Please not that this page is no longer operational.Welcome to our Christian Links page

(For the main Church page, click on ‘Parish Church’ above) Here is our collection of links to other churches, Anglican resources and other Christian sources on the World Wide Web. If you would like to add or change a link in these pages, or to help in any other way please email churchinfo@highclerevillage.com. There are many more general links in the Links page at the Highclere and District main website.

The Church of England Home site of the Church of England

The Archbishop of Canterbury His own home page

Christian Enquiry Agency (for England) It works with all the main churches in England to provide information about the Christian faith

Links to Christian Organisations in the UK Here you will find top level links to the main Christian denominations

Anglican and Episcopal Web Ring Which we will join, just as soon as our indolent webmaster gets that Round Tuit he keeps talking about . . .

St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster Nestling in the shadow of Westminster Abbey, this small and usually quiet place is also regarded as the “Parish Church of Parliament”

Saint Sam’s Cyberparish A “virtual parish”, and an interesting place for Christians anywhere to connect with each other.

The Book of Common Prayer The complete text of of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as used for many of our services at Highclere, Ashmansworth and Crux Easton.

Church House Bookshop Online As the name suggests. The site was an early entrant to the e-commerce world and nominated as UK’s Christian Bookseller of the year 1998.

Church Search Search here for details of local or nearby Church of England churches when you are visiting other parts of the country, or for service details. The listing may not be complete but we are in there!

Church Times Independent of but taking an active interest in the “official” hierarchy of the Church of England. The current edition is here online

The Christian Directory (UK) A guide to Christian businesses and organisations in the UK. We tried to list Highclere-on-the-Web but the submission form didn’t work!

The Way – Christian Resource Centre A site that includes both Christian material (“Faith Area”) and commercial, including “net shopping”, but all with a Christian aspect. There is also a directory of churches, based on information provided by the churches concerned. The site’s “mission statement” is a little grandiose (“Our intention is to change the attitudes of our nation.”) but they’ve made a good start, though there are either typos or spelling errors on many pages!

The Bible Reading Fellowship A somewhat disappointing site – one might expect at least a daily text online but it appears to only offer to sell the printed versions.

Crusade for World Revival UK-based Evangelical organisation with world wide links. You can get a daily bible reading text by email.

The Scripture Union Daily bible reading notes and an associated discussion forum, plus background on the Scripture Union.

Daily Bible Reading From the King James version.

Bible Search Engine A powerful and fast way to search many versions of the Bible. You can search the whole bible for a word, a phrase, a set of keywords. You can restrict the search to particular books or a sequence of books, or the old or new testaments etc.

King James’ Bible The whole text online, indexed by chapters.

An Anglican liturgical library Collection of texts and links from/to Anglican churches world wide.

Winchester Cathedral Don’t visit Hampshire without pausing for a while to pray here and to marvel at the shrines of Kings and Queens and other notables, the workmanship of middle ages craftsmen, and the continuity of Christian tradition. The choir is good too! For a very interesting and well-constructed (unofficial) “tour of Winchester Cathedral”, visit http://home.clara.net/reedhome/winchester/main.htm. This site is image-rich and pages do take time to appear, but the wait can be worthwhile.

The Diocese of Winchester Our diocese, led from the beautiful and historic Winchester Cathedral

Common Worship Common Worship is the Church of England’s new liturgy, replacing The Alternative Service Book 1980 and coming into use alongside The Book of Common Prayer. This website has full texts for downloading as well as background information.

Common Worship and other discussion lists COIN (Christians on the Internet) provides a number of email-based discussion lists. As well as Common Worship there is a “general” forum and a “technical” forum (dealing with the use of PCs and Internet in a Christian context). Other lists deal with Preaching, Music, Youth Work, Visual Liturgy (a systems version of Common Worship, and the strategic (twenty year) future of the Church of England.

Anglicans Online A connecting point for Anglicans and Episcopalians world wide; including directories with a wealth of information and links – more than 10,000 links in fact!

Labarum The “liturgical site” of the Royal Army Chaplains’ Department. Full of useful – and downloadable – examples of booklets etc using the Church of England’s new (2000-2001) “Common Worship” orders of service. A boon to anyone creating their own local booklets. By the way, “Labarum” is the name given to a monogram of the name of Christ, formed of the two first letters of that name in Greek, X and P.

Christ Church, Eastbourne – Common Worship booklets Christ Church have put downloadable files of their Common Worship booklets on their website. They will on request email the Word or RTF files!

RACD Links Page Royal Army Chaplains Department well organised and commented page of links to liturgical, general Christian and general research sites.

Christian Year Almanac At the Diocese of Ely website. You can choose to display only the main festivals or to show the designations for all Sundays and main festivals.

