wfn.org | NCC/UMC Will Offer Message on Holland Tunnel Billboard

["Nat'l Council of Churches" <nccc_usa@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of Churches
NCC8/27/02
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

National Council of Churches, United Methodists
Will Offer Messages on Holland Tunnel Billboard
To Commuters Entering NYC Near Terrorist Site

NEW YORK-- The National Council of Churches and United Methodist
Communications will present a special series of 15-second messages of hope
and encouragement throughout the month of September to commuters traveling
into New York City through the Holland Tunnel.  The 9-lane, 1.6-mile-long
tunnel under the Hudson River emerges in lower Manhattan near the World
Trade Center site.

The messages will be projected from a state-of-the-art electronic
billboard -- a "Jumbotron" screen similar to those in Times Square --
positioned at the toll-booth entrance to the tunnel, where traffic is
frequently backed up, waiting to enter.  The sign is normally used for
commercial advertising.  The NCC/UMC spots will feature messages appropriate
to the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the city.  Themes will
include: "Fear is not the only force at work in the world today," and "For
all the days that end in 'why'."

A total of eight 15-second spots will run on the Holland Tunnel sign each
hour, 24 hours a day -- a total of more than 5,700 showings.  The special
visual messages, which will have no sound track, were adapted from the
United Methodist "Igniting Ministry" program of church outreach, which
presents advertising on national and local television throughout the year.

The tunnel, built in 1927, carries 1.2 million vehicles a month between New
York and New Jersey.  During weekday business hours, trucks are banned and
only cars with two or more occupants are allowed, so actual passenger
traffic easily exceeds one million per month, in each direction.

The United Methodist Church is one of the 36 Protestant and Orthodox member
denominations of the NCC.