Each service (that is, worship service) is stored as a separate post. You create these Service posts and they remain on your website as a record of your worship services.

Each Service post has two date fields:

• Service Date and Time:
  Click the input field to select the date and time of the service using the calendar and time picker.
  Note: The website will switch to showing the next service as soon as the date and time in this first field passes. If you have two services and you want the service to stay on display until the second service starts, use the start time of the second service.
  If you use the "Display Date and Time" text field below, this date will not appear on the website and is only used for determining whether a service is in the past or future.
• Display Date and Time​:
  Enter whatever text you’d like to appear as the service date and time.
  For example, you can enter “April 1, 2018 at 10:30 am” or “1 April 2018 – 10:30 am and noon”. It’s free text, so you can enter the times of two services. Be consistent; it’ll look better. Or, you can leave this blank if you want the system to use the date and time from the first field.

You can include a title and description, which will be advertised on the homepage, upcoming services page, and sidebars throughout your site. Descriptions should be 50 words/240 characters or less.

You can add an image for the service by clicking on Add Media. (The image will only be displayed when someone clicks on the service title to learn more.)

Displaying Lists of Services

The different UUA Services plugin widgets display information from these pages using several widgets and shortcodes. Here’s where services are displayed on the demo site.

• Future services are displayed on the Worship > Upcoming Services page using the [uua_services] shortcode in the text of the page.
• The next upcoming service is displayed on the homepage using the UUA Featured Upcoming Service widget in the Home 2 widget-area, which you set on the Appearance > Widgets admin page. It also appears in the right sidebar of most pages using the UUA Upcoming Service widget in the Primary Sidebar widget-area on the Appearance > Widgets page.
• Past services are listed on the Worship > Past Worship Services page using the [uua_services type="archive"] shortcode in the text of the page.

Creating a Service Page

To create a post about a worship service, choose Services > Add New from the Dashboard. Or choose +New > Service from the menu at the top of every page. Either way, you see an Add New Service edit screen, where you enter:

• Service Title. Be consistent.
• Text description of the service.
• Set the date of the service. Starting with version 1.0, you set this in the “Service Date and Time” box in the right hand column, which contains two fields, “Service Date and Time” and “Display Date and Time​,” described above.
• Choose one or more speakers in the “Speakers” box in the right hand column.
• Under Topics, check one or more service topics that should appear on the Service post.
• Don’t bother setting the Featured Image, because it doesn’t appear on Service posts.
• If you want comments on the service, check the Allow comments checkbox.

Click the Publish or Update button to save.

Another option is to use the Duplicate Post plugin to make a copy of an existing Service page.

The Featured Service on the Home Page

If you use the UUA Featured Upcoming Service widget on the home page, it’ll display information about the closest future service based on the “Service Date and Time”.