wfn.org | Episcopal Communicators meet at Sewanee

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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99-089

Episcopal Communicators meet at Sewanee, honor best work of past 
year

by James Solheim

(ENS) The annual meeting of Episcopal Communicators at the 
University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, May 26-30, was a 
high-spirited mix of speakers, workshops and awards for the best 
work of the last year. The theme was "Feeding the Soul, Mind and 
Body."

Opening with a reception and barbecue on the campus of the 
seminary, participants were off to a bouncy start with the 
Kentucky Colonels Bluegrass Band in the new Tennessee Williams 
Center.

After morning meditations by Bishop Robert Tharp, the 
retired bishop of East Tennessee, the 140 communicators 
registered for the conference waded into workshops dealing with 
writing, design and advertising, but also including working with 
clay and exploring caves in the area.

Among the 155 awards given to newspapers, magazines, 
specialized print, and electronic media, the top awards for 
general excellence went to Journal of Women's Ministries in the 
magazine category, with The Witness and Anglican World receiving 
awards of merit; Anglican Advance, Diocese of Chicago, was the 
top newspaper with a circulation above 12,000, with Maryland 
Church News winning an award of merit; there was a tie for award 
of merit for newspapers under 12,000 between the Record, Diocese 
of Michigan, and Trinity, the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

In the category for agency newspapers, Episcopal Life 
received the award of excellence and Kanuga News the award of 
merit. (A complete list of awards is available on-line at 
www.dfms.org/communicators/pollybond/1999polly.html).

An irascible spirit

Noted author and civil rights activist Will Campbell was not 
only the keynote speaker but his irascible spirit and quick wit 
infused the whole meeting. 

Describing himself as "a low church Baptist" who was an 
Episcopalian "briefly--but it didn't work," Campbell said he came 
from "a long line of hell-raisers." Despite some recent health 
problems, his interactions with participants demonstrated that 
his spirit and his opinions are still strong.

Campbell began by exploring the state of moral leadership 
today, urging "less self-righteousness and a degree of humility" 
in our national political life. He blasted the death penalty and 
argued that "we invented ethnic cleansing, for God's sake--and it 
does work. We built an empire on it," pointing to the treatment 
of the American Indian as a startling example. And he wondered if 
that piece of our history  "is still on the nation's conscience."

While working with the National Council on race relations he 
concluded that "this nation was founded on violence--racial 
violence." Campbell's most recent book is "And Also with You--
Duncan Gray and the American Dilemma," the story of an Episcopal 
bishop's struggle against racial segregation in Mississippi.

And with 3500 people on death row, "maybe our hearts are so 
hardened that we couldn't repent if we wanted to," he said.

He admitted that he doesn't take much hope in big government 
and deplored the dearth of "moral voices." He wondered where the 
moral authority to "abolish the sport of warfare" would come 
from. "And where is the moral voice to defend the almost extinct 
family farm?" he asked. "Sick is the nation in which Larry Flynt 
[editor of Hustler magazine] is the least hypocritical voice in 
high places."

Campbell, who has a lesbian daughter, also wondered "why we 
put labels on each other? Where is the moral voice against the 
rising tide of homophobia?" When some have approached him to 
suggest that the church isn't ready to come to terms with 
homosexuality, he has responded, "The institutional church hasn't 
come to terms with heterosexuality."

He read some of his work while communicators gathered around 
a bonfire at the site of the Highlander Folk School, a training 
ground in the struggle for racial equality.

What is the church press?

"What is the purpose of the church press?" asked the Rev. 
David Moore of Sewanee in his sermon at the conference Eucharist. 
"What are the stories you write, the articles that make a 
difference--what is your task, your purpose?"

He suggested some possibilities. "You tell the stories of 
our life together, our ministries, our struggles, our foibles, 
our joys... You are conduits of information, sources, insight and 
analysis. You are interpreters and guides... On occasion you adopt 
a prophetic distance, a prophetic stance over against 
institutional structures."

Moore said that he looks for hope in communications from the 
church. "I look for encouragement and, at the same time, the 
challenge of passion for justice and righteousness which moves 
through the heart of another. I look for witness of God's 
activity, God's grace, God's compassion, lived out in the lives 
of people, congregations and communities. It is absolutely vital 
that we hear these stories of God's movement, stirring God's 
people to share in God's loving action."

He urged the communicators to be guided by the question, 
"What will further the work, love and purpose of Christ?" And he 
concluded, "Tell stories which break open our minds and hearts, 
that show us where Christ's heart is breaking, so that God's 
grace can flow through us. Tell stories that call us out of self-
centered disregard to new compassion, care and hope."

He ended by warning that, because the church's communicators 
"see the best and the worst of the church, disillusionment, 
cynicism and despair are frequent companions. And your role of 
telling the truth brings you up against unfair structures and 
self-serving people all too frequently. Seek the things that give 
you life, that give you joy...."

The future of communications?

Herb Gunn of Michigan, president of Episcopal Communicators, 
said that the organization "has been knocking on the door of the 
church for 25 years" but there is still some confusion over the 
role of communicators in the church. Yet he reported that the 
organization would make a presentation to the House of Bishops 
meeting in September.

"We want to help the church tell its story," Gunn said, "to 
share the Good News--even if it is bad news. And we want to 
challenge the church to recognize the value of what we do." He 
suggested that members work toward a goal of 10 percent of 
diocesan budgets set aside for communication.

Yet he pointed out that there are still "empty chairs" at 
meetings of the communicators--some representing colleagues who 
have lost their jobs, but also others who are not affiliated with 
the organization. "We need to work on the issue of vocation."

"Not only must we continue to communicate the message of the 
Episcopal Church to the outside world, we must be courageously 
persuasive within the church about the nature and the need for 
effective communications," he wrote in an article prior to the 
meeting.

Elected to the board were Ed Stannard of Episcopal Life, 
Karin Hamilton of Connecticut and Kay Collier-Slone of Lexington.

--James Solheim is the director of the Episcopal Church's Office 
of News and Information.