The Internet is jammed-packed with holiday time marketing campaigns touting stress-free shopping, coupons galore and bargain basement prices. Amidst all of the competition, how are churches themselves getting their Christmas messages across and shoppers’ attention?

Perhaps not surprisingly, most of Chenango County’s places of worship have an online presence in the form of a website. Members find the bulletin for the most recent service, a list of regular meetings, contact names, week ahead calendars and newsletters. Many even have Facebook pages.

And Twitter, if a recent announcement from the Vatican inspires them. Beginning Dec. 12, Pope Benedict XVI himself will begin wooing the global Internet generation with Tweets in eight languages. The first will be answers to questions sent to the pope on matters of faith. The account carries a picture of him waving, and its number of followers rose from around 2,400 at the time of the announcement to more than 24,000 just an hour later.