A VILLAGE church is thought to be among the first in the UK to broadcast live video of its Sunday services, christenings, weddings and funerals over the Internet.

Worshippers are logging on from as far away as South Africa, Turkey, Canada and Sweden to see services at St Peter and St Paul Church, Deddington.

They include a Godparent, who saw a Christening 12,000 miles away in her New Zealand lounge.

And residents at Featherton House care home, Deddington, gather around the TV,which is connected to the net, for Sunday services.

The word of God is also piped on to the hospital radio at the Horton Hospital, Banbury, from the 13th Century church.

The Rev Daniel Inman said: “The idea was to reach out to people in the parish who could not get to church.

“We put it up on the Internet – and it’s taken off. People are tuning in from all over the world.”

The brains behind the initiative was village resident and IT specialist David Rogers, who came up with the idea after being asked to work on the church’s website.

He said: “The church had a fantastic sound system and I said why don’t you make recordings of your services? It was a short step to a live broadcast.”

And the computer trickery does not stop there. Church visitors, who step on a special floorboard in the entrance, trigger a computer which shows its history.

l See: www.deddingtonchurch.org