My 1st website, "critique"??

Oh yeah, the side color bars reflect the Liturgical season, I have to tone down the purple yet but at this moment I’m having issue with formatting in Dashboard… ~)

Its a functional website. Changing the color of the background can be bad since it messes up with the basic color scheme of the theme. I can’t say I’m a fan of black purple and orange, but that’s just a personal preference.

Maybe you should try simply adding a graphic on top of the original website banner during seasons.

Hi, I am print journalist doing the same …

From a design view, your site is shouting. White on black is difficult for long reads and best used sparingly and for emphasis. The emphasis here should be on the masthead, and image of the church. The background is too strident, and diluting content. I would keep it simple. All the best.

First and foremost, that neon purple background is tough on the eyes. You can pick out a more pleasant, toned down purple here:

https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_colorpicker.asp

The purple background color is difficult to look at without sunglasses. You might want to tone it down a bit.
Otherwise, it looks nice.

Too dark! I would use a very light grey behind black text, and a lighter purple on the sides. Making the medium grey nav bar a bit thinner would also be nicer.

Loading time is too much….If you’ve used some heavy scripts try avoiding it.