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Communications
and Editorial
This committee is responsible for
the setting and maintenance of standards of all publications. It acts as
the Editorial and Management Board of REFORM, and is responsible for media
relations.
Committee Members
Convener: Revd Graham Cook Secretary: Mrs Carol Rogers
Revd David Coleman, Mrs Pat Stannard, Revd Peter Moth, Ms Kirsty Thorpe, Mr John East, Mr Richard Lathaen, Revd Michael Forster, Revd Paul Brewerton, and Revd Roger Hall
VISION
A CHURCH
THAT SAYS WELCOME WILL RECEIVE THE RESPONSE ‘WE’LL COME!’
1 Recent research among the
Books of Reports to General Assembly since the formation of the United
Reformed Church in 1972 has shown that the role of this committee, both
under the original title of Communications and Supplies and now as the
Communications and Editorial Committee has been, and is, seen as a service
to other committees, in preparing and publishing their material, usually
at the end of a piece of committee work, and often as an after thought.
However since the word heard most frequently in meetings at all levels,
and in all the councils of the Church is ‘Communication’, the
committee would contend that the question “How is this work to be
communicated” should be added to the remit of every committee, and
asked at the beginning of any new project. The committee also request that
the expertise to be found both within the committee membership and the
staff should be used to the full, consulting with the relevant people at
every stage. The work of the Communication and Editorial Committee should
be considered as a major tool for mission.
2 Practical Steps.
The resolution to General Assembly in 1999 that a communications
strategy should be developed for implementation at every level of the
church, has led to a programme being developed and begun. The first stage
has been to make material available on the United Reformed Church website
and the agreed logo is already available for local church use. More items
will be added in the next few months and during 2000 the committee will be
encouraging local churches to look at their buildings to see what sort of
impact is being made on the local community. A leaflet will be available
at General Assembly and will also be circulated to all local
congregations. It is planned to add designs for notice boards including
colour schemes and advice on typography to the website. Professional
expertise is being sought to ensure that the designs are suitable for
churches of all sizes and in all localities. Go back to your PC’s and
prepare for mission!
TEACHING
AND TRAINING
3 PUBLICATIONS
3.1 The Publications Board
has continued to meet regularly to oversee all publications. The Revd
Graham Cook has become the Convener of the Board together with his
covenership of the main committee. New titles for 2000 include Beginning
Prayer – a book of prayers suitable for use in the vestry and at
Elders and Church Meetings and edited by John Slow, a selection of
material from 10 years of the Prayer Handbook arranged liturgically and
chosen by Graham Spicer, a new and expanded edition of Under God’s
Good Hand by David Cornick and two further titles in the series of P T
Forsyth reprints. The Training Team has produced a pack of material for
those working with children and young people and this will be launched at
General Assembly. Much of the material published by the United Reformed
Church deserves a wider audience than merely within the denomination and a
trade list has been prepared and circulated to over 600 Christian
Bookshops. The response has been encouraging and as a result the
Publications Board have decided to adopt a publishing imprint which will
help to widen the appeal of United Reformed Church Publications especially
to booksellers. The name suggested is Granary Press. Statutory
Publications (Manual, Year Book, etc ) will continue to be published by
the United Reformed Church.
From information gained
from the Church Returns Forms it now seems that over 950 local churches
have bought copies of Rejoice & Sing and of these 856 consider
it to be the main hymn book in use The total number of copies sold now
exceeds 167,000.
Annual publications continue to sell well. Although the print run for the annual prayer handbook has been pruned to a realistic level in the past three years, for the first time all copies of the current book, Justice Joy and Jubilee, have been sold.
3.2 The United Reformed
Church Bookshop at Church House continues to be appreciated, with outlets
at the Windermere Centre, the National Youth Resource Centre, the
Community for Reconciliation and the Arthur Rank Centre. Sales of books
and publications continue to expand, particularly through mail order and
at special events. The discounts offered to ministers, students and lay
preachers are appreciated and there is great satisfaction among the staff
when some of the more obscure titles requested are tracked down. The
distribution service continues to deal with orders speedily, but
unfortunately problems with the postal service continue to be a regular
occurrence. Alternative services are being explored.
