NEW YORK -- As more churches turn to electronic options such as e-mail and automated bank transfers for receiving tithes and offerings, many are debating whether to accept credit cards.

At least one financial services company, ParishPay, has found acceptance among Catholic parishes, according to The New York Times.

The Diocese of San Jose will announce this week that it will offer electronic and credit card service to its 600,000 parishioners through ParishPay, according to the Times. The Archdiocese of Chicago is preparing to offer the same service from ParishPay in the country's third-largest Roman Catholic diocese.

"When people commit to give regularly to the church, they are much more likely to get involved in other activities of the church," said Joe Mohen, a practicing Catholic who founded ParishPay.

The Queens, N.Y.-based company charges a 1 percent fee plus $1 monthly per donor to process credit card charges and automatic bank payments. The money is withheld from the donations. An online donation service is available at the company's Web site.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, with 1.2 million parishioners, was one of ParishPay's first clients. If a pilot program in 20 of its parishes proves successful, the archdiocese will offer the services to all 520 parishes by early 2003.

Other denominations, though, are steering clear of electronic giving, according to the Times.

"God says you bring the offering as an act of worship," said Jack Wilkerson, the Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) vice president for business and finance.

The SBC does not permit electronic giving.

"My concern is, we're trying to approach a spiritual problem in the heart of people mechanically," Wilkerson said. "One of these days we're going to wake up and say, ‘What happened to our churches?'"