Associated Church Press members met in Westlake, Texas in April for the ACP's annual convention, with the theme of "refresh, relax and renew." But in addition to enjoying R&R&R at the resort-like Dallas Marriott Solana hotel, members focused on an intensive program of professional-development workshops to help members hone their
writing, editing and Web skills.

Attendees also learned from each other, celebrating the “Best of the Christian Press” at ACP’s annual awards banquet April 22.

The annual convention, April 20-23, helped more than 110 members, speakers, sponsors, guests and workshop leaders share prayers as well as up-close interaction with
compelling keynote speakers Phyllis Tickle, Richelle Wiseman and Mark Galli.

Five-hundred-year cycles

Monday's luncheon keynoter, Phyllis Tickle, captivated the crowd with a 2,500-year march through the history of the human quest to know God. About every 500 years for the past two millennia, seismic changes have engulfed Christianity -- and before that, Judaism.

Weaving in an analysis of the current "emerging church movement," Tickle considers the current upheaval in the Church the ""Great Emergence."

"Emerging or emergent Christianity is the new form of Christianity that will serve the whole of the Great Emergence in the same way that Protestantism served the Great Reformation," she said.

Hear her full address in MP3 form here (members only).

North and south of the border

At the Sunday evening reception/keynote event, Richelle Wiseman, executive director of the Centre for Faith and the Media, Calgary, Canada, discussed the differences between Canadian and U.S. public expressions of faith and the place of secular and religious media in covering the beat.

The differences are rooted in the two countries' vastly different experiences with colonialism and nation building, Wiseman said. For example, Canadians -- including Canadian politicians -- tend to have a different view than U.S. citizens do of authority and individualism, including the importance of declaring their involvement in faith communities.

You would rarely, if ever, hear a Canadian politician talk about his faith the way U.S. candidates for office do, she said. Most Canadian media simply don't cover that side of candidates’ and office holders' lives.

The Centre for Faith and the Media is a national non-profit organization based in Calgary, which works to improve the quality and quantity of religion and faith stories in Canadian media. Wiseman also was Director of Communications for Canada's faith network, Vision TV.

http://www.faithandmedia.org/contact

Beyond Smells and Bells

At the Tuesday luncheon, Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today, talked about his latest book, Beyond Bells and Smells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy (Paraclete Press).

The history of liturgy has been in part about finding words and ritual that help people in a given culture express their thoughts and feelings to God in ways that make cultural sense, Galli said, adding that the liturgy has always had freedom and variety within its basic structure.

By "liturgy," Galli referred to the prayers, responses, and shape of worship one finds in Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox services, and to a lesser degree, in Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, and other mainline churches.

"If you examine the full service of each of these traditions, you'll find a surprisingly common worship order, and prayers and responses that are identical in many places," he said. "The shape of this liturgy has its origin in the early church, and has been molded by the history of the church up to the present."

While many churches are seeking ways to become more "relevant" (Galli gave the example of a church in Florida called "Relevant,") liturgy can offer a grounding that can transcend the surrounding culture, not just reshape itself to fit the cultural styles of the moment.

Hear his full address in MP3 format. (members only).

'Best of the Best' celebrated

ACP members submitted hundreds of entries to be sorted, shipped and judged for the annual “Best of the Christian Press” awards, presented at the April 22 banquet under the direction of board members Jane Swanson-Nystrom and Sonia Solomonson.

“Best in Class” awards of excellence went to publications in nine categories:

 

 

In the "Acorn Award" category, which recognizes publications that excel using modest resources, the Award of Excellence went to Canadian Adventist Messenger, Crystal Holloway, editor; Joan Tanasiychuk, designer.

A full list of winners is in a PDF document at:

ACPawards2007.pdf

Sponsors bring valuable resources

This year's sponsors provided the valuable resources that made the convention a resounding success.

Christine Moore, of the Jordan Tourism Board, brought news of the next planned press trip to Jordan (see coverage of the 2007 trip here). An exceptional benefit of ACP membership for the past four years is the annual press trip to help U.S. religious journalists gain familiarity with the Kingdom of Jordan and to see first-hand some of the remarkable biblical and archaeological sites in that land east of the River Jordan. For many of the participants in the most recent trip – 20 members of the Associated Church Press and the Evangelical Press Association – the experience was just the beginning of a continuing interest in Jordan.

IPC Print Services had some of the ACP members' publications they print on display. IPC prints and distributes more than 400 magazines and journals, most publishing monthly. IPC, a generous supporter of the ACP, is a printing services company specializing in print manufacturing, electronic publishing, data management, assembly, distribution and fulfillment. The foundation of the company's printing business includes religious, scientific, medical and technical journals. With a 50-plus-year history in the industry, IPC is recognized for its excellence in printing and superior customer service.

