By Rosemary O’Connor and Lois Rogers | Correspondents

“Advent is the season of possibilities” reminded Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., in formally opening the diocesan-sponsored Digital Church Conference Dec. 5 in St. Gregory the Great Parish Hall, Hamilton Square. 

To see photo gallery on this story, click here.
To view video clip on this story, click here.

Addressing the more than 120 representatives from parishes, schools and organization from across the Diocese, Bishop O’Connell said, “Today we will talk about what can be.  We want to recognize the possibilities and capture some of them to make them realities.”

The conference featured leading experts in the field of Catholic web and social media who provided attendees with concrete techniques to utilize various social media platforms to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

 “The world is changing rapidly and it’s changing because of technology,” Bishop O’Connell said. “What we are doing today is part of the mission we have, the time has changed and we have to change with the times or we’ll get lost.” He continued, “So we have to take hold of this great transformation, this great information society in which we live.

Brandon Vogt, content director for Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles Robert Barron’s “Word on Fire” ministry, told attendees that “There are so many ways we can use the new media, but the Church’s mission is evangelization; helping people to come and encounter the Lord Jesus.”

Throughout the day, attendees were encouraged to text, tweet, and post questions during the day using the hashtag #DigitalChurch, as a means of sharing and curating information.

Sterling Hardaway, who works for RENEW International, a Catholic ministry organization, was enthusiastic for the Conference.

“I came to the Digital Church Conference to really learn more about new media outlets and really develop a strategic plan for Catholic organizations and how we can connect our faith and action through the outlets of social media,” he said. “We have so much technology out there and I think it’s a great way to really reach out to people and evangelize.”

Matthew Warner, CEO of mass-messaging service Flocknote.com, asked everyone to consider the focus on the mission of digital media. “It's not do you have a mission,” he said. “It's are you on a mission? Are you doing something people care about.”

At several points during the conference, team members emphasized that they were on a mission – indeed, a mission that was vitally important in their family lives. That they shared insights about their families came as a pleasant surprise to Filippini Sister Elizabeth Dalessio.

“When you go to one of these conferences, you usually don't usually hear life stories,” she said. “But each of these men told their own Gospel story” about their commitment and their vision of it as their mission. “That hit a chord with everyone,” she said.

The Diocese of Trenton Office of Communications moves forward in empowering parishes and schools to use social media, staff members introduced a new social media policy, which will made available on the site www.URCalled.com.

As someone who has been “online for over 15 years,” Sister Elizabeth said, “it was wonderful to see the diocese take the lead and be aware that digital media is one way to reach out, listen and evangelize.”

The day provided those in ministry an opportunity to network with one another, to become well-versed in technological language and ways to engage and open lines of communication with members of our Church family.

In his afternoon presentation, Warner offered a series of simple steps parishes can use to help build a social network and create meaningful relationships: use multiple social networks, start simple and be consistent; ask or tell people to connect with you; don't forget to email and check your email – it is still one of the three top ways to connect with people; leverage 'touch points' – Easter, Christmas and Ash Wednesday.

Warner noted that Ash Wednesday is the single most highly attended day of the religious year. Above all, he said, realize that it is “not all about you. You need lots of interaction, inspiration, conversation and information.”

Olive Taylor, director of marketing for St. Aloysius Church and School, said that the conference left her optimistic about what could be accomplished. She appreciated the simple yet wide-ranging approach of encouraging “whatever you do – from emails, to articles to bulletins, to blogging to tweets to videos. That really made it for me. I've been to conferences where all they talked about was Facebook and this approach really [appealed] to me,” said Taylor.

“After attending the conference, a few of us from St. Aloyisus collectively agreed we need to step up the video presence” on the parish media sites, she said. “If you do a video well, you can get the point across.”

In addition to Vogt and Warner, Josh Simmons, founder and CEO of eCatholic; and Michael Marchand, founder of ParishDesigner.com, lead the group in dynamic activities and gave away prizes throughout the day, including website design subscriptions and other programs to better connect the new media with the new evangelization.

Nanci Bachman also recognizes the need to better connect with those in her parish of St. David the King, West Windsor, and beyond, to continue to catechize and evangelize.

“I am really excited because next week we are launching a program for returning or lapsed Catholics,” she explained “This is perfect for us to find out the media we should be using, how to get the message out there that we have this great program. It’s really an exciting time.”