wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Church communicators forming national network

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8854 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05429
August 19, 2005

Church communicators
share vision of national network

175 agree to pool resources, energies to better convey good news of the
gospel

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - More than 175 Presbyterian communicators agreed last week to
create a national network that eventually will include a designated
communicator from every Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation and a
communications "team" representing each of the church's 173 presbyteries.

	The Presbyterian Communicators Network (PCN) "has been a dream of the
Office of Communication for years," Ann Gillies, associate director for
communication of the General Assembly Council (GAC), said during the Aug.
11-14 organizational gathering here.

	"The network is not something that will happen," said Jon Brown,
coordinator for mission education and promotion in the Congregational
Ministries Division. "It started organically when you arrived Thursday
evening (Aug. 11) and began connecting with each other."

	The group asked the GAC to help fund similar national gatherings
every other year (in years when there is no General Assembly). The fledgling
network also decided to set up a series of regional communicators' meetings
in the years between national gatherings.

	The conference theme - "What is in your hand? - was a reference to
Moses' encounter with God and the burning bush: When Moses is told he'll have
to communicate God's will to the Egyptians, he asks, "What if they don't
listen to me?" God replies with the question, "What is in your hand?" and
Moses discovers that his staff has turned into a writhing serpent.

	"At that point," Gillies said, "when Moses' staff turned into a
serpent ... he understood that what really matters is not his competence, but
the message of an all-powerful God."

	It is that message - the good news of the gospel - that the
conference participants pledged to work together to communicate more
powerfully. 

	The participants' enthusiasm was welcome news to Gillies and Brown,
who co-chair a GAC Mission Work Plan team that deals with communications
issues. The creation of the PCN is one of the group's top priorities, and the
GAC pumped additional money into the Office of Communication budget to help
underwrite the inaugural conference.

	In workshops and seminars, table talk and worship, participants
sketched a broad outline for development of the network. They said they hope
the PCN will provide people-to-people connections, communications resources,
professional-development events and opportunities to explore "emerging
issues" in the church and the culture.

	For more information, visit the PCN's Web site, www.pcusa.org/comnet;
or contact Mindy Marchal in the Office of Communication, by phone (toll-free)
at (888) 728-7228, ext. 5212; or by email at mmarchal@ctr.pcusa.org.

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