For more information on how IPC can help you achieve publishing success, contact:

501 Colonial Drive
St. Joseph, MI 49085
Phone : 888-563-3231
E-mail: sales@ipcprintservices.com

The Humane Society

Representatives from the The Humane Society of the United States exhibited for the first time this year at the ACP convention, but already seem like part of the family. Their presentation impressed attendees with the point that our treatment of animals is a matter of our responsibility to God's creation. The society’s “Animals and Religion: Food, Farming and Faith” program highlights the central role of food in religious traditions and promotes faithful stewardship of animals in agriculture. Among its activities, the program explores the sacred dimensions of food in various religious traditions. The society also highlights its vital place in community and faith (e.g., Kosher, Halal and the Eucharist) and encourages religious institutions and people of faith to purchase more humane and sustainably produced food. The program advocates for improved farm animal welfare policies at the local, state and national levels.

More information: www.hsus.org/religion/

HarperOne, the preeminent publisher of religion and spirituality books, again provided support for the convention, including copies of the Bible (NRSV) for all attendees. HarperOne also shared information about its upcoming "Green Bible," the first Bible to highlight how the scriptures teach the importance of caringfor God’s creation, due out this fall. The Green Bible will specifically focus on creation care, with input from leading Christian conservationists, theologians, and practitioners, showing that creation care is not just a calling, but a lifestyle. The Green Bible will be produced using environmentally sensitive materials including special paper and covers.

Greetings from EPA

Sandra Glahn, a member of the Evangelical Press Association board, greeted ACP members and put in a good word for the concurrent ACP/EPA conventions, May 6-8, 2009 in Indianapolis, Ind. The gathering will allow the two associations to assemble a larger schedule of workshops and some shared events, while retaining distinct features that will reflect each group's traditional convention program. The 2009 gathering will give the two organizations greater leverage in attracting major speakers and workshop leaders, and will help keep hotel and meeting costs low. Members also can benefit by hearing about church-communications issues from fresh perspectives. The two groups have held concurrent meetings in the past and conduct a popular series of professional development seminars every fall.

"The last time we met together like this was 20 years ago, so we thought it was time to do it again," said Glahn, editor of Kindred Spirit, published by Dallas Theological Seminary.

Leadership elected

ACP board member Leanne Larmondin completed her second three-year term this year and is not eligible for re-election; Cynthia Martens (2008) completed her term with this convention. Sonia Solomonson stepped down from the board.

At the annual business meeting, members elected the following to leadership positions (biographical material provided by electees):

Board Member: Kate Sprutta Elliott, who has been the editor of Lutheran Woman Today, the magazine of Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), since 2005. Before that, she served as editor for Seeds for the Parish, a resource newspaper for leaders published by the ELCA Department for Communication from 1999 to 2005. From 1995 to 1999 she was associate editor at Lutheran Woman Today. Before coming to the ELCA, she was assistant editor for Consumer's Digest and Your Money. She has also worked for two Chicago-based non-profit organizations: The Chicago Foundation for Women and the AIDS Action Project at Howard Brown Medical Center in Chicago. She has a B.A. degree in literature from Wheaton College and some seminary training. Several years ago, she was the editor of the newsletter for the Religion Communicators Council. Kate serves on the awards committee of the Associated Church Press; previously she was on the ACP nominations committee. She has attended every ACP convention since 1996.

Board Member: David W. Reid, publisher and editor of Vital Theology. Reid founded the independent, subscription newsletter in 2004 to provide theological perspectives on issues in the news. From 2000 to 2003, he was director of communications at Duke University Divinity School, where he helped establish a state-wide contest for excellence in religion reporting. Previously, he spent 14 years in corporate communications in Boulder and Denver, Colorado. His earliest experience was in daily newspapers in Spokane, Washington; Cincinnati; and Denver. A lifelong Methodist, David graduated from American Baptist-affiliated Linfield College in Oregon. His spouse is Louann Reid, professor of English education at Colorado State University "and the family’s best editor," he said.

Board Member: The. Rev. Shane Whisler, who is the associate executive for communications for a regional division of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) called Synod of the Sun, with offices in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. After earning a journalism degree at Oklahoma University he spent three years as a reporter, photographer and editor for a small daily and a weekly newspaper in Oklahoma. He then attended Austin (TX) Presbyterian Theological Seminary and served as an associate pastor at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, Austin, Texas, for six years before accepting the call to serve the synod. He and his wife, Rev. Pat Felter, live in Dallas with their two young children and multiple species of pets.

Treasurer: Everett Thomas began as editor of The Mennonite in November 2000, coming to that role after serving 11 years as president of a denominational agency in the (former) Mennonite Church. Everett graduated from Goshen (Ind.) College in 1972 with a degree in English and spent 15 years as a high school English teacher and later as an administrator. He also received the M. Div. degree from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., in 1998. Everett is an avid sailor with a boat on Lake Michigan. He currently serves as president of the Goshen Rotary Club and has been on the Goshen City Council since 1991.

ACP, at 91, is the oldest ecumenical Christian press organization in North America, made up of almost 200 publications, editors and writers.