CHURCH communications are a complicated business. We who attempt this craft are expected to be informative, erudite, even inspiring. Often, our jobs are made more difficult by forces beyond our control.
Unnecessary levels of bureaucracy aggravate us. Uncooperative sources challenge us. Incorrect information frustrates us.
In a recent e-mail from one of the many lists to which I subscribe, I noticed a passing reference to the “the collapse of official (Anglican) news sources in Canada”. A flurry of e-mails between myself, my director, and the author of the quote which had originally appeared on a well-known Anglican portal website revealed that the writer believed that since the Anglican Church of Canada hadn’t issued a press release in months, its communications department was defunct.
Despite all the effort and time poured into the Anglican Church of Canada’s communications, one incorrect comment could easily undo months of work on the national church’s website. If people believed that our communications had, indeed, collapsed, it would not be too much of a stretch to believe they might begin avoiding the site in droves.
It is no secret that the national church’s finances are in peril. Perhaps when there had not been any official press releases from the Anglican Church of Canada in a while, some concluded that communications had broken down.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
While it is true there has been no reason in recent months to issue press releases from the national office, news abounds. The Anglican Journal continues its 127-year tradition of offering Anglicans news in their mailboxes and, since 1998, online (anglicanjournal.com). MinistryMatters, General Synod’s three-times yearly magazine aimed at those in ministry, is available at www.anglican.ca/mm and Anglican News Service will issue press releases as required and offer them on the national church website at www.anglican.ca/news
Then there is the original news and features on the site’s home page (www.anglican.ca) and in its news section (www.anglican.ca/news). You can also subscribe to have the news, features and press releases from the website e-mailed to you. To subscribe, go to www.anglican.ca/news/acc-news.htm
That’s all there is to it.
Let it not be said that we are not good news people.
Leanne Larmondin is manager of the Anglican Church of Canada website, www.anglican.ca