Satellite Technology Links Episcopal Cathedrals in New Network
Episcopal News Service. April 1, 1993 [93062]
Elizabeth Eisenstadt, Free-lance Writer in Washington, DC.
Building on enthusiastic responses from Episcopalians across the country, an emerging coalition of church leaders and diocesan visionaries is planning to use celestial satellite technology as a medium for education, dialogue and witness among the earthbound faithful.
With the recent formation of the Episcopal Cathedral Teleconferencing Network (ECTN), cathedrals, Episcopal church agencies and New York's Trinity Parish have begun working cooperatively to create and transmit programs and conferences by satellite.
Cathedrals, seeking to reclaim their pre-eminent place as the focus of the church's cultural life, will serve as the primary hosts to such programs, according to Frederic Burnham, director of Trinity Institute. Accessible to groups of clergy and lay people gathered at sites across the country, these events will also offer the opportunity for participants in Maine and Montana, or even South Carolina and South Africa, to discuss common issues. "Clearly, reaching out has always been a cathedral ministry, and this is the best and most cost-efficient way to do that," says the Rev. Clement K. Lee, director of the national church's Office of Electronic Media.
Signs of success were needed
Thanks to a formidable investment in the latest broadcast technology, an expert technical and creative staff and the leadership of rector Daniel Matthews, Trinity Parish has been one of the key players in planning and marketing the uses of this relatively new (to the Episcopal Church) medium. Trinity's video production unit was one of the driving forces behind the birth of the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network (VISN), a cable channel which offers Trinity's video production unit was one of the driving forces behind the birth of the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network (VISN), a cable channel which offers a broad range of religious programming.
The idea was conceived last spring in conversations among Matthews, Burnham, Lee and Trinity's television director Jeff Weber, said Burnham. Burnham and Lee proposed the creation of a satellite network to the nation's cathedral deans last spring. In the fall they polled all the cathedrals and found, according to Burnham, that of the 49 that responded, 46 said that they were interested in either becoming a "downlink site" for receiving conferences or getting more information. "What people needed in order to get on board were signs of success," said Burnham.
And success, in the form of two Trinity-sponsored conferences, was close at hand. When Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey visited Washington, D.C., last September, Trinity and the Office of Electronic Media teamed up to broadcast live his keynote address at the "Values in Vocation" conference to 5,000 Episcopalians gathered at 55 downlink sites around the country. Callers from seven dioceses were also able to participate via telephone in conversation with the Archbishop.
Inspired by positive reactions from participants at home and abroad and by the ease of the actual teleconference transmission, Trinity Institute's planners decided to broadcast its entire annual two-day conference live from Trinity Parish and to make it possible for callers to engage in dialogue with the speakers.
"The Art of Conversation: Speaking of God in a Pluralistic Age" was picked up by 16 cathedrals and seven other locales, Burnham said. Each location had 15-100 in attendance added Trinity producer Linda Hanick.
Describing himself as "dumbfounded, surprised and taken aback" by the success of the conference, which went off without a technical glitch, Matthews added a note of caution. He pointed out that the Institute "wasn't done casually." It took a tremendous amount of planning and a highly trained staff. Nonetheless, "it is an event that made some phenomenal differences in the way we in the church do work, and we don't know (yet) how important it was," he added.
Six cathedrals now own satellite dishes, according to ECTN technical consultant Jack Crutchfield. The average cost for such technology is around $5,000, he said. The ECTN coalition is about to send out a letter to all cathedrals suggesting an appropriate equipment package and answering basic questions, he added.
Aided by a grant from Trinity Parish, Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix, Arizona, purchased a satellite down-link so that it could serve as an interactive site for February's Institute. Realizing that some participants had traveled from northern California and Colorado to attend, the Trinity Cathedral team fed them, found housing for some and planned discussions between speakers. "When I turned off the two monitors, I realized how much of a community had come into being through the combination of technology and a common desire for learning," said the Rev. David Keller, canon at Trinity Cathedral. In a comment echoed by others who participated in the Trinity Institute experiment, Keller added: "Even our most vocal skeptics had a conversion experience."
The Phoenix cathedral has since played host to a congregational promotion planning conference produced by the United Methodist Church, according to diocesan communications director Nan Ross. The diocese hopes to record programs from the VISN channel, not available in much of Arizona, and to collaborate with institutions such as the Claremont School of Theology in California as it acquires the capacity to broadcast its own programs, Keller said.
Other church-related institutions are interested in exploring the possibilities. General Theological Seminary's dean-elect, Bishop Craig Anderson, dreams of a collaborative program designed by New York's theological institutions of higher learning focused on contemporary cultural issues. Although the demand for theological education to equip lay people for ministry has already been proven by programs like Education for Ministry (EFM), local parishes could also make use of the seminary's resources to explore such issues in depth, Anderson said. "The service that the larger church could provide is to help raise those questions so that the church could be, at the local level, the community of moral discourse," he added.
At the Episcopal Church Center, Preston Kelsey, executive director of the Board of Theological Education (BTE), said that his office has long been concerned that Episcopalians are not making enough use of their seminaries. On the drawing board for next winter is a four-part series, created by a seminary yet to be decided, for groups of clergy gathered at cathedrals with downlink capabilities on a topic Kelsey describes as "of serious theological interest." While the BTE is the "catalyst for this initial project," Kelsey hopes that seminaries and dioceses will soon take over, making their own plans for interactive theological education.
Lee, who has worked with cathedrals and other church agencies buying or renting satellite equipment, said that satellite communications offers possibilities for all kinds of outreach projects, from AIDS ministries to adult education. At Washington's National Cathedral, staff are in the midst of strategic planning for the next decade that will include creating programs for use by dioceses and parishes. "We have access to people who are deeply involved in the cathedral and in the leadership of this nation. It's a unique opportunity and a unique responsibility," said Robert Becker, director of public affairs at the cathedral.
Excited as he is about the new openings for conversations between church leaders and people in the pew, one cathedral dean offered a caveat. A cathedral offers the "perfect" home for satellite-based conversation, "as long as it doesn't become the new Gospel, and as long as it serves and does not become the master," said Dean John Hardwick of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
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