A refreshed digital presence for Sydney’s iconic Cathedral
St Mary’s Cathedral, a spiritual and architectural landmark in the heart of Sydney, required a new website to reflect its prominence and provide an exceptional online experience for parishioners, tourists. Digerati partnered with the Cathedral to create a modern and elegant site that communicates its rich history, and active ministry.
Goals & Expectations
Translate the Cathedral’s reverence and beauty into an intuitive, contemplative online presence
Empower staff to create and manage meaningful content pages with ease
Modernise the events system with a robust calendar, bookings, and integrated digital forms
Designing a Sacred Experience
For a landmark as spiritually significant as St Mary’s Cathedral, our design approach focused on creating a digital experience that reflects its beauty, reverence, and calm. Rather than just delivering information, the goal was to evoke the quiet majesty and spiritual atmosphere visitors experience in person.
To achieve this, we:
- Applied a palette of soft and warm colour palette to reflect the cathedral’s light-filled interiors and create a welcoming, sacred feel.
- Used immersive hero video to gently transport users into the space, bringing the architecture, and presence of the Cathedral to life online.
- Designed layouts that feel calm, and contemplative, allowing the spiritual narrative of the Cathedral to guide the experience.
- Prioritised ease of navigation so users can focus on engaging with services, events, and liturgical life without distraction.
This approach resulted in a site that offers more than just utility – it offers a moment of peace, connection, and beauty. It’s a digital extension of the Cathedral’s mission, welcoming all who visit, whether in person or online.
Flexible content management
To ensure the Cathedral team could confidently manage their digital presence, we implemented a custom WordPress build using the Gutenberg block editor. This provided a flexible, intuitive editing experience, making it easy for administrators to update everyday content such as basic pages, events, and liturgical schedules.
Beyond the basics, we customised tools within the CMS to support the Cathedral’s operational needs. Staff can now manage complex event bookings, approvals, and digital forms – including weddings, tours, and special ceremonies, all from a central dashboard. The result is a robust yet user-friendly system that empowers the team to keep the site up to date and running smoothly, without relying on developer input.
Livestream Mass Integration
To support remote participation, we integrated livestream Masses directly into the homepage. Using a backend scheduling tool, staff can set links and timing so the homepage banner updates automatically before each service. This ensures easy, timely access for online visitors and strengthens connection with the broader community.
Tour Bookings
We transformed the Cathedral’s previously manual tour booking system into a seamless online experience. Visitors can now request guided tours by completing a digital form, making the process easier and more accessible. Behind the scenes, staff benefit from a simplified workflow, allowing them to review, manage, and schedule bookings with greater efficiency and clarity.
Wedding Booking System
A modern booking solution was introduced to replace the Cathedral’s outdated paper-based wedding process. Couples can now submit all necessary details online, while staff have access to a user-friendly backend to review requests, manage approvals, and coordinate dates through an integrated calendar. The result is a smoother experience for everyone involved.
Testimonial
” Working with Digerati on producing a new website for St Mary’s Cathedral, has been a very exciting and positive experience. Tim and his colleagues have been very easy to work with and more than supportive of our requirements and vision.
The team at Digerati are passionate and dedicated, they are very easy to approach, and their problem-solving skills are amazing. Their customer service is exceptional, always going above and beyond to address our requirements.
We highly recommend their services.”
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