The Parish of Our Lady of the Assumption approached Church Edit, looking for a website that would serve visitors, by ‘providing a window’ into their parish and the Catholic faith, and also serve their members by creating ease of access to parish information.
The branding came about as a result of the parish seeking the direction of their community over the coming years and looking for a new vision and mission, which resulted in their mission statement to be a welcoming, loving and serving church. Our team of designers used their existing logo and this vision concept as a launch pad for the design of the website.
As you open the parish website, you are immediately presented with an open and welcoming design, which accompanies their vision of a ‘Welcoming, Loving, Serving’ parish. Image and design, if implemented correctly can considerably magnify your vision as a church. It is said that first impressions are created within 90 seconds, so getting the right depiction of your church on your homepage is essential and by utilising design and imagery, you can ensure that this impression is conveyed within the very first moments of a user accessing your website.
All aspects need to be taken into account when looking to communicate a vision visually. The colour blue has long been associated with a sense of stability, calmness and open space, so by adding this colour scheme to a layout that promotes open space (a large photograph and simple design), it helps to convey the vision of a welcoming church. Not only does the colour provide the correct atmosphere for the website but it was deliberately chosen, as it is the colour that is associated with Our Lady, who is the patroness of the parish, the colour is therefore consistently used within the parish.
Loving and serving aspects are re-iterated in the imagery and also the structure of the website, when we spoke with the parish priest Father Stephen Pritchard about the website, he indicated the main requirement for the website was to serve the needs of the community. Creating a clear structure that has visitors and parish members in mind strengthens these principles. You will find all the relevant parish information to hand straight away on the homepage, in a clear and organised arrangement of the navigation bar.
The website serves members of the parish and those looking to enquire about the faith, or wanting to reconnect with the church community by ensuring that mass and service times, along with further information about the parish are easily located. In regards to members, Father Stephen told us that “many people using their tablet or other devices find the website a very good way to keep in touch with activity in the parish, that the website is easy to navigate and that it contains all the relevant information.” A truly welcoming and serving church website should cater to the needs of those that it is reaching out too.
As a Christian company, we enjoy working together with churches and ministries of all denominations and have a strong understanding of what churches are looking for from a website, Father Stephen told us that after reviewing various options for the website that he “decided to use Church Edit mainly because of our knowledge of what a church might need and our experience of working with Christian churches, along with design and construction options were easily understandable”.
“The website has been hugely beneficial. It looks fresh, crisp and gives people a ‘window’ into Our Lady’s Parish. I have already recommended Church Edit to other priests and parishioners.” Fr. Stephen Pritchard
You can visit The Parish of Our Lady of the Assumption website here: www.ourladygateacre.org.uk
If you are looking for a website for your church, or perhaps a refreshed design then our team are here to help. You can find clear pricing structure by visiting our pricing page, or our various design options on our custom designs page. If you have any queries then please call us on 0121 651 1120, or email hello@churchedit.co.uk