|PIC1|A creative new experience in using the Bible has been launched by Scripture Union to resource Christians with a wide range of creative approaches to God's Word.

The WordLive website went live on New Year's Day and provides online users with free audio Bible passages, video clips, worship songs and prayer activities, as well as a daily Bible reading and explanatory note.

Scripture Union, which specialises in printed Bible reading guides, has developed its first digital Bible experience to make engagement with God's Word easier and more accessible to more people.

Chief Executive Keith Civval reckons WordLive is probably Scripture Union's most significant development for a generation.

"Our vision is for every 21st century Christian to be engaging enthusiastically with the Bible and growing in their faith," says Keith.

"WordLive engages with today's generation, who live a lot of their lives online, so we're meeting them where they are."

WordLive, a year in the making, is a response to a 36 per cent growth in internet use in the past five years. Government statistics show that in Britain today 15 million households (61 per cent) are connected to the internet, a rise of four million on 2002. And while three-quarters of users are under 50, almost 20 per cent of over-65s surf the net. Many other people access the internet at school, in their office and in public libraries.

"We believe WordLive will help to bring God's Word alive across the generations," says Keith. "We're able to give people access to whole range of multi-media ways into the Bible that we haven't been able to do before in print.

"The beauty of WordLive is the freedom to use a whole range of different approaches to the Bible, however, whenever and wherever you want to use them."

WordLive, designed for personal use but also usable by groups, enables people to sign up for a daily WordLive email, or access WordLive through a mobile phone.

The website is also updated every day with new notes, images, videos and audio, and it also boasts an extensive searchable archive of material.

Go to www.wordlive.org for more information.