Welsh Unitarian Chapels open for European Heritage Days

Hen Dŷ Cwrdd, Alma Street, Trecynon, Aberdare
10 Sep 10am talk and walk around three sites in Trecynon

Hen Dŷ Cwrdd Unitarian Chapel, Cefn Coed y Cymer
10 Sep, 2pm-4.30pm; 11 Sep, 2.30pm-7pm (service, 6pm)

Yr Hen Gapel, Llwynrhydowen, Llandysul, Ceredigion
18 Sep 3pm-6pm (talks and choir; refreshments at Alltyrodyn Arms)

More details and photos of the Welsh churches

Introduction to social media

Report by Sue Woolley

Lifespan Religious Education Conference 2011
Star Island, New Hampshire, 16 – 23 July 2011
Report on Social Media Workshop by Sue Woolley

Thanks to the generosity of the Manchester Academy Trust and the Hibbert Trust, I was able to attend this conference. The basic structure of our own Hucklow Summer School is based on this Unitarian Universalist conference, so many elements were familiar to me: the morning devotions, the daily theme talk, the compulsory morning workshops, optional afternoon activities, and lantern-lit procession to evening worship.

The morning workshop that I attended was led by the dynamic Peter Bowden, who is a “church growth consultant and Unitarian Universalist change agent” (to quote himself) who has dedicated his life to helping UU congregations to understand social media and to use them effectively. His blog (which is well worth looking at) is UU growth. I am writing the workshop up without much comment, as the things he was telling us are just as relevant to Unitarian congregations in the UK as to UU congregations in the US, if not more so.

Read the rest of the report →

Reasonable contrast on web pages

For accessibility reasons, it's best to have high contrast text on a non-patterned background.

However, if you must have a fancy background, or you need a widget to turn off the styling of other people's sites, here's a neat bookmarklet that you can drag to your browser toolbar.

B on W

(via 456 Berea Street)

There are also browser add-ons for accessibility that you can get to help you test the contrast of a page.

How to add a favicon to your blog

What's a favicon?
In some browsers, it appears before the web address in the address bar; in others, it appears on the tab where your blog is displayed. It also appears next to the name of your blog if it is listed in someone else's blog-roll.

Making your favicon
You will need a graphics package such as Gimp to do this.

1. Find or create a square image - usually your logo. 
2. Reduce it in size to 16 by 16 pixels.

Adding your favicon

1. Go to the design view in your blog (click on design at the top right)
2. Just underneath the heading "Add and arrange page elements" it says "favicon". 
3. Click on the edit link next to favicon
4. Upload your newly-created square 16 x 16 image

Darling Buds

Darling Buds is the blog of Nelly Hench, from Octagon Unitarian Chapel in Norwich. She blogs about life, spirituality, home education, church services and much more. She is also a fan of Julian of Norwich, it seems.

Sound Systems

Just saw this article in UU World: Sound Systems for Better Sunday Worship

It makes some good points about why proper sound and video systems help with a sense of community and inclusion.

Unitarian Society for Psychical Studies

The Unitarian Society for Psychical Studies Annual Conference is on 24th September at Warwick. Cost £17.