The American Bible Society (ABS) is giving $5 million to a project intended to link every church in North America to the World Wide Web.

The project--called Houses of Worship (HOW)--aims to enlist every church in the United States and Canada, estimated at more than 300,000. The project expects to offer the opportunity world-wide by the year 2000. Churches which sign up will be offered four free pages on the HOW web site (http://www.housesofworship.net).

Through the Internet and the World Wide Web, project initiators believe, churches can better connect with their members, with each other and with the communities they wish to serve. The project was initiated last year by the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation, an interdenominational agency working on community needs and coordinating a national network of similar agencies in several U.S. cities.