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History Part-time
communicator's lament - Virginia Barrett Barker
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Address from the President We are Episcopal Communicators. For three years, I have been proud and pleased to serve as president. For almost 10 years, I have been excited and energized to be a member of this organization. And in this, my last address to you as president, I want to reflect for a few minutes on why this organization is worth time, energy and vision. Episcopal Communicators: You are the conscience of the church, for without your work, the church does not know where it has been and will not know where it is going. You are the conscience of the church. These are difficult and challenging times for the conscience of the church. There is heightened anxiety and a sense on the part of the church leadership that the church is being misunderstood. The Episcopal Church is struggling to articulate its position within the Anglican Communion. There is a small but very vocal group that, by virtue of these divisions, would cause schism within the Episcopal Church. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and many of the bishops in the Episcopal Church deserve a lot of credit for remaining calm under fire. That should not go unnoticed. Many of us in this room have witnessed the pressure under which these church leaders attempt to hold the line and articulate a vision and a direction for the church and our dioceses. And many of us have witnessed the way our roles and the way our budgets have been viewed and reviewed under these kinds of anxieties and pressures. Episcopal Communicators have a vital role in these anxious times. We write the press releases. We shoot the videos. We maintain the web pages. We interpret for the secular media. But we also do something else that isn't very tidy. We seek the truth -- wherever it leads. This tenet was a foundation of the organization of the Episcopal Communicators 28 years ago. As an organization, we take very seriously our role as journalists. Our original bylaws from 1975 called on Episcopal Communicators to make a sharp distinction between communication and promotion. A good journalist seeks the truth, wherever it may lead. A good journalist writes with the reader in mind, not the news maker. In secular terms, this means maintaining first loyalty to the citizens, so that well-educated citizens can make decisions themselves. And a good journalist provides a forum for public debate and responsible criticism. If you donıt think this creates tension within a church bodyyou haven't really tried it. How many of you feel the tension -- sometimes a lonely tension -- in your work at home? How many of you have called or emailed an Episcopal Communicator colleague and asked, "Has this ever happened to you?" If you don't feel the tension, if you haven't phoned a friend, you might not be doing all you can to build the kingdom of God. When I represented the Episcopal Communicators to the House of Bishops in September 1999, I offered the bishops a story from the National Catholic Reporter published that very week. In that article, the Roman Catholic Church and its bishops were being urged to understand that church newspapers and religious journalists have a unique role -- "one of maintaining balance between being a public relations tool and a hard news secular paper. On one hand, overstepping that line in favor of public relations destroys the credibility of the paper. On the other, focusing exclusively on reporting news can cause the publication to lose sight of its mission to be a tool of evangelism." (NCR) As Episcopal Communicators, we must live and work in this tension! There is a strong movement within the Episcopal Church to not talk about "issues" . . . to not explore the divisions and the diversity among us. That is, to get rid of the tension between news and public relations. That is, to stop asking the hard questions. To leave the hard questions about the church to non-church journalists. This is a trend that must be examined and discussed. It is our job, as Episcopal Communicators, to help the church understand how this will adversely affect the church. At the same time, we must avoid the penchant for polarization. I am reading a book, The Elements of Journalism, that I recommend to all Episcopal Communicators. In it, reference is made to what Michael Crichton calls "The Crossfire Syndrome." "The irony is that though it does build a small but passionate following -- the shouting matches over time tend to alienate the larger public that increasingly fails to see itself in the debate." This is the "Argument Culture" where our secular press follows a few blockbuster stories and emphasizes a simplified, polarized debate. When we add to this cynicism, we watch people's apathy and indifference grow. And it leads to the withdrawal we often see in the church. We must avoid the Crossfire Syndrome and the Argument Culture, but we must not forget the role of journalism in our Church community life. Why is Episcopal journalism important to the Episcopal Church? Why should we risk telling the bad news if the church's business is telling the Good News? I contend that bad news is not the opposite of The Good News. Quite the contrary. We have just celebrated the stillness of Lent, the despair of Good Friday and the joy of Easter. Once the early disciples discovered the resurrection of Christ, they didn't stop telling the story of Good Friday. Quite to the contrary, the essence of our faith is that our community is not free from bad news and bad events. But that with God's help, the light will overcome darkness. Telling all the stories -- all the news -- with the confidence that darkness will be overcome by the light is the essence of the Good News. Let me put it another way. Six years ago, Barbara Crafton spoke to our annual conference. She suggested that the church must speak to the outside world -- not merely to ourselves. In other words, we need good church bulletins, enough prayer books, and a good email system -- but the church also needs journalism -- our own journalism. Episcopal journalism. But, she said, "We must write to those who reserve the right to make a judgment about the Episcopal Church." To put it in my own words -- perhaps more bluntly -- if someone is looking for an excuse to leave the church, they ought to find it within our own publications. Only then -- only if we are willing to have a truly open church, will people find the reasons not to leave this church, but to build this church. This is risky business. This adds anxiety, especially during anxious times. This means that if church leaders are feeling encircled, with the forces of opposition pressing inward, it well may be the Episcopal Communicator that gets tossed over the wall. But as Crafton said in her presentation, we must risk injury to self and the institution we love, "and write to the important part within each Episcopalian that seeks the truth upon which rests the genuine integrity of the Church." This is one of the roles of an Episcopal Communicator. And Episcopal Communicators are the conscience of the church. Be journalists. And in the spirit of one of our founders, Polly Bond, "Celebrate Life!" Thank you. [thunderous applause]
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