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What It Means to Be Spiritual Is Story of the Century, Moyers Tells Communications Congress

Episcopal News Service. April 26, 1990 [90108]

Members of Episcopal communicators were among the 1,400 communicators from all over the world who met to discuss "Communication Power" at the once-in-a-decade Religious Communications Congress (RCC 90) meeting, April 18-22, in Nashville, Tennessee.

At the opening banquet, public television broadcaster Bill Moyers was presented with the first Communicator of the Decade award. He challenged the communicators to become "philosophers at large," arguing that "any journalist worth his or her salt today knows the real story is to define what it means to be spiritual. This is the biggest story not only of the decade, but of the century."

Moyers called television "the seduction of our age," and said it has a unique capacity to open the world of ideas, to give people a view that once belonged only to God. "I think that little screen is the largest classroom -- and perhaps the largest chapel -- God has ever given us in a long, long time."

BBC correspondent Kate Adie, the last journalist to flee Beijing's Tiananmen Square during last year's bloody confrontation, added a note of realism to a later plenary. She said the Chinese government did not try to stop her from sending videotape footage of the massacre because "they didn't care. They are a closed society, and they didn't care if the rest of the world saw them commit murder." A closed society remains untouched by world opinion, and media coverage is not sufficient to create a climate of social change, she said.

In contrast, Filipino Cardinal Jaime Sin said media attention helped in the revolution that unseated dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. He credited Radio Veritas and opposition newspapers, along with international press and church leaders, with supporting the surge of "people power" that changed his country. The cardinal advocated a stance of "critical solidarity" by church and media leaders to maintain standards of truth and alliance with grassroots people.

Polly Bond Awards honor Episcopal Communicators

In separate meetings during the congress, Episcopal Communicators met to elect new board members, honor excellence in print and electronic media, present the Jan Pierce Award to a veteran communicator, and pass a resolution requesting better electronic networks for the church's news operations.

Judges in the annual Polly Bond Awards sifted through nearly 500 entries before honoring 35 different print publications with 85 awards. Eleven electronic awards were presented to six different agencies, institutions, parishes, or dioceses.

Receiving awards for general excellence as the best publications were: Cathedral Age (Washington National Cathedral), magazine with circulation over 12,000; The Witness, magazine with circulation under 12,000; Washington Diocese (Diocese of Washington D.C.), newspaper with circulation over 12,000; The Advocate (Diocese of Lexington), newspaper with circulation under 12,000.

In the electronic division, top awards in radio were given to: the Episcopal Series of the Protestant Hour (Episcopal Radio and TV Foundation) and "Homeless for the Holidays" (Diocese of Connecticut); and "Biblical Stories Retold to Tickle the Ear and Touch the Heart" (Episcopal Radio and TV Foundation).

In video, the top awards were given to the Episcopal Church Center for Faith on a Tightrope; Trinity Parish for Faithful Defiance, a portrait of Desmond Tutu; the Episcopal Church Center for Outpourings of Love, and Washington National Cathedral for Hildegard of Bingen. In specialized media, the Diocese of Connecticut received an award for a slide show, Called to Serve.

The Rev. Charles Long, editor and publisher of Forward Movement Publications in Cincinnati, received the Jan Pierce Award, established in 1988 to honor the former managing editor of The Episcopalian. Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie expressed particular gratitude on behalf of the Anglican Communion for Long's publication of the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, saying "our prayer for one another in the Communion has been enriched by the care Charles has devoted to this little booklet. It has an importance for us all quite out of proportion to its size."

Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning said Long "has always been a missionary. First in China, and most recently through Forward Movement Publications, Charles has sought to proclaim the Gospel of God in Christ. Whether teaching, chastising, encouraging, or simply reflecting the truth as he sees it, he communicates with clarity and grace."

The communicators passed a single resolution, pointing out that the church had designated communications as one of the Mission Imperatives. It argued that "the implementation of a comprehensive communications strategy" depends on cooperation between national and regional communicators. It asked that the "Episcopal News Service (ENS) office and Episcopal Life be equipped with the necessary computer equipment to make them the hub of a communications strategy." The resolution also asked for in-service training in the provinces of the church to improve the linkage with ENS and Episcopal Life. The communicators asked that the resolution be submitted to the Executive Council of the church for action.

Elected to the board were Jim Thrall (Diocese of Connecticut) and Frances Antonucci (Diocese of Washington).

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