Themes under review & Layout thoughts & Plugins

http://www.studiopress.com/demo/church.html <-Mix of more of the right things and happens to be a "church" theme.

http://templatic.com/demo/grace/ <- another church theme that has some merits very "traditional" but with high tech touches.

Next two are similar to above with some slight variation:
http://www.studiopress.com/demo/executive.html
http://www.studiopress.com/demo/corporate.html

http://demo.rockettheme.com/wordpress/?theme=nexus

http://templatic.com/demo/academy/ <- Possibly OKish but pretty barebones

http://templatic.com/demo/reinvent/ <- A little too mellow

http://www.woothemes.com/demo/?name=the-station <-simple lacks search and other items in CSS

http://www.woothemes.com/demo/?name=optimize

http://www.woothemes.com/demo/?name=cushy - Not bad navigation and custom graphics, coloring is wrong for us, like the Welcome To X on the main menu bar

http://www.woothemes.com/demo/?name=flash-news - I like the concept here some of the graphics would need to be altered i.e. chuck schwab style text bubbles.

http://www.wpzoom.com/yamidoo/demo/ <- Fairly good look & feel some behaviors / styling need help

http://demo.rockettheme.com/wordpress/wp_affinity/ - OK but slow draw on dropdown

http://www.woothemes.com/demo/?name=mainstream# - Attractive, simple, clear

http://www.themescloset.com/demo/monograph/ - liked overall clearn/cleanness but did not like the button on/over/in subnav behaviors.  That needs work.  Interesting design idea to have all sharing in far column going vertically.

THINGS TO INCORPORATE / CONSIDER:

• http://ithemes.com/purchase/architect/ <- Not in love with the theme perse but user selctable use case "I am new here" etc.
• http://realestatethemes.com/irealestate/?page_id=26 <-Not the theme perse but the tab selectable box on the right side column could be used for quick above the fold navigation for basic info or RSS feed type info.
• Big Box and smaller box area ads that are graphical but HTML 5/CSS non-flash -- need to make sure they are compatible with the visually impaired + linkable to page/article/post with video that could be embedded.
• Gravitar of Episcopal Shield
• Pagination for longer articles built into the template engine
• BIG Follow Me type links in the header: http://wpzoom.com/magnet/demo/
• EASY to find Search/always there every page.
• Calendar -- this site has a nifty looking one ( http://www.woothemes.com/demo/?name=antisocial )
• Clear design - like the color selected difference in the tab that we want someone to go to -- i.e. buy or in our case Contact Me/Us  ( http://www.woothemes.com/demo/?name=featurepitch )
• Like categorized news feeds listed in the site navigation to help do a quick "sort" of what is there.
• Like how there is a graphic to show subnav level 1 & level 2 different but similar  ( http://templatic.com/demo/productfolio/ )
• Must have BREADCUMBS!!!
• Need to have testemonials and pictures in sidebar
• Member profiles for visitor section

THINGS TO REMEMBER:

• State change/connection for the top level navigation is important to connect with the subnavs -- does not have to be custom/slow graphics preferably CSS styling for faster load times/responsiveness.
• Want to make sure whatever theme that the CSS is setup for maximum SEO i.e. content block high up, etc.
• Social site links in the top area of the page to easily share entire page / link
• Special widgets like: Recent Comments, recent posts and Popular Articles, etc.

FUNCTIONALITY / PLUGIN:

• This might be an excellent feature to consider including the PAID level for our non-RSS folks to get emails on the site as things are added: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe2/
• Do  we want/need a P2 style theme (auto updating / etc.)    http://p2theme.wordpress.com/
• LiveTwit might be an interesting functionality for non-St.A's sites but those aggregating content for the diocese / denomination.