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[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Agency equips pastors for digital age, offering e-mail for life

Sep. 21, 2005

NOTE: Audio and photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.

By Ginny Underwood*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - United Methodist pastors can count on several
address changes during the course of their ministry. But now, thanks to
the church's communications agency, one address will remain the same
throughout their careers: their e-mail.

The United Methodist Commission on Communication approved a plan to
provide pastors e-mail addresses for life during the board's Sept. 16-18
meeting.

"In this technological age that we're in, it just seems to me that it's
absolutely critical, as we talk about United Methodist Communications,
to have a convergence of resources together," said Bishop Thomas
Bickerton, president of the Commission on Communication and leader of
the denomination's Pittsburgh Area.

"And for us to be able to converge, the whole idea of having standard
e-mails across the church ... is a really powerful tool," he said. "You
can imagine that gives annual conferences and the general church a
consistency so that we don't have to spend more people power inputting a
different address every time a pastor moves."

The new initiative, tentatively scheduled to be available next spring,
was referred to United Methodist Communications by the 2004 General
Conference. The plan is for pastors to be able to register for a
permanent e-mail address that would then be forwarded to a personal
e-mail address. When a pastor moves, he or she would forward the e-mail
address to his or her new provider. The service possibly would be
provided through UMCom's relationship with Kintera, a San Diego-based
provider of technology services to nonprofit organizations.

Plans are under way to make the service available globally.

UMCom's global focus surfaced in other ways, too, during the meeting.
The commission voted to hold its first meeting outside of the United
States. In January 2007, the commission will gather on the campus of
Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe.

"We are a global church, and when we are trying to do something for all
of Africa, like the Central Conference Communications Initiative, really
it will be good when the whole commission goes there and is in touch
with the church of Africa and the people," said Bishop Joao Somane
Machado, a commission member and leader of the church's Mozambique Area.

Through the initiative, mandated by the denomination's General
Conference, UMCom is working to improve communications systems for
United Methodists in Africa, Europe and Asia.

The commission's Committee for the Central Conference Communications
Initiative will meet with African communicators and research their needs
as a preliminary step to reporting back to the 2008 General Conference.

During their meeting, commission members discussed the value of a
ministry of presence in Africa versus sending financial donations.

"Any kind of NGO (nongovernmental organization) can send money to help
the people of Africa with AIDS or to help people because of hunger,"
Machado said. "The difference is that we are the church. We are brothers
and sisters. We are one church; we need to share and feel. It is
important, not only for the churches but also for the community in
Africa, for the government in Africa. ... This can bring radical change
in Africa."

"It's very hard to put a price tag on presence," Bickerton said.
"There's something about sending our financial resources to be of
assistance, but there's that emotional connection that needs to be made
eyeball to eyeball with people who need a word of hope, that need a word
of joy and encouragement along the way."

Commissioners committed to participating in a Volunteers In Mission
project when they meet at Africa University.

In other business, the commission heard about plans for its Health and
Wholeness Committee to meet with health practitioners who serve children
orphaned by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria. The committee is
providing strategic guidance to UMCom regarding how the church
communicates about global health issues.

The commission also affirmed plans to hold a churchwide Digital Summit
in 2007, received an update on the redesign of the denominational
Website, www.UMC.org,  and began preliminary planning on how to employ
technology to serve the 2008 General Conference.

*Underwood is director of the Media Group at United Methodist
Communications. United Methodist News Service is a unit of the Media
Group.

News media contact: Ginny Underwood, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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