The News section includes two kinds of pages:

• News posts, including a news listing generated by the WordPress “Posts” function
• Event pages, including a listing of upcoming events generated by the theme’s Events plugin.

On the Demo News Page, the main News page shows a list of the content you enter into those sections of WordPress. The sidebar lists upcoming worship services, which are described in the Worship section page.

News Listing

Read about How News Posts Work.

Events and Submit an Event

Read about How Event Pages Work. The Events and Submit an Event pages are generated by the Events Manager Plugin.

The Newsletter Page

The Newsletter page is yours to customize according to your congregation’s model of newsletter.

If you have an electronic newsletter, you can post an online version of it here in HTML. You may also wish to post in print-ready PDF format. If you do, make your PDF searchable and tagged, so that users of your site can more easily find the information they need (and so the information can be accessible to those who use screen readers). If you are using Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, you can often create searchable and tagged PDF files without opening another program. Paid versions of software such as Adobe Acrobat and Power PDF are also capable of creating searchable PDFs.

Privacy Issues

Since the advent of the Web, many congregations have created newsletter policies and practices that protect the privacy of members online. Such practices may include refraining from publishing personal contact information, personal joys or sorrows, or other sensitive personal information online or in the electronic newsletter. Some congregations create two or even three versions of a newsletter for this reason, with e-mail and online versions stripped of sensitive information that might be contained in a print version.

Some congregations maintain two electronic mailing lists: one for an e-news about events and general announcements, and one for active participants where personal information like the illness of a member is shared. We strongly encourage congregations to consider and abide by practices that strike a good balance between protecting personal privacy and making the congregation’s life and events accessible electronically.