CHRISTIAN churches in the Worth Valley are employing 21st-century technology to deliver their age-old message during the Covid-19 crisi.

Haworth and Cross Roads Anglican parishes, and West Lane Baptist Church, teamed up to go online with a regular 30-minute joint service that is often watched by people further afield.

Haworth parish curate the Rev Anthony Bennett and Baptist minister the Rev Chris Upton built on their networkiWhat tong experiences through the Churches Together in the Worth Valley team.

The pre-recorded service was first posted on Facebook, but now thanks to Haworth-based IT expert John Sargent it can be seen on YouTube and the church’s respective websites.

Rev. Upton said: “As time has gone by we became increasingly aware that there are many people in our districts who could not see our service, and we wanted to address that issue.

“After our team’s work with John, now anybody who is internet-connected in Cross Roads, Haworth and Stanbury, as well as further afield, can tune in to our service.”

The Rev Bennett said the churches wanted to offer their regular service to a wider audience because it was proving very popular.

He added: “The services often have contributions from the Methodist and Catholic churches, along with many members of the community who are not affiliated to any church at all.

“Having it embedded on front page of our websites is a major development as our service is now just ‘one click’ away and it extends our offering beyond that of Facebook. The service is now going ‘live’ on all the church websites every Sunday.”

For Cross Roads Parish Church click on sjamesparish.org.uk; for Haworth Parish and Stanbury click on haworthchurch.co.uk; and for West Lane Baptist Church click on westlanebaptistcentre.org.uk.

People without a computer can call 01535 286387 at any time to hear the latest Sunday service, which is updated each Sunday at 10.30am.