One of our website’s aims is to serve the needs of our congregation, one of the strengths of the Internet being its ability to build community connections. Church members can find information at any time of the day or night from any computer. The Home Page is always up-to-date with information on what is happening in church that particular week and there are links to the current Spire Magazine and Pew Sheet.

There are pages with parish/community notices and forthcoming church and community events/musical events. The on-line Calendar/Diary provides dates and times of all the services, events in the church and hall, etc. The sections in the website (Church & Grounds, Groups, Music, Past Events, Running the Church, St. James's History, St. James's Images, The Spire Magazine, Witness/Mission, Worship/Services and the updated Young St. James's) keep members up-to-date with all the activities that are going on in the church.

Our website is also an integral part of our church's outreach to the local community and beyond by being informative, instructive and educational. The website’s vision extends beyond our local church into our community, across the country and even the entire world. We welcomed visitors from over 28 countries with 10632 visits to the website in January 2008 compared with 7,000 in January 2007. In June 2007 there were 14724 visits! Even a small church can have a missions outreach in cyberspace! The web is a God-given tool with huge potential to reach outside as well as inside our own church community.

The church website is a most effective way of 'advertising' to let people know we exist. One reason why a website for a church is important is that more and more people are searching on the internet and finding our website with a search engine. This can help increase publicity, because some visitors may never use the phone book to find us. If they can't find us online, they may never know anything about us. Many people never enter a church building, other than for weddings and funerals so the website can be a powerful tool, explaining what else goes on inside the church and providing an invitation to prospective members to come and enjoy the church’s fellowship.

Our website also tries to reach people looking for a new church, either new people moving into the area or others who want a change, so includes information a potential newcomer to the church would require. The website can help people acquire more knowledge about the church before visiting. That way interested people can understand exactly what our church is about and walk in already knowing much more than if they came in ‘cold’.

Some people may be interested in going to a church, perhaps for the first time, but feel unsure of what to expect. Our website could be the first point of contact for them because the internet provides a perfect tool for people wanting information anonymously. They can browse through the site to see if our church will fulfill their needs. People who are not ready to ‘come into the building’ can visit the website to see what happens, what we believe and why. The website tries to educate visitors and encourage them to take the next step. Descriptions and photos of services and events go a long way toward making a person feel secure enough to make a first-time visit.

More and more people are looking at the website to find out about using the church for rites of passage services: baptism, confirmation, marriage and funerals/internment of ashes. There are pages explaining these services for those who are not too sure about what happens. Also more people are discovering the possibility of booking the church or hall for private functions or concerts, etc and searching the online database for information about the graves in the churchyard.

A Few of the many Comments received from Website Visitors

I wanted to thank you for your wonderful website! My late Dad spoke very little about his family, even to my Mum, and we know so little about them. Earlier today, I remembered that he had once told me that we had family buried in a churchyard in Hampton and, with a little imagination with the question in my Search Engine, I found your wonderful site immediately. In a couple of mouse clicks, under the name of 'Groves', I discovered more than my father ever told anybody; five graves and, I suspect, all relations of mine. Not all Churches have such amazing websites as yours and I wanted to congratulate you and thank you so very much; I now have some names and ages that I can follow up. I thought that I was going to have to wait until the 1911 census was published and, even then, I would have been searching blindly because I only knew my Grandmother's name. Your excellent site has speeded up my research no end.

Once again the magic website comes up with the goods! Looks most attractive, a good advertisement for us.

I have been searching the web for information that might be useful for our soon to be elected new PCC members and I stumbled across the St James’ website. I am so impressed by it and just wanted to let you know that. I doubt that our parish has the time and talents needed to produce such a friendly, informative and professional website for the forseeable future but I will definitely draw inspiration from your hardwork.

Your church has a very good website, so neat and tidy and well laid out!!

”Congratulations! I have been searching the web for information that might be useful for our soon to be elected new PCC members and I stumbled across the St. James's website. I am so impressed by it because it contains so much useful and helpful information.”

”I doubt that our parish has the time and talents needed to produce such a friendly, informative and professional website for the forseeable future but I will definitely draw inspiration from your hard work.”

”I came across your wonderful web site when looking for information on the Church Year for my Year 5 class at school. It is one of the most impressive sites I have ever seen and I would like to ask your permission to use the site with my class at school and use some of the pictures from your site on worksheets for the children so they can explore the site and answer guided questions. I came upon the site by when doing a search and was so impressed as it showed everything I am trying to teach the children so clearly. Please may I pass my congratulation on to everyone who was involved in putting together such a site. It is wonderful.”

”I came across your website (through Google) when seeking information about the duties of sidespeople (I am a very newly elected churchwarden). I am very impressed with your site. Having been involved in the design and delivery of my company’s website, from initial concepts to maintenance, I can see what a huge amount of planning and effort has been put into your site. My congratulations to everyone involved, it is a credit to you all and to St James’ Church.”

”I am a Researcher for Espresso Education, the U.K.'s leading broadband education company……. We feel that certain pages on your site provide ideal educational resources for children studying RE. At the moment we are building a module on Christianity, and we would like to include pages from your site within Espresso. In particular we would like to cache the 'Christianity' section of the St. James's Church Young Magazine.”

”Firstly, I think your website is great - very clear, easy to navigate and full of interesting information. Thank you! I found your site while I was preparing info for a new website some friends and I are putting together. We hope to provide resources for teachers teaching Sunday School children. One area we want to look at is the church building and the symbols, colours etc…..”

”Thank you, we have been using your website to find out more about churches. We found it most helpful, and have discovered new facts.”

”Well done on St James’ Church, Hampton Hill Website. It’s one of the best sites I’ve visited; it’s very informative and nicely laid out.”

”I am a teacher in Nottingham and I am writing an educational website for junior aged children about Christian festivals such as Easter. I am writing to ask permission to use some of your fantastic pictures from your Colourful Church Year page such as the altar frontal and clerical garments. Would this be possible please as I haven't seen any photographs anywhere nearly as good as these and I don't think any I take would be as good?”

”Thank you for the website, I came upon it by accident and found it very, very interesting. It is a great website and shares memories of Hampton Hill. Also, thank you very much indeed for keeping everything so up to date.”

Congratulations on the photos of the flowers for the filming on the website. They are really lovely and lots of people have been able to access them even though they weren't able to get to see them.

The website goes from strength to strength. It looks better and better. I have heard some (a lot of) very positive comments recently from parishioners and particularly from outsiders who are interested in either the incumbency or in using St. James's for some purpose.

You will be interested to hear that today the Rev Nick Todd, a forces Chaplain from Hounslow, who took the services, praised the quality of our website and said how interesting and useful it had been to him as a visitor to the church. Well done!

I wanted to contact the minister at the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court. As to the contact details - I can thank Google. While tying to find the details for Denis, I stumbled over Ann's on the Churches Together Around Hampton page on your website and simply tried my luck - and turned out to be lucky, so thank you so much!

The cartoon illustrations are by Gordon Stowell, the watercolour paintings and drawings by Prill Hinckley and the photographs by Prill and Martin Hinckley.

The webmaster, Prill Hinckley, is responsible for setting up and maintaining this website. Please contact her at p.m.hinckley@blueyonder.co.uk if you have:
• Dates of events
• Articles
• Information of interest to church members
• Comments about the website itself
• Information about any broken links