The Church Of Ireland
Press Release

15 March 2000

The Church of Ireland has taken another major step forward in its use of modern technology through the introduction of its own Internet server. The Church, which has been very active in encouraging the development of communication through the internet, currently co-ordinates over 200 parishes who are on-line, many of whom have their own websites. The Church of Ireland's own website (http://www.ireland.anglican.org) already attracts several thousand visitors each month, providing information and resources on the work of the Church.

The Chairman of the Church's Internet Committee, Raymond Hoey, Archdeacon of Armagh, pointed out that the internet is rapidly becoming one of the prime forms of communication in the world today. "Within the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Church of Ireland is at the forefront of using the internet as an effective way to develop internal and external communication. We hope to encourage every parish to establish a presence on the internet by way of an e-mail address and eventually a parish website" he said.

The new server will provide e-mail and website hosting facilities for parishes, individuals and organisations linked to the Church of Ireland. This exciting investment will also allow further development of the anglican.org e-mail addressing structure in the Church of Ireland, a system that is being successfully established and used by many other Anglican Provinces around the world.

Plans are already underway to develop the Church of Ireland website (http://www.ireland.anglican.org) and to provide extensive coverage of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland, which will take place in Belfast in May of this year.