Cyber-Sermon Surfers are volunteers who search the Internet
for potential cyber-sermons for the WWCC to distribute.
While they are at it, they also identify
sermon lists already on the Internet
which might be linked from the Cyber-Sermon Registry:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/Y-SERNET.html

    Each month, the subscribers of WWCC-L
are asked in a special mailing,
which of the several proposals for cyber-sermons
they would like to read next.
The proposal with the most votes is distributed the following month
as the cyber-sermon of the month.

     The UU movement produces
literally hundreds of new sermons each week.
At least one or two of these should be appropriate for
transformation into cyber-sermons to be distributed by e-mail
and posted on the website of the World Wide Unitarian Universalists.
And ministers who write their sermons on computers
will find it especially easy to create much shorter versions.

    Volunteers among the members and subscribers of the WWCC
scout the Internet to find potential proposals for cyber-sermons.
There are already over 25,000 full-length UU sermons
posted on the home pages of the various congregations of the UUA.

    To find the best candidates for cyber-sermons,
go to the following URL to begin browsing for good sermons:
http://www.uua.org/CONG/congmain.html
This URL a listing of UU congregations with websites.
They are organized alphabetically by state or province.
Within each state or province,
they are alphabetical by city or town.

    In order to avoid duplication of effort,
Cyber-Sermon Surfers choose one or two states
as their primary hunting ground.
These are listed here:

    James Park has surfed all of the Prairie Star District:
Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska,
North Dakota, South Dakota, and  Wisconsin.
(The eastern part of Wisconsin is in the Central Midwest District,
but it is more convenient to do the whole state,
which is the way the list of congregations is organized by the UUA
and by the Cyber-Sermon Registry.)

    These 8 states have 46 congregations with websites.
12 of these had sermons posted on their websites.
If his proportion holds for other states,
about 25% of congregations with websites
will have full-length sermons posted for all to read.

    James Park has now completed
the states of Illinois and Texas.
He has also claimed as his territory
all English-language websites outside the United States,
which are mostly in Canada.

{So far, all other areas are unclaimed.
To claim another area—a state, part of a state, or several states, etc.—
indicate your area to the webmaster,
James Park: PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU ,
who will post it here to avoid duplication of effort.}

    Cyber-Sermon Surfers should encourage the minister or webmaster
to have their local collection of full-length sermons added to
the comprehensive listing of full-length sermons on the Internet:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/Y-SERNET.html
Simply follow the style set by the previous listings:

Full Name of the congregation
Geographical location of the congregation, including country
URL that leads directly to the sermon list
Approximate number of sermons in the collection
Name of the minister or ministers

     When a Cyber-Sermon Surfer locates a full-length sermon
that might be appropriate as a cyber-sermon for the WWCC,
he or she should send an e-mail to the author
explaining what a cyber-sermon is
and encourage him or her to create a one-page proposal
(a synopsis and outline of the proposed cyber-sermon)
which can be published on the WWCC home page
and distributed to subscribers and members
in the next monthly newsletter.
This process of making a proposal is explained more fully here:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/YO.html
This URL also lists several proposals already received.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.