wfn.org | WACC announces four new Honorary Life Members

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> WACC announces four new Honorary Life Members

WACC is pleased to announce that four outstanding communicators have
agreed to become Honorary Life Members of the Association.  This
brings to only 19 the number of members acknowledged through Honorary
Life Membership.

The Honorary Life Membership is awarded by WACC's Board of Directors
to communicators who have served WACC, religious communications and
the cause of communication rights throughout their careers and whose
work is characterised by dedication, integrity, and achievement.

The four honorees are: former General Secretary, Carlos A. Valle;
former WACC President, William F. Fore; a regional broadcaster and
mainstay of NABS-WACC, Ed Willingham; and, Shirley Struchen who has
served the cause of ecumenical and interfaith communication.

In announcing the honourees, WACC's General Secretary, Randy Naylor
congratulated the 4 honorees and applauded them for their outstanding
contribution to WACC's  mission and for advancing the cause of
faithful communication throughout the world.

The Honorary Life Members will be installed as such in 2010.

Carlos Valle, a Methodist minister from Argentina, served as
WACC's General Secretary from 1986 through 2001.  Prior to serving as
General Secretary he was a member of the WACC Board and a pastor in
Methodist congregations in Argentina. He was also a staff member of
the ecumenical theological school, ISIDET, in Buenos Aires, where he
taught various courses on communication, especially film and theology.

Carlos has written numerous books, published in both Spanish and
English, and is an active proponent of communication and justice.
During his years on the Latin America Regional Committee he, with
others on the Executive Committee, recognized that there was a strong
need for dialogue between communicators within the Americas (North and
South) and he was part of the Latin American group that proposed an
"encuentro" or encounter between WACC Latin America and WACC North America.
The first encuentro was held in Mexico City in 1986, while a second
one was held in Puerto Rico in 1988.  Both events brought WACC members
together to recognize the challenges within the two Regions and to
look at possible ways to jointly address those challenges.

As the General Secretary, Carlos organized the first WACC World
Congress which was held in Manila.  Subsequent Congresses, under his
leadership, were held in Mexico and the Netherlands.

During his time in office, Carlos also worked to develop a written
understanding of cooperation and commitment between the World Council
of Churches and WACC.  He also convened the first meeting of senior
communication leaders in European churches and ecumenical organizations.

Upon his retirement, Carlos returned to Argentina to serve as a
chaplain to students at ISIDET in Buenos Aries, where he continues to
write on issues related to communication and to serve his Church.

William F. Fore (Bill), a minister of the United Methodist Church,
was President of WACC 1982-90, during the difficult transition from
the "old WACC" to the "new WACC" which was formally adopted in 1986
and registered in England in 1987.  The move resulted in the Board of
WACC being recognized as the highest authority for decision making within WACC.

Bill served for many years as the Executive Director of the
Communication Commission of the National Council of Churches, USA,
where he became recognized as a leader in the field of communication
policy and regulation.  He is often remembered as saying, "if you want
to know where the real communication issues are to be found in
regulatory matters 'follow the money' ".

He also taught in  Yale Theological Seminary and when he retired
taught communication for some years at the United Theological College
in Bangalore, India.  Not content to reflect on past achievements Bill
launched a website that would publish articles, papers, and research
documents related to communication and theology.  The site now
attracts one million hits per month!

Two of his best known books are Television and Religion: the Shaping
of Faith, Values and Culture and Mythmakers: Gospel, Culture and Media.

Ed Willingham, a Baptist minister, worked for three decades with
the Council of Churches of Detroit and Windsor (a USA/Canadian border
city alliance), first as communication officer and eventually as
Executive Director.  During his years at the Council, Ed became well
known on both sides of the border and to this day takes some pride in
celebrating religious, civic and cultural events in both Canada and the USA.

He was a delegate to the conference in 1968 that gave birth to WACC,
where the old WACC (once WAC Broadcasting) was merged with the North
American committee, RAVEMCCO.

Ed is well known for his work with the North America Broadcast Section
of WACC.  Present in Toronto at the founding meeting of a group of
North American ecumenical communicators that decided to form NABS-WACC,
Ed was the Business Manager (a 1/4 time position) of NABS for nearly 30 years.

During that time, NABS held yearly conventions of one-week duration in
which ecumenically minded communicators from the faith communities of
Canada and the USA gathered for inspiration, information, renewal and
fellowship.  The annual gathering was recognized as the largest annual
ecumenical event held in the world.  Each convention held premieres of
about-to-be-released Hollywood films, theme speakers from the field of
broadcasting, workshops on new technologies and production techniques,
worship, evenings to share latest productions by attendees, and lots
of time for networking. Even though NABS has not met since 2001, Ed
has continued to keep the network alive through a monthly newsletter
in which past attendees report on current travels, life experiences
and professional developments.

Shirley Whipple Struchen, a United Methodist and an employee of
United Methodist Communications, has worked as an ecumenical Christian
communicator for essentially all her career.  She was instrumental in
introducing the use of satellite downlinks for sharing information
important to improving church and community life.  Her biggest success
was to hold a satellite seminar on youth and gun violence with two
weeks of the infamous Columbine High School shooting massacre in 1999
in which hundreds of hospitals, police stations, community centers and
churches throughout the United States joined the seminar to learn from
experts on kids and guns, violence in the schools.

Shirley is equally well known in the ecumenical world for her
pioneering work as a co-creator of the Television Awareness Training
programme  She was also an active committee member of the
Communication Commission of the NCC USA and in 2002  became a
television producer for the NCC's quarterly television programming,
coordinating at the same time the access for religious broadcasting on
the major US television networks by the Roman Catholic, Southern
Baptist, and Jewish faith communities of the USA.

Although recognized as a denominational and ecumenical communicator
extraordinaire, Shirley is best known these days for her pivotal role
in both the Religion Communication Congress 2000 and RCC 2010.  A
long-time member of the Religious Public Relations Council, now known
as Religious Communicators Council, she has served as the coordinator
for both the 2000 and 2010 RCC events.

Shirley has also served on the WACC North America Executive Committee
and the WACC Board.  She has been an active participant in WACC
Congresses as well.

> Randy Naylor
> General Secretary, WACC