Today’s prayers This section of the Church of England web site provides the full text for today’s and tomorrow’s Morning Prayer (Matins) and Evening Prayer (Evensong), both from the Book of Common Prayer, together with the Night Prayer (Compline). The texts embed the appropriate (daily changing) psalms, collects and readings.

Liturgical resources of the Church of England This site inaccessible on 16 October 2002 – please let us know if and when it comes back online Interesting site developed and maintained by Simon Rundell, who is studying for ordination at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield. It includes a downloadable “Liturgical Calendar” file that can be imported into Outlook, where it will then provide the collects and readings for each day. There are also many links to texts, music etc, all relating to Anglican practice.

Christian Copyright Licensing International CCLI administers copyright licensing for hymns and songs for use in and by churches. For an annual fee a church can copy and use the words of many thousands of hymns and songs in a range of different ways. Fee level depends on size of regular congregation, for example 50-99 people, £84 a year. A separate license covers the copying of music – 50-99 people £42 a year.

St Nicolas Church, Newbury The parish church of Newbury town centre has a very active Christian programme and is also the venue for the key symphony concerts in the Newbury Spring Festival.

This month’s message from the Bishop of Winchester Bishop Michael’s thoughts on a matter of topical interest or long term importance, often relating to the seasons of the church year.

International Bible Society The translators of the New International Version, this site has links to many translations, a search engine for different versions, including King James’, Frequently Asked Questions about the Bible, daily reading and many other good things.

Christian Biographies A large collection of short biographies of saints and other Christians, mainly from an anglican/episcopalian perspective. Indexed by name and by date.

Grace before (and after) meals A collection of “grace” prayers suitable for many occasions, brought together by a nice guy called Tim.

The Historic Churches Preservation Trust The Historic Churches Preservation Trust (HCPT) is the leading charity which supports essential repairs to churches of all denominations in England and Wales. It was founded in 1953 to help tackle the damage and enforced neglect brought about by the Second World War. Its income is primarily from donations and legacies.

The Children’s Society Working at the grass roots to reach and help vulnerable children and young people.

Parish of St Mary Bourne Run by St Peter’s church, the new site has been launched in December 2001. It has a map and background on the Parish, history of the church, services information plus links and village directory.

Reader Ministry in the Church of England “Readers” in the Church of England are lay people called by God, trained, and licensed by their Bishop. They lead worship, preach and teach about Jesus and the Christian faith, and encourage effective pastoral care and evangelistic ministry. This site provides a lot of information about the role of Reader, how to become a Reader, selection and training and other apsects.

The Porvoo Agreement Through the Porvoo Agreement (1996), communion was established between the Church of England and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Iceland, the Church of Norway, the Church of Sweden, the Estonian Evangelical-Lutheran Church and the Evangelical Church of Lithuania. The name comes from the Porvoo Cathedral, where the Eucharist was celebrated on the final Sunday of the meetings that led to the agreement. Porvoo is a town in Finland, which traces its history to the 13th Century. The oldest public library in Finland was opened in the Porvoo Grammar School in 1728. Porvoo today has more than 44,000 inhabitants; two thirds speak Finnish, one third Swedish as their first language.

Reader Magazine The magazine for Readers in the Church of England.

A Reader’s Path . . . I’ve started to make jottings about the experience of becoming (perhaps – God willing) a Reader in the Church of England. Horace Mitchell.

Oremus Hymnal Steve Benner’s excellent compilation of “texts and MIDI files of tunes used in much of the English-speaking world, with particular emphasis on the Anglican tradition”. Complete with a seasonal index and suggestions for the current lectionary period.

World Wide Study Bible An amazing resource. Click on the name of a book of the Bible and up comes a collection of links to many reference works about that book.

Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary Just enter the book and chapter, and read this public domain commentary. It can also be downloaded in PDF format. book by book or the whole bible.

Christian Classics Ethereal Library A large and growing collection of Christian texts online for free downloading. Enough reading to keep you going for a lifetime! Also some audio books.

Archbishop Rowan Williams – biography A short profile at the Anglican Communion site.

Sermons from Grace Baptist Church of Canton, Michigan You can search or browse within categories – topics, preacher, biblical text. The focus is today’s preachers.

The Anglican Communion The official web site of the world-wide anglican communion. “Resources and links to information about the work, witness and worship of the Anglican/Episcopal family of churches in over 160 countries around the globe.”

Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version The Oremus Bible Browser provides a simple interface to the New Revised Standard Version and the Authorised (King James) version, plus several versions of the Psalms.

Sermons and lectionary resources Rev. Richard J. Fairchild’s excellent texts, including sermons relating to every chapter in the Bible.

