wfn.org | Larry Hollon named to head United Methodist Communications

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 21, 2000 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.  10-21-71BP{157}

NOTE TO EDITORS: A head-and-shoulder photo is available for use with this
story.  

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Larry Hollon, an award-winning producer with
experience in video, film, radio, television and print, has been named top
executive for United Methodist Communications (UMCom), effective June 1. 

He succeeds the Rev. Judith Weidman who is on medical leave and will retire
in June.

The announcement was made in Nashville March 21 during a meeting of the
agency's 25-member governing commission by Bishop Sharon Z. Rader,
president.  Hollon has been a member of the commission since 1992, serving
on its executive and long range planning and program committees. 
 
Hollon, who resides in Stroud, Okla., has worked in more than 30 countries
to produce videos under conditions ranging from civil war to natural
disaster and has written for a variety of publications. His clients have
included non-profit organizations, governmental agencies and corporations.
As a producer, he describes his primary focus as "telling stories of
marginalized persons and the effects of poverty and economic deprivation on
quality of life." 

Before working as an independent producer in 1988, he served three years as
director of communications for Church World Service, the relief agency of
the National Council of Churches headquartered in New York. From 1978 to
1985, he served as director of interpretation and promotion for the
council's Division of Overseas Ministries.

Earlier he resided for nine years in Omaha, Neb., were he served as
commentator and host for KOOO-FM Radio; director of Great Plains Media
Ministry; commentator and host for KLNG Radio, and pastor of Aldersgate
United Methodist Church.

Hollon, 56, earned his Master of Divinity Degree from United
Methodist-related Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo.  Later
he served as an adjunct faculty member at the seminary, teaching a course on
"White Soul: Country Music and Working Americans," with the Rev. Tex Sample.
He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Central Oklahoma
at Edmond.

"I am a storyteller and I believe we in the church have powerful stories to
tell," he told the commission following his election.  

"God is revealed in the simplest of stories and so we approach this work
with great sensitivity for the dignity of every person, knowing that within
each of us the Spirit of God resides," he said.

He also affirmed the role of the agency in helping the church tell its
story.  ". . .  we have a role in empowering the church to do its ministry
more effectively and with wider impact," he said.

Hollon has received numerous honors and awards including the Golden Eagle
from the Council for International Non-theatrical Events for "A Jewel
Reclaimed," a look at rehabilitation and economic development in Cambodia
following the fall of the Khmer Rouge.  The video was produced for the
Association for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation in Kampuchea .  

He received an EMMY nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences and an ADDY from the American Advertising Federation for "Share the
Joy," a national television and radio image-building campaign for Church
World Service. "Roots of Hunger, Roots of Change," a documentary on
post-colonial economic development in Senegal, aired on the Discovery
Channel and received a Chris Bronze Plaque at the Columbus Film Festival.

In "The Question of Death," he documented attitudes toward capital
punishment in Nebraska, a video produced under a grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities administered by the Nebraska Committee for the
Humanities.  The video was selected for statewide commercial television
distribution and library placement.

Hollon and his wife Sharon have three adult children: a son Matthew and two
daughters,  Kristin and Sun-Jin.   

Operating with an annual budget of nearly $15 million, UMCom provides
external communications functions on behalf of and for the denomination, and
internal communications within the church. The agency has 108 staff members
in Nashville, three in New York and one in Washington.  Serving as acting
general secretary, in the absence of Weidman, has been Peggy West. 

Delegates to the church's General Conference, meeting May 2-12 in Cleveland,
are being asked by UMCom to approve $20 million for a four-year national
"Igniting Ministry" media campaign highlighted by cable television
commercials.
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United Methodist News Service
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