How’s this for a high tech church?:

A Catholic church is allowing worshippers to light candles in memory of their loved ones over the internet as it seeks to reach out to a broader community.

The church of Santa Maria Regina Pacis di Ostia, 20 miles from the Vatican offers the novel scheme through its website.

Father Don Ludovico Barbangelo, the church’s priest, said that his idea was “well received by the faithful”, and is “a little gesture that helps lots of people”, particularly “those further away from the church” and “the people who can’t come to mass or those who want to maintain constant contact with us, given that the church isn’t open 24 hours a day.”

The scheme has so far proved popular: nearly 700 candles have been “lit”, including one dedicated to victims of this year’s Abruzzo earthquake and another to a missing person.

However the church believes it can expand his virtual worship still further. “We’ve also downloaded some videos of masses. As for worship by video streaming, we’re thinking about it… we’ll see,” Fr Barbangelo told the Ansa news agency.

There’s more at the link.