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Content created: 2007-02-28
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Selected Web Links
Relating to Christianity

There are millions of Christianity-related sites on the World Wide Web. Thomas C. Fox's 1997 book Catholicism on the Web was nearly 500 pages long all by itself, and that was in 1997. If the number of sites would make the book keep up, doubling every two years, that would bring such a book to a million pages today.

The present list includes only a few sites that I have visited and that strike me as either useful or interesting or both. Since this page is intended to supplement a UCSD course on the ethnography of Christianity, taught in San Diego, nearly all of the sites are American. A special section is devoted to visitable churches here in town.

Many of these links have rotted out over time and need to be replaced as discovered. Sorry about that.

Shortcuts:
History, Texts, Catholicism, Protestantism,
Forming New Denominations, San Diego Congregations, Miscellaneous



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I. Historical Materials

Medieval Spirituality (jump site)
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~degregor/spirituality.html
Internet Medieval Sourcebook (Public Domain Documents)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html
Project Wittenberg (Materials about Luther & his movement)
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-home.html
Gnosticism
http://www.webcom.com/~gnosis


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II. Bible & Other Texts

American Bible Society
http://www.americanbible.org
Bible Gateway (verse searches)
http://www.gospelcom.net/bible
Latin Prayers
http://home.earthlink.net/~thesaurus/index.htmhttp://home.earthlink.net/~thesaurus/index.htm
Saints & Angels
http://saints.catholic.org
Catholic Resources on the Net (lots of documents)
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Web/People/spok/catholic.html


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III. Catholicism & Orthodoxy

  1. General Resources
    Holy See web site (the Vatican’s official web site)
    http://www.vatican.va
    New Advent Catholic Web Site (jump site)
    http://www.newadvent.org
    Catholic Encyclopedia
    http://www.newadvent.org/cathen
    Catholic web links
    http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/spok/catholic.html
    Marian Library of Dayton
    http://www.udayton.edu/mary
  2. Catholic Orders
    Christ in the Desert Monastery
    http://www.christdesert.org/pax.html
    Monks of Adoration Monstery
    http://www.monksofadoration.org (Features sanctuary picture updated every 60 seconds.)
    Franciscan Timeline
    http://worldmall.com/erf/francisc/francis.txt
    Secular Franciscan Order
    http://www.ofs.it
    Secular Franciscans (USA)
    https://pages.map.com/SecularFranciscanEcology
    Order of Saint Benedict
    http://www.osb.org/osb
  3. Sacred Places & Things
    Shroud of Turin Official Site (Vatican Exhibit)
    http://sindone.torino.chiesacattolica.it
    St. Jude Shrine
    http://www.stjudeshrine.org
  4. Eastern Rite Churches
    Arimathea (Orthodox Christianity jump site)
    http://www.orthodox.co.uk/arimathea.htm
    (The impressive Arimathea site has links to the official sites of most of the Orthodox bodies, and to the eastern-rite Catholic churches.)
    Orthodox Church in America
    http://www.oca.org
    Example: Holy Trinity Cathedral (San Francisco) http://www.holy-trinity.org
    Byzantine Catholic Church in North America
    http://www.byzcath.org.
    (The Byzantine Rite Catholic churches remain in communion with the Vatican, in contast to the Orthodox churches, which do not. The liturgy used by both traditions is essentially identical.)

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IV. Some Protestant Organizations Represented in North America

  1. "High Church" Denominations
    Episcopalians (Anglicans):
    Episcopal Church (Unofficial)
    http://www.mit.edu/~tb/anglican (excellent links)
    Church of England Home Page
    http://www.church-of-england.org
    Franciscan Order of Céli Dé (Anglican Franciscans)
    http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/~jketler/grayfriar.html
    Episcopal Lectionary
    http://www.io.com/~kellywp
    Lutherans:
    Evengelical Lutheran Church in America
    http://www.elca.org
    Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod
    http://www.lcms.org
    Presbyterians:
    Presbyterian Church in America
    http://www.pcanet.org
    Example: Peachtree Presbyterian Church (Atlanta GA)
    http://www.peachtreepres.org (Internet broadcast of regular services.)
    Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
    http://www.pcusa.org
  2. Congregationalists & Similarly Organized Groups
    Congregationalists:
    National Association of Congregational Christian Churches
    http://www.naccc.org
    United Church of Christ
    http://www.ucc.org
    Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
    http://www.disciples.org
    Churches of Christ
    http://www.church-of-christ.org
    Example: Asylum Hill Congregational Church (Hartford CT)
    http://www.ahcc.org (audio sermons)
    Baptists:
    American Baptist Churches
    http://www.abc-usa.org
    Southern Baptist Convention
    http://www.sbcnet.org
    Example: Thomas Road Baptist Church (Jerry Falwell's Congregation)
    http://www.trbc.org
    Methodists:
    United Methodist Church
    http://www.umc.org
    Free Methodist Church of North America
    http://www.fmcna.org
    Evangelical Methodist Church
    http://www.emchurch.org (Caution: This site plays hymns as you browse it.)
    African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
    http://www.amezion.org
    United:
    United Church of Canada
    http://www.uccan.org
  3. Others
    Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) Official Web Site
    http://www.lds.org
    Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Official Web Site
    http://www.rlds.org
    Christian Science Church
    http://www.tfccs.com
    Jehovah's Witnesses site: Watchtower Bible & Trace Society
    http://www.watchtower.org
    Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
    http://www.quaker.org
    Seventh Day Adventists
    http://news.adventist.org/main
    United Pentecostal Church International
    http://www.upci.org
    Example: Dual Highway Church of God
    http://members.aol.com/jhamby1878 (Hagerstown MD) (audio of pentacostalist Rev. Jim L. Hamby's sermons)
    Unitarian-Universalist Association
    http://www.uua.org/main.html
    Example: Univarian Universalist Church of Atlanta http://www.uuca.org
    Worldwide Church of God (publishers of Plain Truth)
    http://www.wcg.org

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V. The Protestant Process: New Denominations

The essential logic of Protestantism is to found new churches when there are differences of opinion on points of faith or practice. As a result there are countless completely independent churches and very small congregations, typically congregational in character or founded by a single pastor and controlled largely by him or her.

