Kinnamon initiates a dialogue
with ecumenical communicators

Denver, November 10, 2008 -- The General Secretary of the National Council of Churches tonight began what he said would be an ongoing conversation with ecumenical communicators about the theology of communication and the way the NCC story should be told.

The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, who was elected General Secretary a year ago, addressed the NCC Communication Commission on the eve of the annual General Assembly of the NCC and Church World Service and said he knows less about the communicators' work than that of the Council's three other program commissions.

But Kinnamon, who in 1968 was on the night news staff of KSL in Salt Lake City and anchored the nightly news program on his college station, said he was deeply concerned about the issue of "credible communication" when he was on the Geneva staff of the World Council of Churches in the early 1980s.

"Tonight I want to raise questions with you that I hope we will be able to discuss more thoroughly in our future meetings together," Kinnamon told commissioners who represent communications offices of the NCC's member communions and other church organizations.

For example, he said, "is there a need for more work in articulating a theology of communication?" He quoted Dr. Pauline Webb, an internationally-known religious broadcaster, writer and ecumenical leader from London, England, who warned against a church tendency to reduce communication to technique and not ask what is the purpose of communication in God's plan.

"Communication in the Christian perspective is inherently personal," Kinnamon said. "It begins with God's communication with us, most especially in the person of Jesus Christ," and results in the building of community.

Kinnamon also asked the communicators how churches can balance the tension between the freedom of communication and the need to protect those who are harmed by various forms of communication.

"Some groups don't have equal access to media," he said, and many are victims of distorted media stereotypes. "Communication has the power to divide us as well as the power to bring us together in community," he said.

A third question Kinnamon raised was about the style of ecumenical communication. "Face-to-face communication or direct dialogue has been the central discipline of the ecumenical movement," he said, citing the series of church-to-church visits that are taking place among member communions this year. Given the development of new communications technologies, he said, it was worth discussing how this discipline could be maintained.

Kinnamon's fourth question invoked one of his central themes since he became General Secretary. "Is there a tendency among communicators to think of the National Council of Churches as a cooperative agency rather than a community of the churches?" he asked. "Churches think they have joined an organization that does ecumenical things on their behalf. But our constitution is quite clear that the essence of the Council is a community of Christian communions (that) come together as the Council in common mission."

"The purpose of the Council," he said, "is to renew the church through the sharing of gifts."

In a brief discussion that followed before Kinnamon left for another meeting, the Rev. Dr. William F. Fore, retired chief of NCC Communication, made an ironic reference to the questions, saying, "I hate 'em because they're difficult to deal with, but they are the right questions."

One of the basic roles of ecumenical communicators, Fore said, "is to tell our stories -- how we got here, what we went through, what we did. There are a number of ways we can do this -- drama or music or one-on-one -- but telling the stories is important."

The General Assembly of the NCC and Church World Service, consisting of more than 200 representatives of NCC and CWS member communions, will be called to order Tuesday afternoon and will adjourn following a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Federal Council of Churches Thursday night.

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228, NCCnews@ncccusa.org