wfn.org | UMNS# 04448-Church communicator to direct FaithfulAmerica.org

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

Church communicator to direct FaithfulAmerica.org 

Sep. 30, 2004	 News media contact:   Linda  Bloom * (646) 3693759*  New
York {04448}

NOTE: A photograph of Vince Isner is available at http://umns.umc.org.

NEW YORK (UMNS) - A former United Methodist communicator has been selected as
the director of FaithfulAmerica.org, an online advocacy service sponsored by
the National Council of Churches.

Vince Isner of Fairfax, Va., will begin his work Oct. 18 in the NCC's
Washington office. Isner has worked as a writer, director and producer for
United Methodist Communications and the United Methodist Publishing House,
and he was communications director for the United Methodist Board of Church
and Society.

He also has worked as an independent producer, most recently responsible for
developing two DVD/Web-based study projects for Wesley Ministry Network, a
program of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington. He is a graduate of
Centenary College, Shreveport, La., and United Theological Seminary in
Dayton, Ohio.

FaithfulAmerica, found at www.FaithfulAmerica.org, was launched in May as an
effort to build an online community for people of faith. "We are a new voice
that rejects both the fundamentalism of the right and the view on the left
that faith has no place in public discourse," stated the program's brochure.
"We believe in the separation of church and state, but not the separation of
moral principles from the political process."

The online community wants to promote dignity and equality for all people,
work to end human suffering and act as "stewards of God's creation." It is
not aligned with any political party but is "dedicated to respectful,
political and religious debate that looks for truth on all sides without
compromising a commitment to justice."

Members receive e-mail alerts about letter-writing campaigns, petitions and
various causes; can network with one another online to organize community
events; and have access to sermons and commentaries about the moral and
spiritual challenges of the day.

Financially, the online community depends on its members for support. The
Rev. Robert Edgar, the NCC's chief executive and a United Methodist pastor,
told the agency's executive committee that such membership also allows for
better communication and outreach. "It's a way in which we now can speak to
more than 120,000 people on a regular basis," he explained.

Edgar said the hope is to grow FaithfulAmerica.org's membership to several
million people.

The community's first major project was to place an ad of U.S. faith leaders
apologizing for torture in Iraqi prisons on television in Arab countries.
More recently, the site hosted a "real-time" news conference on the
atrocities taking place in Sudan. FaithfulAmerica members sent some 52,000
letters to the U.S. Congress, calling upon it to name Sudan as a place of
genocide.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service