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Episcopal Communicators Meet at Sewanee, Honor Best Work of Past Year

Episcopal News Service. June 30, 1999 [99-089]

(ENS) The annual meeting of Episcopal Communicators at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, May 26-30, was a high-spirited mix of speakers, workshops and awards for the best work of the last year. The theme was "Feeding the Soul, Mind and Body."

Opening with a reception and barbecue on the campus of the seminary, participants were off to a bouncy start with the Kentucky Colonels Bluegrass Band in the new Tennessee Williams Center.

After morning meditations by Bishop Robert Tharp, the retired bishop of East Tennessee, the 140 communicators registered for the conference waded into workshops dealing with writing, design and advertising, but also including working with clay and exploring caves in the area.

Among the 155 awards given to newspapers, magazines, specialized print, and electronic media, the top awards for general excellence went to Journal of Women's Ministries in the magazine category, with The Witness and Anglican World receiving awards of merit; Anglican Advance, Diocese of Chicago, was the top newspaper with a circulation above 12,000, with Maryland Church News winning an award of merit; there was a tie for award of merit for newspapers under 12,000 between the Record, Diocese of Michigan, and Trinity, the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

In the category for agency newspapers, Episcopal Life received the award of excellence and Kanuga News the award of merit. (A complete list of awards is available on-line at www.dfms.org/communicators/pollybond/1999polly.html).

An irascible spirit

Noted author and civil rights activist Will Campbell was not only the keynote speaker but his irascible spirit and quick wit infused the whole meeting.

Describing himself as "a low church Baptist" who was an Episcopalian "briefly -- but it didn't work," Campbell said he came from "a long line of hell-raisers." Despite some recent health problems, his interactions with participants demonstrated that his spirit and his opinions are still strong.

Campbell began by exploring the state of moral leadership today, urging "less self-righteousness and a degree of humility" in our national political life. He blasted the death penalty and argued that "we invented ethnic cleansing, for God's sake -- and it does work. We built an empire on it," pointing to the treatment of the American Indian as a startling example. And he wondered if that piece of our history "is still on the nation's conscience."

While working with the National Council on race relations he concluded that "this nation was founded on violence -- racial violence." Campbell's most recent book is "And Also with You -- Duncan Gray and the American Dilemma," the story of an Episcopal bishop's struggle against racial segregation in Mississippi.

And with 3500 people on death row, "maybe our hearts are so hardened that we couldn't repent if we wanted to," he said.

He admitted that he doesn't take much hope in big government and deplored the dearth of "moral voices." He wondered where the moral authority to "abolish the sport of warfare" would come from. "And where is the moral voice to defend the almost extinct family farm?" he asked. "Sick is the nation in which Larry Flynt [editor of Hustler magazine] is the least hypocritical voice in high places."

Campbell, who has a lesbian daughter, also wondered "why we put labels on each other? Where is the moral voice against the rising tide of homophobia?" When some have approached him to suggest that the church isn't ready to come to terms with homosexuality, he has responded, "The institutional church hasn't come to terms with heterosexuality."

He read some of his work while communicators gathered around a bonfire at the site of the Highlander Folk School, a training ground in the struggle for racial equality.

What is the church press?

"What is the purpose of the church press?" asked the Rev. David Moore of Sewanee in his sermon at the conference Eucharist. "What are the stories you write, the articles that make a difference -- what is your task, your purpose?"

He suggested some possibilities. "You tell the stories of our life together, our ministries, our struggles, our foibles, our joys...You are conduits of information, sources, insight and analysis. You are interpreters and guides...On occasion you adopt a prophetic distance, a prophetic stance over against institutional structures."

Moore said that he looks for hope in communications from the church. "I look for encouragement and, at the same time, the challenge of passion for justice and righteousness which moves through the heart of another. I look for witness of God's activity, God's grace, God's compassion, lived out in the lives of people, congregations and communities. It is absolutely vital that we hear these stories of God's movement, stirring God's people to share in God's loving action."

He urged the communicators to be guided by the question, "What will further the work, love and purpose of Christ?" And he concluded, "Tell stories which break open our minds and hearts, that show us where Christ's heart is breaking, so that God's grace can flow through us. Tell stories that call us out of self-centered disregard to new compassion, care and hope."

He ended by warning that, because the church's communicators "see the best and the worst of the church, disillusionment, cynicism and despair are frequent companions. And your role of telling the truth brings you up against unfair structures and self-serving people all too frequently. Seek the things that give you life, that give you joy...."

The future of communications?

Herb Gunn of Michigan, president of Episcopal Communicators, said that the organization "has been knocking on the door of the church for 25 years" but there is still some confusion over the role of communicators in the church. Yet he reported that the organization would make a presentation to the House of Bishops meeting in September.

"We want to help the church tell its story," Gunn said, "to share the Good News -- even if it is bad news. And we want to challenge the church to recognize the value of what we do." He suggested that members work toward a goal of 10 percent of diocesan budgets set aside for communication.

Yet he pointed out that there are still "empty chairs" at meetings of the communicators -- some representing colleagues who have lost their jobs, but also others who are not affiliated with the organization. "We need to work on the issue of vocation."

"Not only must we continue to communicate the message of the Episcopal Church to the outside world, we must be courageously persuasive within the church about the nature and the need for effective communications," he wrote in an article prior to the meeting.

Elected to the board were Ed Stannard of Episcopal Life, Karin Hamilton of Connecticut and Kay Collier-Slone of Lexington.

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