In some cases these may be groups of immigrants who conduct religious services in the language of their home country but without affiliation with a larger denomination.

In other, somewhat more interesting, cases these churches define themselves by some social or doctrinal issue that is central to their mission and seems important at the historical moment of their founding. It is sometimes difficult to appreciate how differences that seem trivial today could have been important enough in the past to split churches over. (That is why fusion of separate churches occurs as well as fission of existing ones.)

To suggest the nature of the process, this section is devoted to new denominations derived from one concern of our own era: issues of gender and sexual-orientation.

Various gender and sexual-orientation issues have proven particularly troublesome for mainstream denominations in recent years. For example, Roman Catholicism requires celibate male clergy, but movements have arisen urging that this be changed. Some denominations prohibit female clergy, and again the prohibition is under almost continuous attack and occasional defiance. Most mainstream denominations condemn homosexuality with greater or lesser severity, although sometimes with an outreach. (An example of Catholic outreach is the St. Victor Church http://www.saintvictor.org in Los Angeles. )

Not surprisingly, one finds newly instituted independent churches or small denominations that are founded specifically as a result of such issues.

Here are some examples that emerged from Alta Vista in response to the search string "+Christian +church +gay":

Gay Denominations
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches http://www.ufmcc.com
(A Los Angeles-based and otherwise often rather conservative "gay denomination" of Protestantism.)
Evangelicals Concerned http://www.ecwr.org
(A Seattle-based "non-denominational evangelical resource" for conservative Gay Christians.)
American Apostolic Catholic Church http://www.americanchurch.org/
(A denomination of half a dozen congregations following generally "high church" liturgy.)
Gay Congregations
Freedom in Christ Evangelical Church http://www.freedominchrist-sf.org
(A charismatic congregation in San Francisco.)
Ray of Home Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ http://www.rayofhopechurch.com
(A gay congregation in New York)
White Rock Community Church http://www.whiterockchurch.org
(An otherwise conservative Protestant congregation in Dallas)

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VI. San Diego Churches' Web Sites

Here are links to a few San Diego Churches' Web Sites. This is not a comprehensive list, of course, but merely a way to explore some specific congregations of wider Christian denominations and movements.

Clairemont Covenant Church (Evangelical Covenant
http://www.clairemontcov.org
College Avenue Baptist Church
http://www.cabc.org
Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. Paul
http://www.stpaulcathedral.org
Saint-Johns Episcopal Church (Chula Vista)
http://www.saint-johns.org
Episcopal Church in La Jolla
http://www.stjameshall.com/church.html
First United Methodist Church of SD
http://www.fumcsd.org
(Also check our their jump site page of links to other Christian denominations at http://www.fumcsd.org/fumcsd/relig.html.)
Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist (La Jolla) (Christian Science)
There is a single coordinated web site, the "Christian Science On-Line Reading Room," for all San Diego Christian Science churches: http://www.sdchristianscience.org
Kehilat Ariel Messianic Congregation (Messianic Jews)
http://www.kehilatariel.org
La Jolla Congregational Church (United Church of Christ)
http://www.lajollaucc.org
Orthodox Presbyterian Church
New Life Orthodox Presbyterian Church (La Mesa)
http://www.lsvillage.com/newlife
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church is a conservative branch established in 1936 in reaction to liberalizing changes in the main denomination.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Prebsyterian Church in La Jolla
http://www.ljpc.org
First Presbyterian Church of San Diego
http://www.fpcsd.org
(Complete with streming audio sermons.)
Village Community Church
http://www.villagechurch.org
Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)
New Hope Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church in America)
http://www.newhopesandiego.com/NewHopeMain.html http://www.newhopesandiego.com/NewHopeMain.html
North City Presbyterian Church
http://www.northcitychurch.com http://www.northcitychurch.com
Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church (La Mesa) (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America)
http://www.svlc.org
The Rock Church (Point Loma off Rosecrans) (interdenominational literalist)
http://www.therocksandiego.org
St Pius X Church (Roman Catholic)
http://www.saintpiusx.org

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VII. Miscellaneous Links

History of Stained Glass Windows
http://www.americanvisionwindows.com/the-history-of-stained-glass-windows.php
https://www.bottlestore.com/tracing-the-origins-of-stained-glass-windows (jump site)
Chinese Paintings on Christian Themes (Exhibition Catalog)
http://www.usfca.edu/library/thacher/icons/gallery.html
The Bible in Lego Blocks
http://www.thebricktestament.com.
Bible in Pig Latin
http://www.well.com/user/earl/Ible-bay.html
Tale of an Excommunicated Former Mormon
God and I
Ever wonder how it feels to be excommunicated? This light-hearted piece suggests that it feels great.

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Contemporary Peruvian Miniature Potato-Starch Sculpture of
Archangel Michael Subduing Lucifer