From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org


Cribbs to head Office of Communication


From powellb@ucc.org
Date 20 May 1996 14:41:32

          Here is a UCC press release on Arthur Cribbs, the new exec.
          director of the Office of Communication.

Nov. 9, 1995
Office of Communication
United Church of Christ
Hans Holznagel, press contact
(216) 736-2214

On the World Wide Web:
http://www.apk.net/ucc

California man to head United Church of Christ's
communication office

      CLEVELAND -- The Rev. Arthur Lawrence Cribbs Jr., a news
reporter with the television station KPIX in San Francisco, has
been chosen as the new executive director of the United Church
of Christ's Office of Communication.  He will begin work in that
ministry Jan. 16, 1996, at the UCC's national offices in
Cleveland.
      Cribbs will be responsible for directing and providing
vision for the office's efforts in public relations; marketing
and education; video, radio and media justice; the
denominational newspaper, United Church News; and advocacy
issues such as access to communication technology.  He also will
provide leadership during the UCC's transition into a
restructuring of the national offices of the church.
      Cribbs, 46, of Emeryville, Calif., is no stranger to the
United Church of Christ's national offices.  From 1989 to 1994,
he was secretary for racial and ethnic minority constituency
development and recruitment for the United Church Board for
World Ministries, the overseas mission arm of the denomination.
      Cribbs said he looked forward to working on the church's
internal and external communication tasks.
      "The United Church of Christ is a multiracial,
multicultural denomination," Cribbs said.  "As communicators, we
are charged with representing that diversity and following our
church's motto, 'That they may all be one,' to help proclaim
that we in fact all are one today, even though we may not all be
alike.  Our task is to help us listen to each other as we tell
our stories boldly and clearly.  And our office will help to
reflect those stories accurately throughout and beyond the
church."
      Cribbs will replace current Office of Communication
director Dr. Beverly J. Chain, who is retiring in December after
serving the office for 12 years. 
      While working for the United Church Board for World
Ministries, Cribbs acted as a liaison between the World Board
and the United Church's African Americans, Latinos/Latinas,
Asian Americans, American Indians and Pacific Islanders.  He
recruited people of color to work in the wider church, including
as missionaries.  Various work assignments took him to
Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Marshall Islands, Nigeria,
Senegal, Ghana, Costa Rica, Cuba and Europe.
      Between 1993 and 1994, Cribbs served as a minister in
residence with the Urban Council for Community, sponsored by
four United Church of Christ bodies -- the United Church Board
for World Ministries, the Commission for Racial Justice, the
Office for Church in Society and the United Church Board for
Homeland Ministries -- and by a regional body of the United
Church of Christ, the Southern California Conference, and six
local congregations.  On special assignment in South Central Los
Angeles, Cribbs addressed urban tensions in the wake of the
uprising that followed the April 1992 acquittal of four police
officers in the beating of Rodney King.
      Cribbs also brings to his new post almost 25 years of
journalistic experience.  He began his broadcasting journalism
career in 1971 as a news writer, producer, researcher and
assignment desk assistant at KHJ-TV in Los Angeles. 
      His other church and broadcasting credentials include:

      -- Chicago, Ill., where he was a talk show host for four
Chicago radio stations: WGCI-AM (1989); WVON-AM (1988-1989);
WVAZ-FM, where he was also a news anchor and reporter (1988);
and WBMX-FM, where was also public affairs director, news anchor
and reporter, and correspondent for the Democratic National
Convention (1987-1988).  
      From 1986 to 1989, he also was a news anchor and
contributing editor for Chicago's WMAQ-TV, a contributing      
editor for Chicago's WLS-TV, a contributing editor for two      
television programs produced by the Church Federation of      
Greater Chicago and a national correspondent for Essense      
Television, based in New York City.

      -- The San Francisco Bay area, where he was the senior     
minister's assistant at Oakland's Mills Grove Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) (1985-1986); reporter and Democratic
National Convention correspondent for KTVU-TV, Oakland
(1982-1986); news and public affairs director, talk show host
and news anchor and reporter for KDIA-AM, Oakland (1982-1984);
and morning news anchor, Sunday talk show host, East Bay bureau
chief and reporter for San Francisco?s KGO-TV (1977-1982).

      -- New York City, national television correspondent,
Essence Communications, (1987-1988).      

      -- Jackson, Miss., where he was a member of Tougaloo
Church, United Church of Christ, reporter for WJTV-TV
(1984-1985) and jazz-and-blues disc jockey for WMPR-FM (1984).

      -- Washington, D.C., where he anchored a news program on
the Black Entertainment Television network (1983).

      -- Seattle, where he was a member, worship leader and lay
minister at Prospect Congregational Church, United Church of
Christ (1975-1977); coordinator of youth programs in Washington,
Oregon and Idaho for an ecumenical organization, United
Ministries (1975-1976); and morning news anchor, weekly talk
show host, political and general assignment reporter and
sportscaster for KOMO-TV (1973-1977).

      -- Reno, Nev., where he reported on Indian affairs and
urban politics and was talk show host, sportscaster, camera
operator and film editor for KOLO-TV (1971-1973).

      As a reporter, Cribbs went on location to cover the
effects of the debt crisis in Mexico, the rise of Corazon Aquino
in the Philippines, the independence of Belize and a prison riot
in Canada.
      Cribbs was born and raised in what he calls a "bilingual
barrio-ghetto" of Los Angeles.  At age 13, he became associate
pastor of Golden Rule Missionary Baptist Church, Compton,
Calif., where his father was pastor.  He graduated in 1967 from
Compton's Centennial High School.  In 1968, he joined Western
Knoll Congregational Church (now Morningside United Church of
Christ), Inglewood, Calif., where he became a lay minister and
assistant to the senior minister (1968-1971).
      He earned his M.Div. degree in June 1989 from UCC-related
Chicago Theological Seminary.  He received his B.A. degree in
political science in 1986 from the University of California,
Berkeley, where he took courses from 1978 to 1983 and again in
1986.  He also studied political science and journalism at
Pepperdine College, Los Angeles (1967-1969); El Camino College,
Torrence, Calif. (1971-1972); the University of Washington,
Seattle (1973-1975), and Tougaloo College, Jackson, Miss.
(1984-1985).
      The 1.5-million member United Church of Christ is a 1957
union of the Congregational Christian Churches and the
Evangelical and Reformed Church.  Its Office of Communication
carries out projects to protect the public interest and advance
affirmative action in telecommunications; provides educational
programs in communications; produces videotapes, a radio program
and the UCC's national newspaper; and does public relations and
marketing work for the denomination. 
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