wfn.org | Communication pioneer and UCC minister the Rev. Eugene

[powellb@ucc.org]

United Church of Christ
Barb Powell, press contact
216-736-2175
e-mail: <powellb@ucc.org>
On the Web: <http://www.ucc.org>

For immediate release
Jan. 12, 2004

The Rev. Eugene Schneider, religious communication pioneer
for the United Church of Christ, dies at 81

      The Rev. Eugene A. Schneider of Chardon, Ohio, former deputy director

of the United Church of Christ's Office of Communication, died Jan. 9,

2004, at age 81.  He had been ill with Alzheimer's Disease for several

years.

      Schneider's life-long interest and ministry was in training local

churches in communication leadership, and teaching local church

communicators to improve their skills. He spent 22 years on the Office of

Communication staff addressing a range of issues in communication, from

social justice to evangelism.

      The first of these was a 1969 series of workshops that trained

African Americans in publicizing their neighborhood problems through the

media. The workshops answered a need, Schneider said, because when African

Americans would call the media with questions or suggestions in those

years, "the usual response from a receptionist would be to slam the

receiver down."

      In the 1970s, Schneider developed a unique United Church Christ

program called "EVCOM" (short for "evangelism communication"), which

invigorated some 50,000 U.S. congregations during its use through the early

1980s. He wrote much of EVCOM's curriculum and logged thousands of miles

teaching EVCOM workshops to sharpen church's skills in communicating

internally and to their surrounding communities.

      Whenever he traveled, Schneider would stay with local church members

in order to strengthen the bond between the local church and the

denomination's national offices.

      His EVCOM materials received four awards from the Religious Public

Relations Council in 1978. That same year, he also was honored by RPRC for

his work on the TV series "Six American Families" and for the then-monthly

audio news and feature service of the UCC, Kerygma II. In 1982, he was a

contributing author to RPRC's Religious Public Relations Handbook.

      Schneider's video work with the UCC included a documentary on the

UCC's 1975 General Synod -- the central deliberative body of the

denomination that meets biennially -- which received a "special

Distinguished Award" from the Religious Public Relations Council, and a

project begun in 1988, "Local Church Video Resources for Spiritual

Renewal." For the latter, Schneider again traveled throughout the country,

this time leading spiritual renewal workshops.

      In addition, Schneider oversaw the Office of Communication's teaching

programs for local churches on how to use telephones, newsletters and cable

TV.  He handled the business side of its newsletter for church leaders,

Keeping You Posted, and was the first business manager of the

denomination's award-winning newspaper, United Church News. He retired from

the Office of Communication in December 1991.

      Prior to his work in the UCC's communication office, Schneider was

active developing ecumenical and denominational connections in the United

States.

      In 1955, he represented the Evangelical and Reformed Church -- a

predecessor body of the UCC -- at a formative meeting of the Broadcasting

and Film Commission of the National Council of Churches. (Today, the work

is part of the NCC's Department of Communication.)

      He also served on the boards of directors of two national UCC

offices, the Office of Communication (1965-1969) and the Stewardship

Council (1965-1969).

      Schneider's career in religious communication began in 1948, shortly

after he became pastor of St. John's Evangelical and Reformed Church in

Council Bluffs, Iowa. A pastor's seminar he took that year convinced him

that broadcasting -- in its infancy then -- would be a powerful tool for

communicating the church's story.  He recalled the influence of his Chicago

mentor, Ross Snyder, who conducted the seminar:  "He told me, 'If the

church is going to be around for the next 100 years, it's going to have to

use mass media.'"

      This led Schneider to produce a half-hour radio program geared toward

junior-high youngsters for Council Bluffs station KSWI. He also led

devotional programs on WOW-TV in nearby Omaha, Neb. Later, while serving

congregations in Milwaukee and Menomonee Falls, Wis., he produced religious

programming for WTMJ-TV for 15 years, and chaired the radio and television

committee of the Milwaukee Ministerial Association.

      Schneider also was on the radio and television staff of the World

Council of Churches' 1954 assembly in Evanston, Ill., and attended its 1968

assembly in Uppsala, Sweden, as an accredited broadcaster for Milwaukee's

WTMJ-TV and WTMJ Radio.

      He produced 65 programs of interviews and commentary on the Uppsala

meeting and his radio documentary on it, "The Church for Others," received

a Gabriel Award from the Catholic Broadcasters Association.

      Schneider was among the organizers of the World Association for

Christian Communication, which formed in 1968 in Oslo, Norway, and has

headquarters in London. In 1969, he helped organize WACC's North American

Broadcast Section.

      Born Jan. 9, 1923, in Mount Vernon, Ind., Schneider received an A.B.

degree from Elmhurst College in 1945 and a B.D. degree from Chicago

Theological Seminary in 1948.

      He married his first wife, the former Marjorie Rorick of Sterling,

Ill., in 1945. Schneider described Marjorie as "a partner in ministry" who

"took care of all the details so I could concentrate on content."  A

champion of women's organizations within the UCC, Marjorie died in November

1990 after a brave battle with cancer.

      From 1948 to 1969, Schneider was a local church pastor, serving St.

John's UCC in Council Bluffs, Iowa; St. Marks UCC in Milwaukee and St.

Pauls UCC in Menomonee Falls, Wis. While in seminary in the late 1940s,

Schneider also served congregations in California and Montana.

      Schneider's retirement brought a second marriage, in February 1994,

to Lillian (Lee) Mahlman. Together, the couple spent time traveling to

California, Hawaii and Europe. They also visited a struggling seminary in

the Philippines, to which Schneider donated his library.

      Helping local United Church of Christ congregations tell their faith

stories was Schneider's mission and ministry. "The local church needs to be

more than a fellowship of Christians," he once wrote. "It needs to be a

radiant transmitter of hope, health and love. Local churches are the

possessors of the great story of what God has done in Christ and can do

through us. This message needs to be communicated to the whole community."

      Schneider is survived by his wife of 10 years, Lee, two sons, one

stepson, one grandson and two step-grandsons. A memorial service will be

held at 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 16, at the Amistad Chapel of the UCC's Church

House, 700 Prospect Ave., Cleveland, OH 44115.

      In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Eugene A.

Schneider Communication Education Fund, Attn: Lee Foley, UCC Communication

office, 700 Prospect Ave. 8th floor, Cleveland, OH 44115.

      The United Church of Christ has more than 1.3 million members in

nearly 6,000 local congregations in the United States and Puerto Rico. It

was formed by the 1957 union of the Congregational Christian Churches and

the Evangelical and Reformed Church.

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