Yet another story today that builds on Pope Benedict’s recent discussion of faith and science. The Vatican’s chief astronomer says that believing in extra-terrestrials doesn’t contradict religious faith. Here’s a bit from the AP story, as printed on Yahoo! News:

“How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?” Funes said. “Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ’sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of creation.”

In the interview by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Funes said that such a notion “doesn’t contradict our faith” because aliens would still be God’s creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom, he said.

What I love best about this article is that the church reminds us that science and faith (or religion) are not at odds with each. Love it.

PS: Want to know what the Vatican’s chief astronomer does? Check out the Vatican Observatory web site.

I am so excited for the folks at Messiah Lutheran Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. This week, we launched their new web site. So far, the reviews are positive as we continue to fine-tune the site.

Working with Pastor Eric Murray and Administrative Kristin Kennedy has been delightful. Kristin and I were roommates back in college, and it’s always fun to spend time with her… even if it’s via email and telephone. The old web site was hardcoded HTML, which made it difficult to update. The staff and volunteer leadership had specific goals:

• Easier to navigate and find information
• Easier to update and maintain
• Clean layout with photographs that show the church and members
• Method to contact staff without publishing email addresses

We began the project by discussing sites that they liked, then worked through clearly defining their goals and designing an organization structure. Pastor Eric and Kris created a few layouts as a model for the look and feel.. and they had a great vision! My job was to do the “dirty work” of implementing the content management system and using CSS to create a template that fulfilled their vision.

The site was created in Drupal, which you know is my favorite content management system. Because their needs are relatively simple, I’ve installed only a few additional modules: Captcha, Contact Forms, Pathauto, Read More Tweak, Scheduler, Taxonomy Context, Ubrowser and Weight, along with TinyMCE and IMCE.

Now that the site is operational, they can explore other features that could improve their ministries. I’m looking forward to helping them as they continue their journey.

Hmm…. looks like I have time to take on another church web site project. Read more about my basic package, then use the form below to contact me.

The folks over at Web Catholic Blog recently announced their pick for the 2007 web site of the year. Here’s what they said about their criteria:

First off, the “Site of the Year” judging panel rated entrants in four areas: effective design, timely content, technical functionality and a “wow” factor. Many of the reviewed sites were strong in one or more of these areas.

The winner is Christ the Light of the World Parish (Diocese of Pittsburgh) … recognized for its simple design, liturgical color scheme and elegant home page. While I find the site a little difficult to navigate, I do like the News page where bulletin articles are reprinted. It seems that the “wow” factor and technical flashiness weighed quite heavily… Personally, I’d prefer to see more current news on the home page.

What inspires me… The background color linked to the liturgical season and seasonal graphics. Hmm… I’ll need to see what could be used on the St. Ignatius web site.

Need: After deciding on standards for its new certification program, the association needed to develop guidelines and an application form. The application packet needed to be simple and easily administered.

Solution: I worked with the volunteer committee to document certification requirements, then write the application instructions and develop a one-page application form.

Results: Fifty-eight graduates were certified within the first year of the new program.

Continue reading to see the original information sheet and application form.

Problem: About two months before the end of my daughter’s 7th grade year, the volunteer committee responsible for producing the school yearbook asked for help. They had sold some advertising and gathered photographs. But they did not enough to pay for printing with the traditional yearbook company. The students weren’t going to have a yearbook that year!

Solution: I volunteered to put together a yearbook using the budget and photographs they had. Within three weeks … and with help from another parent who wrote captions … I had scanned more than 400 photographs, designed 64 two-color layouts and created 49 advertisements. I negotiated a deal with a local printing company that produced the magazine for a former employer, and we printed 300 saddle-stitched yearbooks within our limited budget. The yearbooks were delivered in time for the 8th-grade graduation celebration.

Continue reading to see samples from one of my favorite projects.