Council of General Synod gets Vision 2019 update

Mississauga, Ont.
The Vision 2019 Task Force has unveiled some of its marketing strategy for encouraging Anglicans across the country to participate in a project to “help dream, discern and decide” what the church should be by 2019.

Web manager Brian Bukowski reported to the meeting of Council of General Synod (CoGS) that the first phase of the project, a mission study, has received good feedback and response with 1,700 downloads of the study from the Web site and almost 9,000 visits to the site.

CoGS members, meeting here from May 8-10, received a package of advertising materials for Vision 2019’s “Dream Baby Dream” campaign – which features a baby trying on a mitre (the pointed bishop’s hat) – including a poster and descriptions of “Tell Us Your Story,” the second phase of the project, in which Anglicans are asked to give personal responses to the questions “Where is your church now, and where do you want the Anglican Church of Canada to be in 2019?” The kit also includes sample bulletin inserts, postcards and a Sunday School lesson on the theme. Written by Fiona Brownlee, communications officer from the Council of the North, the lesson is intended to be used on Sunday, June 7.

Lisa Barry, senior producer for Anglican Video, showed CoGS members a promotional video that can be seen on the Anglican Church of Canada’s Web site, its Facebook page, and YouTube that features outtakes from a photo shoot done with babies and toddlers for the poster. A second video, which features Anglicans talking about their visions for the church’s future will be used as a commercial on the Web site to model the kind of submissions the committee is looking for, she said.

Ms. Barry says the goal is to hear from every single Anglican in the country in whatever form they prefer – letters, e-mail, phone calls or video messages that can be submitted up until Oct. 1.

New communications technology has made it possible to process all that information, Ms. Barry said. “What we have now did not even exist a year ago … The work that we are doing on this 2019 is being watched by other groups, other churches, the World Association for Christian Communication, by Amnesty International. They are watching us because they watched Amazing Grace and got excited about that. They are realizing the potential of these media.”

(Amazing Grace was a 2008 project in which Anglican groups and parishes recorded videos of their renditions of the classic hymn, which were sent to General Synod posted on the Web and edited into a compilation video, raising $90,000 for the Council of the North in the process. The Council of the North is a grouping of financially assisted dioceses in Canada’s North, which are supported through grants by General Synod.)

Marlene Morris and Associates has been hired to analyze the responses, said Ms. Barry, explaining that computer programs will help identify trends in the responses. The collected and interpreted results will be shared at the next gathering of General Synod in June 2010.