World Council of Churches To which the Church of England belongs.

Reverend Fun Cartoons, postcards, screensavers and the like with a Christian flavour.

Kingdom Seek Search engine listing Christian churches, organisations and companies etc in the UK

The Bible Society (UK) Making the Bible heard and read throughout the world. Formerly the British and Foreign Bible Society, formed in 1804.

Clergy resources United Methodist suggestions at all seasons of the year – lectionary sermons, prayers, meditations, administration aids.

Thousands of Sermons Database of over 5000 sermons and scripture/topical studies donated by preachers.

Simply Christians Australia Bible study website Clear and simple scripture lessons by preacher Ron Graham, with a section “Success in the Pulpit” about how to make and deliver an effective sermon.

WebMinister Helpful ideas and resources about how to use the Internet in ministry.

Search engines and directories This and the following search engines and directories have a particular focus on Christian topics and resources: http://www.botcw.com (Best Of The Christian Web) http://www.crosswalk.com (Cross Walk – geddit?) http://www.iclnet.org (Internet Christian Library) http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/christian-resources.html (Not Just Bibles – A Guide to Christian Resources on the Internet )

The Arthur Rank Centre “An ecumenical partnership between the churches, the Royal Agricultural Society of England and the Rank Foundation. It is the hub of Christian concern for the wellbeing of rural people.” But in the process of having its website redesigned. At present it can be a little difficult to find out what gives without ploughing through lots of “articles”.

Church Computer Users’ Group The CCUG is in the process of creating a more fully functioning website – expected “soon”.

Mike’s History of the Reader Interesting website about the history and present of Readership in the Church of England, but made rather difficult (or perhaps uncomfortable) to read through over-use of typestyle and colour changes, some unfortunate colour contrasts, and some rather busy images.

Christian Theology Page With its main title in Latin (Fides Quaerum Internetum) the site proclaims its focus as “serious Christian theological activity on the Internet”. On the other hand, many of its links are to religious rather than theological sites. A very high proportion of the links are USA.

Centre for Rural Mission Lots of books and pamphlets to order here, plus a useful directory of UK Christian people and organisations engaged in rural activity, but disappointing that there seems to be little in the way of free advice, and – when visited in February 2003 – the diary had last been updated more than a year earlier. One of those web activities started with enthusiasm but overtaken by other pressures, perhaps.

Faith House Bookshop They offer a discount to those being trained for the Anglican ministry but you have to print the form and fill it in by hand!

ChurchNet UK The site is being redeveloped with a view to reopening 31 March 2003.

Anglicans Online A site whose main purpose appears to be explaining the Christian faith and the Anglican church. It has a very large set of links to almost every aspect of the Anglican church world wide (including this site!).

Rural Theology Association There are six “local” groups of the association, widely scattered. There’s a journal, from which very few articles are published online, but free to members. Membership £12. Annual conference – see church diary.

FARM – Faith and Rural Ministry Rather difficult to understand what is the main focus of this site – there are links and the occasional “seasonal worship resource”.

Virtual Religion Index Really excellent site for anyone making a serious study of theological topics, including Christian and other world religions. Unlike most such sites each entry tells you what you will find at the linked site.

Anglican Africa A directory of information about Anglican provinces, dioceses, parishes, theological colleges and other institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Project Canterbury A growing collection of ‘Anglican texts, with emphasis on the Catholic identity of Anglicanism’. Well worth exploring, and invaluable for anyone interested in key stages in the history of the Church of England.

Creating an effective Church Web Site Useful ideas and recommendations to make a church website ‘visitor friendly’, and welcoming to non-Christians.

Church of England Ministry Division A curious site, most of the items seem to be links to other sites, but you only find that out by clicking them! Many of the links are very useful, they relate to all forms of Ministry – ordained and other ‘professional’ ones and ‘lay’ ones. The use of the term ‘professional’ could be called into question! “The Ministry Division is responsible for advising the House of Bishops, the General Synod and individual bishops, and works with dioceses and theological institutions, on matters relating to ministry within the Church of England. This WebSite is designed to assist in this work. In addition however it provides information of general interest about the ministry of the Church of England.”

Lightline Pilgrimages Lightline organises accompanied pilgrimages to biblical and historical sites including Egypt, Greece, The Holy Land, Portugal, Rome, Russia, St Paul’s journeys and Syria & Jordan. Also cruises. It’s sad that their website (and their posters, distributed to churches) is shy about revealing the cost of their programmes. Odd that.

To add or change a link please email info@highclerevillage.com

The layout of this page was last updated on 25 May 2000 The links information is refreshed from our database each time the page is visited