United Reformed Church
publications continue to reach a high standard of production. The members
of staff involved are constantly improving their expertise. The policy
using eco-friendly materials is being maintained and widened.
4 REFORM
4.1 Despite the apparent
reduction in numbers in membership, Reform’s circulation has remained
remarkably resilient, largely as a result of the success of the special
offer which provides any new member of the United Reformed Church with
free copies for three months. This has provided a refreshing antidote to
the inevitable regular losses at the upper end of the age-scale.
4.2 The high degree of
penetration which Reform has achieved over the years (it is read by a
higher proportion of its target audience than any other denominational
publication in Britain) has led to an increasing recognition of its value
to the United Reformed Church as a cost-effective means of communication
with members. The Information Service, which was both expensive to produce
and widely recognised as failing to reach the majority of its intended
audience, is now included in Reform on a three-monthly basis and is
reaching larger numbers of people for a lower cost. Discussions have also
taken place with FURY on the possibility of reaching younger members of
the Church by including material either in or alongside Reform.
4.3 For better or worse
Reform has also been one of the major arenas for the human sexuality
debate, generating a significant increase in the number of letters. The
Editor took a conscious decision to allow the correspondence to continue
while the debate continued to occupy the centre stage within the other
Councils of the United Reformed Church. In the absence of further major
initiatives in this area to provoke debate it is anticipated that the
correspondence can be de-emphasised and some of the space it formerly
occupied devoted to other uses.
5 ARTICLES of reformed
faith and religion …..
5.1 In 1997 we asked Graham
Cook to re-establish a magazine with theological content to take the place
of the defunct ‘Reformed Quarterly’. We asked that it should be
able to publish articles of greater length than ‘REFORM’. We
also asked that it should appeal to ministers and elders and members of
our church with a concern for an exploration of what it means to be
Reformed Christians now.
Since then there have been
nine issues of the magazine ‘ARTICLES of reformed faith and
religion’. It has explored such varied issues as
holiness, the nature of biblical authority, the place of God on the
campus, Mark’s Gospel, Taizé and Iona worship, ecumenism and mission,
ecumenical worship, the nature of call, and learning to receive
missionaries.
It has maintained a steady
number of subscribers of between 400-500. We believe that it deserves
more.
MISSION
6 PRESS AND PR
6.1 The majority of the
work done under this heading is inevitably private, and consists of
supporting and advising those who find their churches in situations which
might attract unfavourable press comment. A number of press releases are
also distributed over the year which are generally taken up by the
religious media but seldom, as we have noted frequently in previous years,
by the secular media.
7 Christian Resources
Exhibition
7.1 The committee heard
with some disappointment that the request for extra money to enable the
denomination to continue to be present at the Christian Resources
Exhibitions at Esher and Manchester had been turned down, but
understand that such events may not be seen as essential nor the best use
of available resources. The stands at the exhibitions in the last three
years have been much appreciated, especially by members of local churches,
and it is with gratitude that the committee have accepted the offer of
Thames North and Southern Synods to arrange and finance the stand at Esher
for this year and approaches have been made to other Synods with regard to
the Manchester Exhibition. Questions of the best way to promote the United
Reformed Church, both to local congregations, the wider church and to the
public at large need to be urgently addressed.
8 WEBSITE
(www.urc.org.uk)
8.1 The United Reformed
Church’s Website has been one of the undoubted success stories of the
last few years. It carries an ever-increasing quantity of information and
generates a large number of positive comments. The completion of the
computer network at Church House should ensure a greater flow of
information from individual offices within the building.
8.2 In all of this a word
of caution needs to be heard. A commercial Website of comparable size and
complexity in the commercial sphere would normally draw upon the resources
of a number of staff with specialist skills, all drawing significant
salaries. The United Reformed Church site has one-half of the time of a
graphic designer working in the Reform/Press Office. For that reason a
wide variety of otherwise desirable developments which are regularly
suggested by users and others simply beyond the resources available at
present and are likely to remain so unless circumstances alter
significantly.
