Communication Sunday aims to recognize the vital role played by communication in "promoting greater understanding, peace and the promise of reconciliation." Photo: Dmitriy Shironosov
Asia-based members of the World Association for Christian Communication marked Communication Sunday on September 2, making liturgical resources, stories and ideas available to all churches.
“In the spirit of communication for all, I would like to thank the WACC Asia Region for its gift to all our members and partners of a day on which to recognize the vital role played by communication in promoting greater understanding, peace and the promise of reconciliation,” said WACC General Secretary the Rev. Karin Achtelstetter.
It was the fourth annual commemoration of Communication Sunday and this year, the theme was “God of life: lead us to justice, peace and reconciliation with creation,” according to WACC-Asia President the Rev. Samuel Meshack.
It is based on the theme of the upcoming 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC): God of Life: Lead us to Justice and Peace. The Assembly is scheduled to be held in Busan, South Korea from 30 October to 8 November, 2013. WACC is based in Toronto.
The WACC-Asia regional executive committee prepared a resource booklet to guide churches and Christian institutions in celebrating the theme. The booklet provides liturgical resources as well as stories and ideas that can be used in the context of celebrating communication in worship. A PDF copy of the booklet can be downloaded here.
In a preamble to the booklet, Achtelstetter observed that “new media technologies have expanded the communication opportunities for many people around the world and helped to amplify alternative voices.”
She invited members and partners to share the booklet widely and use it as a tool to advocate and promote communication for all, especially the marginalized who are striving for peaceful coexistence with each other.
WACC President Dennis A. Smith, in his preamble, wrote that communicators have the key task of “shedding light on that which has been hidden — the lies and corruption of the powerful — but also to lift up before the world those that have been made invisible.”
“As communicators we understand that building meaning together, a sacred task, is not only a tool but also a process, a way of being, on the path to justice, peace and reconciliation with Creation,” he said.
A print copy of the resource booklet can be requested from the WACC-Asia President at sammeshack@gmail.com.