WACC-Europe assembly elects Juha Rajamäki as new president

Juha Rajamäki, new president of WACC-Europe

Juha Rajamäki from Finland is the new president of WACC-Europe. He was elected at the regional assembly, held from 2 to 6 April 2008 in Paralimni/Agia Napa, Cyprus. .

Rajamäki, head of the television department of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, was elected president for the upcoming three years. He will also represent the European region on the global board of WACC.

The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) operates from headquarters in Toronto, Canada. Its aim is to promote communication for social change consistent with Christian values. Christian communicators and journalists from all over the world may be corporate or personal members of this network. Right now WACC has members in 120 countries, organised in eight regional associations that include WACC-Europe..

Rajamäki is the successor of Piet Halma. The Dutchman served as an officer of WACC-Europe for six years, first as secretary and for the last three years as president. Halma will remain vice-president of WACC-Global until a meeting of its board during the international congress on “Communication is peace” at Cape Town, South Africa in October 2008.

The other officers of the new steering committee are: Luca M. Negro (Italy/Switzerland) as vice-president, Marion Klaseie (Norway) as secretary and Pauline Mumia (Kenya/Switzerland) as treasurer. The steering committee will also include the following members: Praxedis Bouwman (the Netherlands, who will join Rajamäki on the board of WACC-Global), Stephen Brown (Great Britain/Switzerland), Nicolae Dascalu (Romania), Juha Kinanen (Finland), Silke Römhild (Germany), Sara Speicher (Great Britain), Meelis Süld (Estonia) and Danielle Vergniol (France).

The assembly received reports that good work has been done in the last three years; special credit was given to the successful TV festival in Kristiansand (Norway) which was held in May 2007. WACC-Europe has organised such a festival every three years in cooperation with SIGNIS (the World Catholic Association for Communication). The festival attracted over 70 participants. The next festival will be held in 2010.

WACC-Europe was also among the initiators of a new network of press officers from the European Churches, which met for the first time in Sibiu, Romania, in September 2007.

The new steering committee was instructed by the assembly to look for additional means of raising the visibility of the WACC network. Officers and members of the steering committee will meet next November in Geneva to formulate new plans and activities intended to benefit all members of the European network.

The regional assembly is held once every three years.

To watch a video about the conference Click here

For more information: www.wacc-era.net