Archdiocese launches a simpler website for a more complex age

Shortly after becoming archbishop of Vancouver in 2009, Archbishop J. Michael Miller made a bold announcement: the archdiocesan website would become the primary communications vehicle of the Church in Vancouver.

In an age when fax, phone, and mail were still central to church communications, focusing on web communications was an ambitious decision that would shake up how the Church in Vancouver connected with Catholics.

The archdiocese rolled out its new website later that year, and the site reflected that ambitious goal of providing information about the local Church and serving as a tool of evangelization.

Archbishop Miller saw the site as a response to Pope John Paul II’s call for a new evangelization that would open the doors of Christ to the world. It would offer “new ways of sharing the Gospel message of hope in a way that is readily accessible, inspiring, and challenging” by providing tools to invite people into relationship with the Church.

Not only were the goals huge, so was the site. Over time, the official face of the archdiocese became all things for all people, offering Mass times, statements, multimedia, social media, news, events, jobs, and evangelization opportunities as it strived to connect Catholics in the Lower Mainland with all things Catholic.

In recent years, the archdiocese began reflecting.

Archbishop Miller was emphasizing Pope Francis’ universal call to missions announced in 2017. A decision was made locally to launch a new evangelization movement – Proclaim, rolled out last year – for the estimated five per cent of Catholics considered to be missionary disciples, helping them guide other disciples in moving forward in faith.

It was clear the archdiocese’s website was being overtasked in trying to be an administrative homepage and the principal tool of the new evangelization. Proclaim needed its own place in the digital ecosystem of the archdiocese, as would Behold Vancouver, a new community site the archdiocese began developing for people who have a desire to seek God but perhaps haven’t experienced him in a personal way or are seeking answers to major life questions. 

So the official administrative face of the archdiocese got a rebuild. The result, launched last week, is a website that is more attractive, inviting to navigate, and easy to understand. Gone are the intimidating drop-down menus that required specialized knowledge of Church hierarchy.

The biggest change is a new and robust search feature, which is front and centre in recognition of the fact people usually land on an archdiocesan site externally through links, emails, invitations, or notifications. Many are not familiar with Church structure and they don’t want to engage in a hunting expedition to find basic information.

The robust search function offers “forgivable” searching that allows for spelling mistakes and provides a broad range of responses to a query. If a visitor searches for “marriage,” for example, results include marriage preparation, marriage encounter, Retrouvaille, and an upcoming parenting program.

Search results on the new website provide a range of results for visitors who may be looking for various information. 

Results can be filtered by various RCAV sites, including Proclaim, parish sites, and the new Behold Vancouver community site, which was rolled out in May and is for the majority of Catholics looking for deeper aspects of their faith, or simply to reach out and connect with someone else in the Church.

Simplifying the new site was a major goal, said Makani Marquis, senior director of communications for the archdiocese. In essence it came down to “streamlining content to what’s most useful and relevant to people.”

That meant first and foremost providing a smarter, more useful search experience, as well as a better mobile experience and more focused content for the official side of the Church, while letting the other sites like Behold, Proclaim, and The B.C. Catholic focus on their mandates of offering community, evangelizing, and sharing stories.

“We identified that roughly over half our content was outdated or un-trafficked,” said Marquis, who with B.C. Catholic columnist Peter Vogel put the archdiocese on the world wide web back in 1998 and has had a role in every incarnation since.

“We also rid ourselves of a lot of extraneous content that exists elsewhere on the web, like pages of Catechism references.”

The more-focused approach means each of the four online facets of the archdiocese can do their unique role, said Marquis.

• The Archdiocese of Vancouver site is the official face of the archdiocese, connecting it with parishes, priests, parishioners, and ministry leaders looking for resources and information, archdiocesan services, news, ministries, statements, jobs, etc. Visit the archdiocese at rcav.org and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn as @archvancouver. 
• Behold is the community site for the 95 per cent of Catholics who are seeking answers to deeper questions about faith, happiness, and the meaning of life, and for anyone else who wants to explore meaningful topics in response to their longings and felt needs. Visit Behold at beholdvancouver.org and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as @beholdvancouver.
• The B.C. Catholic is the news and information site, sharing stories that reveal the heart of Jesus and draw people to him and his Church. Visit The B.C. Catholic at bccatholic.ca and on Facebook and Twitter as @bccatholic.
• Proclaim is the new evangelization movement to awaken disciples in Vancouver and help them proclaim Jesus with an effective support system that reaches all disciples. Visit Proclaim at weareproclaim.com and through our Facebook group, Instagram, YouTube channel, and podcast as @weareproclaim. 

Of course ultimately, it’s worth recalling a comment by former Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications Msgr. Paul Tighe, who said evangelization is not about tools. Christianity is an “incarnational religion” based on people and friendship, not technology. The Archdiocese of Vancouver has provided the technology. Now it’s up to all of us to provide the incarnational aspect.