WHEN Andrew Lloyd Webber suggested that churches should have wi-fi, little did he realise that a small Ryedale church is already ahead of the game.

Butterwick Church, near Brawby, was fitted with broadband before Christmas when the villagers decided they had had enough of slow internet access and got together to improve things.

Billy Garrett, who with his son, Glenn, runs “Quiet PC” in Brawby, sorted out the villagers’ connections to Beeline Broadband and suggested to Selwyn Jones, next door neighbour but one to the village church, that he could also put a router in the church building. After speedy contact with churchwardens Mary Tate and Jill Hopkins, the installation was made. Mary said: “It was a chance to bring the church into the 21st Century, so the answer was ‘yes please’.

“We’ve just had the church restored and when the Archbishop of York asked us at our celebratory service what we were going to do with the building, we decided that we needed more than one service a month.

“We’re starting a new gathering for the community, on the second Sunday of every month at 6pm, which will provide time for reflection and meditation, having internet access means we can expand the concept to bring in ideas and people from all over the world, it’s very exciting.”

Jill said that having the internet access meant the church could be used by a wider community.

“There are pockets in our area where farmers and people running small business are often frustrated by slow broadband and we are open to them contacting us with a view to benefitting from the church’s router,” she added.

“The Church of the Holy Epiphany may not be the first church in the country to have a community Facebook page, but it can possibly lay claim to being the first to having wi-fi.”