wfn.org | Publishing Officials Announce New Curriculum

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

30-April-1997 
97185 
 
           Publishing Officials Announce New Curriculum 
               Development And Marketing Agreement  
 
                         by Julian Shipp 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Following an April 21 meeting here, the Presbyterian 
Publishing Corporation (PPC) and the Curriculum Publishing Program Area 
(CPPA) of the Congregational Ministries Division (CMD) have agreed to a 
division of responsibility for the development and marketing of curriculum 
for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
 
     Meeting participants included the Rev. Frank Diaz, interim executive 
director of the General Assembly Council (GAC); Davis Perkins, PPC 
president and publisher; the Rev. Eunice Poethig, CMD director; Donna 
Blackstock, CPPA publisher; and Douglas Deatz, PPC vice president for 
congregational resources. 
 
     The new arrangement is based on Curriculum Publishing's responsibility 
to publish the official curriculum of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and 
PPC's interest in offering additional curriculum resources for specific 
markets. 
 
     "This arrangement will allow CPPA to focus more exclusively on 
developing the excellent materials that constitute our 
Presbyterian-specific curriculum and PPC to focus creatively on some key 
niches in the Christian education area," Perkins said. "The Christian 
education world is large enough and diverse enough that there is room for 
both PPC's resources and the official denominational curriculum under the 
PC(USA) umbrella." 
 
               The nuts and bolts of the agreement 
 
     The agreement defines who will be the denomination's official 
representative in four curriculum partnerships: 
 
     *    The Basic Bible ecumenical partnership: Curriculum Publishing 
          will represent the PC(USA) in this partnership, which is 
          developing the successor to the popular Bible Discovery 
          curriculum. PPC will withdraw from the partnership.  CPPA will 
          participate in the development of materials, is providing the 
          production director for the partnership, and will market and 
          distribute the curriculum to the PC(USA) as part of the new 
          Covenant People materials.  According to Blackstock, the partners 
          will include Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), United 
          Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Moravian 
          Church and Cumberland Presbyterian Church.  Other denominations 
          that have expressed interest in the partnership are the 
          Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America, the Refomed Church in 
          America, the United Methodist Church, the American Baptist 
          Churches in the U.S.A. and Church of the Brethren. 
     *    Storyteller Series, developed and published by the National 
          Council of Churches (NCC) and the Cooperative Publishers 
          Association (CPA): PPC has been the marketer and distributor of 
          Storyteller; now they will be the representative to the committee 
          as well.  CPPA endorses these materials and will list them in 
          their catalog, with instructions as to how to order them through 
          PPC. 
     *    Outdoor Ministries (published by NCC/CPA): PPC will continue to 
          be the denomination representative on both publishers' 
          development committees and will market and distribute these 
          materials. The agreement with CPPA is the same as for the 
          Storyteller Series, since these materials are also endorsed by 
          the denomination. 
     *    A new lectionary-based curriculum group: PPC will be the PC(USA) 
          representative for development, marketing and distribution. CPPA 
          will not list the materials in its catalog. 
 
     Participants in this agreement say they are aware that the real 
challenge facing both PPC and CPPA is to ensure that Presbyterian churches 
have available to them the very best resources possible for Christian 
education ministries and that they buy them from a PC(USA) entity. 
 
     "Many Presbyterians are not aware of the fine resources available to 
them from the General Assembly program areas, including the Curriculum 
Publishing Program Area, and the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation," 
Poethig said. "We hope people will read the catalogs which they receive, 
visit their resource centers and select resources which will help them 
carry out the work of Jesus Christ in their congregation and community." 

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