8.3 The issue of
accessibility, especially in relation to those with more limited vision
was raised at Assembly in 1999. Advice was obtained from the RNIB which
suggested that the current approach to the site was broadly acceptable. A
larger font size is employed than in almost all commercial sites and
complex graphics for the purpose of navigation are avoided. A similar
question was raised with regard to users with older equipment who found
the downloading of graphic items unacceptably slow. This is a difficult
issue, since to constrain the design of the site completely to suit the
capabilities of older equipment would be to reduce its attractiveness
significantly for the majority of users. We have attempted to adopt a
middle way by keeping a careful eye on the size of graphics and, in
general, avoiding the use of otherwise desirable technical innovations
which might not be compatible with older equipment and software. It is,
however, important to recognise that there will undoubtedly be occasions
when users with particular combinations of hardware and software have
difficulties with the site. In the commercial world the solution to such a
problem would be to write alternative versions of the site suited to the
needs of different users but that strategy is beyond the resources
available to us.
9 CHRISTIAN COPYRIGHT
LICENSING
9.1 Almost 1200 local
churches now take part in the United Reformed Church / Christian Copyright
Licensing scheme for the reproduction of words for service sheets etc. A
number of churches have also taken out a licence to cover the reproduction
of music. This year sees the commencement of Christian Copyright Licensing
taking responsibility for the issuing of PERFORMING RIGHTS licences
for churches. All local churches are requested to look carefully at the
use made of their premises for activities other than services of divine
worship and to see if such a licence is required. To help churches
understand the situation pertaining to performing rights, a leaflet is
being circulated to all local churches.
THE WIDER
CHURCH
10 ECUMENICAL WORK
10.1 Churches
Advertising Network. In accordance with a decision of General Assembly
in 1998 the Committee makes an annual donation on behalf of the United
Reformed Church to the Network which has so far been at the level of £5000.
The Network’s campaigns frequently attract controversy and generate both
passionate support and opposition and the Committee’s support for their
work is not on the basis of detailed approval of each campaign. Rather,
the support is given because the Network has proved extraordinarily
effective in raising, once or twice a year, major religious issues in the
media. The space occupied in both print and electronic media far exceeds
what could reasonably be expected from such a relatively small expenditure
and the Committee believes it to be a very cost-effective piece of
‘mission to the culture’.
10.2 The secretary
continues to serve as Convener of the CHURCH PUBLISHERS NETWORK and
as a member of the MEDIA AWARENESS PROJECT.
10.3 The Revd Peter Moth
represents the Church at the CHURCHES ADVISORY COUNCIL FOR LOCAL
BROADCASTING and the committee share the concerns of the Council over
the future of religious broadcasting within
the BBC.
Resolution 21
Religious Broadcasting and the BBC
The General Assembly of the United
Reformed Church thanks the BBC for much splendid religious broadcasting
over many years and calls upon the Corporation:
a) to broadcast more religious radio
and television programmes at peak listening and
viewing times;
b) to restore the hours of religious television to the average of the 1980’s;
c) to ensure that in a time of budget
reductions high production values are maintained;
d) to produce programmes for young
people which treat religion seriously; and to give religious programmes a
prominent place in existing and future digital radio and television
channels.
1 The United Reformed Church is a
member of the Churches Advisory Council on Local Broadcasting (CACLB)
which has been following closely the debate about the current state of BBC
national religious broadcasting.
2 Questions asked in
Parliament and in other denominational assemblies indicate a fear that
religious programmes are being marginalised, with widespread worries about
scheduling, quality of content, staff cutbacks and budget restrictions.
3 CACLB believes that
accessible and good quality religious programmes nourish the human spirit
and offer insights into who, why and what people believe and how that
affects our society and the world. In contributing to an open and honest
discussion about BBC religious broadcasting it is hoped that it will
continue to flourish as an essential
part of the Corporation’s core public service responsibilities.
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