Churches are jumping on the information super highway to advertise their services and activities on the web.

The Chelmsford Community Church is one of them. With a free web site from the Beehive community network at This is Essex - the church can now reach the whole of Essex and indeed the world.

Rev Peter Balls, pastor at the church said part of the reason he joined the Beehive new internet service was to update the image of the church.

He said: "The internet is the way things are going. If we are going to keep up with people and their lives we have to take a modern approach."

In a world where people find they have very little time to attend traditional religious festivals and institutions, the church is using the web to take the message to the congregation wherever they may be.

"The office is manned nine to five normal working hours so anyone having a stressful day at work can e-mail us and we guarantee to pray for them," he said.

According to the pastor, going on-line is not the only thing that keeps them in touch with modern life.

"We have a very strong social side, we meet in pubs and hire coaches for day trips," he said.

If you belong to a non-profit making organisation in Essex and you would like to up-date your organisation's image by going on-line contact community editor Helen Anderson at This is Essex, Chelmsford, on (01245) 345048 or log on to http://beehive.thisisessex.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.