September 28-30, 2009:
Commission to meet in New York City

The Communication Commission is planning its fall 2009 meeting in New York City, beginning on Monday morning, Sept. 28, and concluding on Wednesday evening, Sept. 30.  The Interchurch Center, home of the National Council of Churches on Manhattan's upper west side, will be the starting point for some sessions, but several on-site visits to communication companies are planned, plus seminars and keynotes featuring New York-based communication leaders.  The three-day meeting will conclude with the annual Everett C. Parker Lecture on Telecommunication Ethics, to be held Sept. 30 at The Riverside Church. 

Mark your calendar now and watch this space for more information soon.

Recent Commission Meetings . . .

APRIL 20-22, 2009 IN NASHVILLE: The Communication Commission held its spring meeting at the Embassy Suites Vanderbilt Hotel and at the offices and studios of United Methodist Communications, whose staff brought the group an extensive presentation on coordinated communication strategies that demonstrate convergence across platforms and the use of social networking media.  Among other highlights was a discussion of local coverage of religion with Nashville Tennessean religion editor Bob Smietana (left), co-author of Good Intentions: Nine Hot Button Issues Viewed Through the Eyes of Faith.  The third Ecumenical Film Festival featured a half-dozen of the latest documentaries and outreach productions from Commission members. 

The commission also received progress reports on the development of the new interfaith media advocacy site, So We Might  See, a joint venture of the United Church of Christ, the NCC Communication Commission, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and other faith organizations.

NOVEMBER 10-12, 2008 IN DENVER: The Communication Commission held its fall meeting in conjunction with the 2008 General Assembly of National Council of Churches and Church World Service, November 11-13 at the Denver Renaissance Hotel.  The Commission met from midday on Monday, November 10, through Tuesday, November 11, followed immediately by the opening session of the colorful gathering of 35 Christian communions who work together in unity for justice, education and peace. 

A special feature of this Commission session was an opening dinner dialogue with the new general secretary of the National Council of Churches, Michael Kinnamon (right).  At lunch on Tuesday, the marketing and promotion committee hosted a program featuring Adam Dempsey, a prominent African-American advertising and broadcast executive in Denver, and greeted Mike Maus, former commission director, now in Denver.

Tuesday evening, commission members were invited to share dinner with the Assembly delegates from their own communions, and some stayed over to attend the full General Assembly, which adjourned Thursday night after a special dinner culminating the 100th anniversary of the modern ecumenical movement, which saw the drafting of the churches' Social Creed and the founding of the Federal Council of Churches, predecessor to NCC, in 1908. A highlight of the dinner was a presentation by Bill Fore, (left) a former director of the Communication Commission, now retired and living in California.

JUNE 4-6, 2008 IN MINNEAPOLIS:  The Communication Commission met for its 2008 spring meeting at Westminster Presbyterian Church, which was followed by the National Conference for Media Reform (NCMR) June 6-8, at the Minneapolis Convention Center two blocks away. 

The Commission opened with a dinner presentation by NCC President-Elect Peg Chemberlin,, (right) CEO of the Minnesota Council of Churches. The next day's lunch featured a presentation by Romeo Ramirez, member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a movement of mostly hispanic low-wage farmworkers in Florida, and Melody Gonzalez oof Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida and the Student/ Farmworker Alliance, shown at left.  They shared communications insights from the CIW's long struggle for fair treatment by the fast food industry, and described the operation of CIW's low-power community radio station, a key organizing asset. The luncheon was underwritten by Intersections, a ministry of New York's Collegiate Churches.

The commission's new Marketing and Promotion Committee held its initial session during the Minneapolis meeting and the Electronic Programming Committee sponsored its second Ecumenical Film Festival, showcasing faith productions of the Commission's member communions.

More than 3,500 registered for the media reform conference that followed. It featured addresses by Bill Moyers (right), Arianna Huffington, Dan Rather, and FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, and dozens of media-related seminars, including two faith-based sessions co-sponsored by the Communication Commission and developed by UCC staffer Cheryl Leanza.

For a brief summary of the other NCC Communication Commission meetings since 2001, click here. . .