How do I subscribe to a Hatfield Christian Church RSS feed & Podcast?

1. Set up a program to read RSS feeds eg. MS Outlook 2007 or click on a button below to download FeedReader3 or iTunes.
   
         
2. Create a new channel in your RSS reader program with the URL of the feed to which you'd like to subscribe. Each RSS reader program has its own way of subscribing to a feed, so follow the instructions for whichever program you're using.
   - The URL for our Weekly Sermon Synopsis RSS & Podcast feed is http://www.hatfield.co.za/sermons/rss/sermon.xml

3. Once you've created your new channel, you are subscribed to that feed and will receive new content automatically whenever it is posted. Enjoy!
   
   
   

What is a RSS Feed & Podcast?
RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication,' and is a popular way for websites to syndicate their content. A podcast is a digital media file (usually audio and video) that is distributed over the internet using a RSS feed for playback on portable media players and personal computers.

Hatfield Christian Church publishes Weekly Sermon Synopses in an RSS feed. When you subscribe to our RSS feed, you can receive our Weekly Sermon Synopsis and Podcast (audio version - mp3) as soon as it is published every week, without the need to visit our website. You will find the podcast (mp3) at the bottom of the feed page. Subscribing to an RSS feed is free.

RSS is similar to e-mail in many ways. Like e-mail, you can subscribe to the content you want and have it sent directly to you. However, RSS has several advantages over e-mail in that you don't have to provide any personal information (like an e-mail address) when you subscribe to an RSS feed, and you don't have to go through a complicated process to unsubscribe from a feed - unsubscribing is just a matter of deleting that feed. In short, RSS is safer and easier to manage than e-mail.

How do I read an RSS feed?
In order to read an RSS feed, you'll need to use a program that can receive and read RSS. Some e-mail programs (such as Thunderbird) have the ability to read RSS feeds built-in, and there are programs available to add RSS-reading capability to other e-mail programs like MS Outlook 2007. However, many people use programs called RSS readers to manage and read their RSS subscriptions. There are many RSS readers available for all computer platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.), and many of them are free. One of the more popular free RSS readers is FeedReader; there are many others available to try out, as a Google search will reveal.

If you don't want to use a separate program to read RSS feeds, there are several web-based services that let you read and manage RSS feeds online using your normal web browser. Bloglines is one such service.