iCalendar and Subscriptions

TimelyChurch can both publish your church calendar to the outside world (so your website visitors and members can subscribe in their personal calendar app) and import other calendars (so events from a denominational, partner, or community calendar appear inside TimelyChurch).

This article covers three closely related but distinct features:

1. Public calendar embed -- An iframe widget you drop into your church website.
2. Outbound iCal feeds -- Live .ics URLs that Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, and Outlook can subscribe to.
3. Inbound calendar subscriptions -- Pull events from external .ics URLs into TimelyChurch on a schedule.

Tip: For one-time .ics exports of a single event, a single series, or a date range, see the iCalendar Export and Import section. The export there is a static snapshot. The subscription feeds in this article stay live and update as events change.

1. Public Calendar Embed

The public calendar is a self-contained widget you can embed on your church's website using an iframe. Visitors can browse all your public events without an account.

Embed URL

https://your-app-domain.com/c/{churchSlug}/calendar

Query Parameters

The embed accepts these optional query parameters to customize what visitors see:

Example Embed Code

<iframe
  src="https://your-app-domain.com/c/grace-community/calendar?types=worship,event&view=month"
  width="100%"
  height="700"
  frameborder="0"
  title="Grace Community Calendar">
</iframe>

What Visitors See

The embed shows only events that are marked both Public and Active, filtered by the types parameter and the date range currently in view. Clicking an event opens its public detail page.

2. Outbound iCal Feeds (Subscribe From Outside)

Your church calendar is exposed as a live iCalendar feed at two URLs:

Both feeds include events from one month ago through one year ahead, limited to public, active events only.

Subscribe in Apple Calendar (macOS / iOS)

1. Copy your church's subscription URL: https://your-app-domain.com/c/grace-community/calendar.ics
2. Mac: Open Calendar, then choose File > New Calendar Subscription.... Paste the URL and click Subscribe.
3. iOS: Open Settings > Calendar > Accounts > Add Account > Other > Add Subscribed Calendar. Paste the URL and tap Next.
4. Set the auto-refresh interval (Apple recommends every 1 hour or daily).

Subscribe in Google Calendar

1. Open Google Calendar in a browser.
2. In the left sidebar under Other calendars, click the + icon and choose From URL.
3. Paste the subscription URL: https://your-app-domain.com/c/grace-community/calendar.ics
4. Click Add calendar.

Note: Google Calendar only refreshes external .ics subscriptions every several hours. Do not expect changes in TimelyChurch to appear in Google instantly.

Use a computer for this one. The Google Calendar app on Android and iPhone cannot add a calendar by URL at all -- the option only exists in a browser. Add the subscription once on a computer and it then appears in the phone app automatically, on the same Google account. This is the most common reason someone thinks subscribing is broken: they tap the link on their phone, Google does nothing, and they end up downloading a one-time file instead.

Subscribe in Microsoft Outlook (desktop or web)

1. Outlook on the web: Click Add calendar > Subscribe from web. Paste the subscription URL and click Import.
2. Outlook desktop: Choose Add Calendar > From Internet, paste the URL, and click OK.

Filtering by Event Type -- Embed Only

The types parameter documented in section 1 applies to the embed page. It does not filter the .ics feeds: a subscription always contains every public, active event in the window. If you need a filtered feed, say so in a support request rather than adding ?types= to a subscription URL, which is silently ignored.

Helping Someone Subscribe

Anyone can subscribe. No TimelyChurch account or login is required -- the feed is public, and the person you send it to does not need to be a member, sign in, or create anything.

If someone says "it only downloaded the events, it doesn't update", one of these is almost always why:

The path that always works, on every device and every app: copy the subscription URL from the bottom of the Subscribe box and paste it into the calendar app's Add calendar / From URL / Subscribe field.

Changes you make in TimelyChurch reach subscribers on their app's refresh schedule, not instantly. Google in particular can take several hours. That is a Google behaviour, not a delay on our side.

3. Inbound Calendar Subscriptions (Pull Into TimelyChurch)

You can also subscribe TimelyChurch to an external calendar feed. This is useful when:

• A denominational body publishes a shared events calendar.
• A partner church wants to share their calendar with you.
• You want a community/civic events calendar to appear alongside your own.

External events are imported into TimelyChurch and shown on your admin calendar. They can optionally be auto-published to your public calendar as well.

Where to Manage Subscriptions

Navigate to Settings > Calendar Subscriptions in the admin area.

Adding a Subscription

Click Add Subscription and fill in:

When you save, TimelyChurch validates the URL is reachable and contains valid iCalendar data, then runs an immediate first sync.

How Sync Works

• Each subscription has a sync interval that determines how often TimelyChurch refetches the feed.
• During a sync, events from the external feed are matched by UID. New events are created, existing events are updated, and events that disappear from the source are deleted.
• Imported events are tagged with the subscription, so you can always tell which are local vs. external.
• Click Sync Now on any subscription to force an immediate refresh.

Removing a Subscription

When you delete a subscription, you choose what happens to the events it imported:

• Keep imported events -- Detach the events from the subscription so they become regular local events.
• Delete imported events -- Remove all events that came from this subscription.

Security Notes

• Calendar subscriptions can only be managed by users who have permission for the Calendar feature.
• External feed URLs are validated before they are added, so this feature cannot be misused to fetch arbitrary URLs.

Choosing the Right Tool