Almost 20 million Americans have used the Internet to find spiritual and religious information, and churches are also benefiting from the communications power of the Web.

According to the latest survey by the Pew Internet Project, 33 percent of online blacks and 20 percent of online whites sought spiritual and religious information. Middle-aged African-American women are the most likely to turn to the Web for religious purposes. Meanwhile, almost 91 percent of respondents said that email had helped congregation members and church staff to keep in touch with each other. Church websites were most commonly used for encouraging visitors to attend (83 percent), linking to scripture studies (60 percent), posting schedules, and other internal meeting details (56 percent). Two-way interactive features such as online spiritual discussions were less common. Churches used email and online cards to recruit new members. They have also used the Web to provide spiritual material for the deaf, offer worship services for the gay community, and to communicate with geographically distant congregation members working in the military or attending college. The survey was based on responses from 1,309 Christian, Jewish, and Unitarian Universalist congregations from 49 US states.