A new strategy

by Editor · January 23, 2008

WHEN the bishops of Southern Africa meet in late January and early February for their summer plenary session, their agenda will include the question of social communications: the means by which the Church speaks to itself and others.

The bishops will hear a presentation by media consultants who will advise them of the challenges and opportunities the local Church faces in the way it uses the various media.

The timing of this is opportune as the Church prepares to mark the 2000th anniversary of St Paul with a whole year, starting in June, dedicated to the Apostle of the Gentiles. It was the media savvy of St Paul which was pivotal in building and shaping the Church as he used the channels of media available to him to spread the Good News. Long before the advent of the printing press, never mind electronic communications, Paul communicated to the faithful through the medium of public letters.

The epistles of Paul and other contributors to what we now know in the New Testament were to their times what the newspaper column, the radio broadcast, the pastoral letter or blogging are to us now. No doubt, if Paul had had access to the media resources we take for granted, he would write prodigiously in the press, run his own radio or TV station, and have an innovative Internet site.

As our bishops listen to the media consultants, they may well think of St Paul and the four evangelists and reflect on how the Church might have developed had its early leaders been indifferent to the importance of media. Some may also agree that the Church in Southern Africa has not always used the media effectively, or even sensibly.

The inattentiveness to media finds illustration in the progressive downgrading of the bishops� conference�s social communications ministry, from the priority status of a commission to that of a desk. In the mid-1980s, the bishops founded a newspaper to communicate its social justice concerns within the environment of apartheid. Today, the faithful rarely see their shepherds in the public eye, or hear the Church�s message in the secular media; and when they do, it often is distorted. For this, South Africa�s frequently, though not invariably, hostile secular media is not to blame alone.

For many reasons, the Church has failed to gain access to the mainstream media, give or take a handful of individuals. One reason has been an apparent lack of strategy and motivation to establish a media presence. Yet, leadership requires an ability to communicate effectively; and when many are to be led, the means and quality of communication are crucial.

It is therefore most welcome that the bishops have recognised the need for a media strategy, and are obtaining guidance in improving its use of the media.

We do not presume to guess what nature the counsel of the bishops� consultants will take. We hope that part of the new strategy will include strengthening the social communications office within the bishops� conference, staffing it adequately to assist the bishops� communications officer, Fr Chris Townsend, who has served his function admirably.

Running an effective media strategy requires funding. One may hope that this year more than the small handful of dioceses of last year will have second collections on Social Communi-cations Sunday in September to accomplish the successful implementation of a media strategy.

May the whole Church, all of us, embrace the social communications apostolate enthusiastically.