By Ali Symons, WACC -North America Regional Executive Member

An open, unrestricted Internet is worth protecting said speakers at “Net Neutrality: What You Need to Know,” a Dec. 6 webinar co-sponsored by the World Association for Christian Communication North America (WACCNA) and OC Inc., the United Church of Christ’s media justice advocacy arm. Thirty people tuned in to the one-hour, online seminar about net neutrality issues in the United States and Canada. WACCNA and OC Inc. hosted two guest speakers: Cheryl Leanza, Policy Advisor at OC Inc. (USA) and Reilly Yeo, Managing Director of OpenMedia.ca, a Canadian non-profit organization that advocates for an open and affordable Internet. Read more...

Founded in 1987 the Academy recognizes and honours women and men in India and outside the country. They are people who have made significant contributions to affirming the values of church and to promoting the welfare of society in fields such as: academics, economic justice, ecumenism, theological education, church administration, communication, ecological and gender justice, and liberation of oppressed people with special emphasis on Dalits and Adivasis.

By Lavinia Mohr, Deputy General Secretary of WACC

José Luis Aguirre, President of WACC Latin America also new WACC Global Board  Director, is the Director of Servicio de Capacitacion en Radio y Television para el Desarrollo  (SECRAD), a unit of the Universidad Católica Boliviana (UCB) in La Paz, Bolivia. He has been involved with WACC since the 1990s when he was directing Radio San Miguel de Riberalta, a church radio station in the Beni area of the Bolivian Amazon. The radio joined WACC and José himself became a personal member. He has actively advanced WACC in Andean regional and Bolivian gatherings.  Some of WACC’s Andean sub-regional meetings have been held at the UCB. During all this time, he has found WACC publications to be very useful.

ANNOUNCEMENT

The World Association for Christian Communication - North America Region (WACC North America) & Office of Communication, Inc (OC, Inc) invite you to a webinar on Net Neutrality to be held on Tuesday, December 6th, 2011 from 1pm to 2pm Eastern time.

Faith communities and social justice advocates have invested significant resources in new technologies – from web sites to online video to an increasing interest in social media. But did you know that Internet policies in the US and Canada could adversely impact our investments in electronic communication? The Internet that we know today could be rapidly moving to a model that resembles the old broadcast and cable model dominated by a few deep-pocketed corporate interests.

The International Diaspora Film Festival (IDFF) is taking place in Toronto, Canada, 1-6 November 2011. It provides audiences with an opportunity to experience the cultural mosaic of the present world through the medium of cinema.

The IDFF is organized by director Shahram Tabe and co-director Paul de Silva, who is also a member of WACC's Board of Directors. De Silva served on the Ecumenical Jury at the 2011 Montreal World Film Festival.

Dr. Fore picked the School because he wanted his website in the hands of a world-class institution for the study and practice of religions in life-affirming ways. Bill Fore was President of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) 1982-90 and is an Honorary Life Member. (Photo: George Conklin.)

Many people are not aware that U.S. televangelists broadcasting on satellite TV are often the main source of theological education in less developed countries today. Religion-Online.org gives a much sought-after alternative. On this thoughtfully indexed, public-domain website, students of religion can access theological texts by real scholars, texts that many of them cannot afford to buy and often cannot find in their country’s libraries. Dr. Fore, Religion-Online’s creator and moderator, has received hundreds of emails thanking him for making this resource available.

The site is one of the most heavily used online resources in the area of religion. According to Google statistics, this year it had about 10 million hits by visitors from more than 200 different countries.

Dr. Fore is one of America’s true pioneers in journalism, mass media, and mainstream Christianity. The retired Yale professor has been on the ground floor for the beginnings of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Council of Churches, and organizations that promote communications and broadcasting in less developed countries. One of his proudest accomplishments, however, has been the creation of Religion-Online, which he originally designed in 1997 so that his theology students in India and others like them could have access to books that were impossible for them to afford.

