General Convention Goes Electronic
Episcopal News Service. May 25, 2000 [2000-101]
Jan Nunley, Director of communications for the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island and a member of the ENS news team at General Convention
(ENS) This story represents a shift in communications technology in the Church that hasn't been matched since Gutenberg's printing press brought us the Prayer Book: it was researched entirely through electronic sources.
That wouldn't have been possible just three years ago, when a scant 19% of all deputies to General Convention had email and access to the Internet. On the eve of General Convention 2000, more than 75% of all deputies are "wired," and most are participants in various email discussions about General Convention issues. Electronically, deputies have for the first time been able to do what only the House of Bishops could do before: hold conversations regularly between the triennial gatherings of both Houses. Most Bishops also have email -- although a number admit they don't check their inboxes daily, or sometimes even personally.
Charged by resolution 97-B015a with initiating a "unified, coordinated communications strategy" for the Episcopal Church, the Executive Council Communications Committee embarked on an ambitious three-year voyage into cyberspace. Without a budget line -- still a chronic problem in Episcopal Church communications -- the committee nevertheless leveraged Episcopal Church Center program funds to provide communications training and consultations for dioceses and members of various other General Convention committees, circulated a survey and "working draft" of a communications strategy, and created several online databases of resources and ministries in communications.
But the committee notes that there is still a "digital divide" in the church which makes the Internet "a supplement to, not a replacement for, existing information systems" such as print and broadcast media -- most of which are also underfunded and understaffed. "At the diocesan and national level, developing communications is consistently recognized as a priority, yet communication staff and resources are often targeted for cuts," the report opines. "Communication is not just a means of doing ministry, it is ministry, and the challenges and responsibilities are great!"
A scan of the 2000 General Convention "Blue Book," available for the first time online and in a searchable CD-ROM version, reveals numerous references to Web sites for further information about the work of committees and commissions over the past triennium.
The impact of the electronic revolution has been noted in such diverse places as the Archives of the Episcopal Church, the Church Deployment Office, and the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music. The Archives' website (www.EpiscopalArchives.org), launched in 1999, immediately generated a whopping 1500 inquiries, mostly about contemporary issues such as the Episcopal Church's public statements, polity and composition. For the first time, the Archives report noted, evangelism -- providing information to those "newly interested in the Episcopal Church" -- is emerging as a component of their work. Given adequate funding and staff, the Archives hopes to create online searchable databases of numerous publications, reports, and documents of the Church.
Deployment has moved into cyberspace in a big way in the last three years. People seeking positions (and vice versa) can now connect through the CDO website (www.ecusa.anglican.org.cdo) which includes an electronic version of the Positions Open Bulletin. Plans are underway to enable the deployment process to be run entirely through the Internet, with personal and parish/institutional profiles accessible and fully updateable online. A CDO demonstration booth is planned for Denver.
Church growth and evangelism reports are salted with references to the need for reform in how the church does communications. The State of the Church Committee's report notes that evangelism with young people -- a neglected demographic among Episcopalians -- will depend on familiarity with emerging media technologies. Resources are increasingly available online through the website of the Episcopal Network for Evangelism (http://members.aol.com/ene2020).
Although the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music assures General Convention that the next Book of Common Prayer will indeed be "a book of some kind and configuration," there are hints that it will be heavily supplemented with electronic "tools," some of which are already in place because of the availability of online texts.