St Pixels on Facebook

The interactive Church of St Pixels becomes part of Facebook thanks to this new application. Visitors don't have to leave the site to experience online church and it only takes a couple of clicks to get there. It looks part of the main site and by using Facebook profiles there is no need to go through a registration cycle to use this innovative app.

Visitors to the new St Pixels experience can chat to each other and share the service together which appears on the screen. The sermon and readings come through recorded audio as well as onscreen text. There's even a real-time feedback meter which lets the visitor click "Amen" or "Zzzz" buttons during the service - so everyone will see if the preacher's joke was as funny as he thought.

Speaking at the first Facebook service will be Andrew Graystone, director of the Church and Media Network. 'We have 600 million "neighbours" on Facebook,' said Andrew. 'St Pixels on Facebook means 600 million Facebook users now have a church in their pocket. I congratulate St Pixels on reaching an amazing milestone. So much love, work and care has gone into this unique community and I have been a beneficiary of it.'

St Pixels was formed in 2006 after a pilot project by webzine Ship of Fools. Its first live Facebook service will be hosted in the Web and Media Zone at CRE, Europe's biggest annual exhibition of Christian resources.

Some 400 exhibitors will be at CRE (10-13 May), often dubbed 'the ideal church show'. The biggest exhibition of any kind at Sandown Park each year, all three floors of the venue will once again be packed with colourful and vibrant stands - from architects to organ suppliers, heating specialists to sound system engineers. Steady growth over the past decade has seen attendances rise to an impressive 13,000 over the event's four days – at time when many secular shows are struggling to survive.

The St Pixels Facebook app was designed by Mark Howe, with additional programming by Dark Green Media and artwork by Carousel Digital.