Locating
Online Cultures
“Welcome
to our parish website. SS. Rose & Clement Roman Catholic Parish
has been bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Warwick, RI for over
50 years. We hope you will find what you need on these pages. If you
have any questions or need any additional information, please
contact us! God
bless you!”
First
off the Saint Rose and Clement's Church website was a lot more
technologically advanced than I would have expected. The last time I
went on any church website it was very basic so that was the first
thing that caught my mind when I went one the site, I guess it
demonstrates the changing times with technological advancements.
Other than a surprising display, I could not find any message boards
or comments, I did find a page that listed all the important figures
of our parish, including my choir's director, and of course the
priest. There is also a tab labeled resources that includes links to
other religious pages including the Vatican. The thing that stands
out to me about this church is that there is a gift sop, what church
has a gift shop? It just allows the stereotype that churches are all
about money to flourish in this parish.
“Share
the Spirit" Gift Shop
“Our
"Share the Spirit" Gift Shop is open daily. We offer many
different religious items including candles, rosary beads, holy
pictures, medals, wall hangings, Bibles, crucifixes, Catholic
greeting cards, gifts for Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation &
Weddings, and much more. Special orders are happily accepted. Please
stop by and take a look.”
About
five or so years ago there was an addition made to the church, this
addition included more rooms for all the various committees that the
church promotes, but it also made this gift shop. I have never been
in the gift shop because in my opinion I feel as if the concept of
having the store at this place of worship is wrong and I still never
understood why they did this, but I feel like by adding it the Church
hurt it's image in the community.
If
I wanted to study the Church itself or the gift shop I could
certainly talk to the priest or I could talk to one of the deacons
whom resides right next door to the church, it would certainty be
interesting to understand the relationship between churches and
money.
As soon as you said gift shop I was just like----wait, what? I don't think I have ever heard of a church gift shop before. I was raised Catholic and I am confirmed, but I do not agree with many of the church's beliefs. I think that they are often very worried about money and that would be an interesting topic to explore. I agree with you that it is wrong to have something like that in direct connection to a church. Interesting investigation!
ReplyDeleteI had the same experience as you, because from the maybe one and only time I searched my church's website, it was only the basic information with simple layouts, plain fonts, etc. It definitely is interesting to think about why these establishments, like churches and choir groups, have such a strong online sense as well as in person. These days, people would rather just "google it" than look in the phone book for a phone number to call and get more information... because who has time for that?! I really like that you started it off with their little welcome blurb! It was a nice touch, and I also like how you included your belief about the gift shop. I think we're all surprised to hear that, and I agree with Meghan that it would be interesting to discover why they added that.
ReplyDeleteI love you how compared your churches website now to how it was then. The way you wrote about the gift shop was perfect. You clearly wrote about how you felt about having a gift shop in your church and I completely agree with you. I think already you noticed so many things and reacted to them perfectly. I love how you have the pictures to start off with because that really caught my eye. This looks like it is going to be a great place to investigate and I can't wait to hear what else you have found out.
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