W hether a highway or an alien landscape, though, the Internet has treasures to be found by the diligent seeker. This article is a very basic introduction to navigating the web and finding some of the treasures (greater and lesser) that are of specific interest to Episcopalians.

The article presumes that readers have access to the web through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). If you don't have an ISP already, there are any number of them available, from the national providers (America Online and Erols, for example), to small local companies. The best way to find one that's right for you is to ask your Internet-literate friends or family members. However, be sure your ISP gives you unlimited Internet access for a flat monthly fee. Online hours can add up quickly, especially as you find more resources to use in your professional, prayer and/or personal life.

There are a number of ways to wander the web, of which I'll discuss two. The first way to search the Internet is by using what is called a "search engine." These are the online equivalent of library card catalogs: Websites are sorted and indexed by title or contents. To find sites of particular interest, you simply type in a search (usually a word or phrase) and the engine will respond with sites that match the query.

One of the best-organized search engines is Yahoo (www.yahoo.com), which has tens of thousands of sites indexed by topic and subtopic in ever-increasing specificity. Typing in the words "Episcopal," for example, produces a list of 88 categories and 814 individual sites.

Other search engines include Alta Vista (www.altavista.com), Infoseek (www.infoseek.com), and more. One difficulty with these other engines is that they have limited or no indexing, but generally return every site in which the search word is mentioned. An Alta Vista search for "Episcopal" returned 373,800 matches! Each search engine has its own method of narrowing searches. However, in general, adding additional words to the search will reduce the number of sites that match.

The second method to wander the Web I call the "Serendipity Method." This is the way to wander the Internet if you have no particular destination in mind but simply want to explore an area of interest. All you need to begin is a good starting point.

What makes a good site? It's one that has something of interest in itself, but more, it has links to other sites. On an Episcopalian search, one of the best places to start is at the website for the national church (www.ecusa.anglican.org). At this site, you can read the canons of the Episcopal Church, learn about General Convention activities, and obtain links to a myriad of related Anglican and ecumenical sites. There is a detailed, well-indexed set of links to the homepages of dioceses and parishes. Oddly enough, there isn't a great deal of information about what the Episcopal Church is or believes; fortuitously, however ...

Clicking on the Anglicans Online link (www.anglican.org/online) takes you to a voluminous site maintained by the Society of Archbishop Justus, with a variety of useful resources for learning about the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church. The site includes everything from brief discussions of church history to many different lists of links. One of these links takes you to ...

The home page of the Mission of St. Clare (www.missionstclare.com), a cyber parish that is a wonderful online source for the Daily Office. If you have only a few minutes once you reach the St. Clare site, you may want to just click on ...

The link to the day's Forward Day by Day reading (www.forwardmovement.org/fdd1.html). Moving to the homepage for Forward Day by Day, you would find a link to the Episcopal Church homepage, thus concluding your wandering where you began.

Information is being added to the Internet at a remarkable rate. These days, everything from the Book of Common Prayer to the Tagalog-language Bible to the musings of the early Church Fathers is accessible by clicking a button - if you can find it.

So, by logic or by serendipity, wander the web for a while. The more familiar you are with navigating this complex highway, the more of these treasures you will find. o

Julie B. Murdoch is a member of Holy Trinity Church, Bowie, Md., and a consultant on drug-free workplace programs.