Religion-Online offers scans of more than 6,000 book chapters, articles, and speeches, including an extensive collection of Christian Process Theology; an especially rare collection of Indian Dalit (“untouchables”) writings on theology, sociology, and ethics; as well as collections of Hindu and Buddhist Theology. However, says Fore, the site still has gaps in Judaism, Islam, and other religions that he hopes Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Lincoln University will eventually be able to fill.

“This is a wonderful gift,” said Rev. Dr. Jerry D. Campbell, president of Claremont. “It is an honor that Bill Fore has entrusted us with the future of Religion-Online, and we are extremely grateful. We will take our new responsibility very seriously.”

“Around the world, Religion-Online has been the premier way of making recent religious thought available to masses of people,” said eminent Process Theologian Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr. “This has included process thought quite broadly. Hundreds of thousands of people interested in thoughtful religion, but who know little about North American theological institutions, will become aware of how the Claremont School of Theology is helping them.”

Established in 1885, Claremont School of Theology is an ecumenical institution of The United Methodist Church, situated in Southern California among the prestigious Claremont Colleges.  The School recently co-founded the Claremont Lincoln University, a multi-religious university affiliated with the School of Theology to educate religious professionals, scholars, and leaders from all faith backgrounds for service to society and the world.  

Source: Claremont School of Theology. Contact Claudia Pearce: cpearce (at) cst.edu

The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) has expressed solidarity with WACC-Pacific members in calling for an end to government harassment of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma.

“We urge the Fijian government to respect religious freedom and to engage in peaceful dialogue with church leaders to resolve difficulties and tensions,” said WACC General Secretary, Rev. Karin Achtelstetter.

Suva, Fiji Islands, September 4, 2011

		Pacific Members of the World Association for Christian Communications (WACC) based in Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Tahiti, Tonga, Vanuatu, committed to the development, production and distribution of communications tools grounded in the commitment to social and gender justice and communication rights, call for the restoration of inclusive dialogue processes with the leadership of the Methodist Church in Fiji. "The state needs to demonstrate a commitment to an inclusive process to the return to parliamentary democracy," says the President of WACC’s Pacific Regional Association, Rev. Akuila Yabaki:
President of the WACC Pacific Region, Rev. Akuila Yabaki

Latin American communicators reaffirm commitment to communication rights on the continent

By María Teresa Aveggio, Programme Manager and regional Staff Liaison

Meeting in San Antonio de Escazú, in Costa Rica, 15 - 21 August 2011, members of the Latin American Regional Association of WACC elected a new Regional Executive Committee and made their contribution to WACC’s new Strategic Plan.

Well known Bolivian communicator and communication rights advocate, José Luis Aguirre, was elected as the new regional president, while Vilma Peña of Costa Rica was elected vice president and Marcela Gabioud of Argentina was elected secretary. Eloy Teckemeier, director of Editora Sinodal in Brazil, was elected regional treasurer and Carlos Leon Ramos of El Salvador is the committee’s member at large.

Pacific faith-based communicators call for ecological justice.

By Teresia Mutuku, Communication Officer and Web Manager, WACC

WACC-Pacific members have called on church leaders to foster communication on climate change and ecological justice among the Pacific islands communities.

In a Declaration issued at the end of their general assembly held in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, July 25 – 30, 2011, the members also called for climate justice issues to be incorporated in general education curriculum and theological formation.

Some of the WACC-Pacific members attending seminar and general assembly in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, July 25 – 30, 2011.

Seminario Internacional

El próximo 18 de agosto dará inicio en San José, Costa Rica el Seminario Internacional: Nueva comunicación para garantizar los derechos comunicacionales de nuestros pueblos. Este encuentro concentrará a comunicadores y comunicadoras  de toda América Latina, miembros de WACC, asi como invitados e invitadas locales.

WACC-Asia Sunday, 26 June 2011

The annual WACC-Asia Communication Sunday will be observed this Sunday, June 26, on the theme “Communicating Climate Justice”, the theme of the Triennial Meeting of the WACC- Asia Region which concluded recently in Indonesia.