to upcoming services, programs and projects in a powerful and broad reaching social media package.

In addition to functionality and speed improvements, TDG and the church sought to make the site easier for clergy and church volunteers to update. A state-of-the-art Content Management System, a specialty of TDG’s, was created that affords St. Clement’s with a lower cost alternative for site updates. Parishioners now regularly upload music and sermon recordings, weekly service leaflets, monthly newsletters, special notices and news updates.

Traffic on the updated and improved St. Clement’s website (www.s-clements.org) has already grown significantly, and visitors are raving about the beauty of its design, the ease of its navigation and the extent of its content. Tactile Design Group has made web design and development for religious institutions one of our specialties, in support of our commitment to helping community organizations and offering nonprofit rates to a group of our valued clients.