IF preachers "click away", as suggested in the article in the Evening News (Monday, April 7) in order to get their sermons from the web, then their congregations will know.

People will be able to tell when the preacher is speaking from experience, and relating it to exposition of scripture, rather than just reading someone else's words.

The idea of "sermons on the web" is not new. They have been around for a number of years. There are many books written on "Sermons to Preach" and the web is just another resource, perhaps useful for additional material.

Incidentally, the web page suggested for "last-minute sermons" is not versatile and all encompassing, and at £8 a time, it costs money that few clergy can afford. Is this the commercialisation of God?

If it became standard practice for preachers to preach words from the web then maybe some people would stay away from church and read up the sermon for themselves on the internet, rather than listen to the "reader" in the pulpit. Hardly the way to inspire and encourage church attendance.

For those of us charged with speaking God's word to our congregations, and called by God to this task, we should study scripture, interpret the meaning, pray about it and relate it to the 21st Century and to the congregation we are serving.

This should be in addition to offering a challenge and a Christian approach to people who are seeking a meaning to life and death.

JANET WOOD,

Methodist Lay Preacher,

Worcester.