Press Releases
Canon Jim Rosenthal's address to the 'Church, Sociey and the Media' conference to celebrate 150 years of the 'Gazette'.
'Church, Society and the Media'
ALL HALLOWS COLLEGE, DUBLIN
Friday, 6th October 2006
Marking 150 years of the Church of Ireland Gazette
Address by Canon Dr Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications for the Anglican Communion
What a great privilege it is for me to be at this dinner, this conference and this time of thanksgiving for the ministry of the Gazette, a venerable institution. There is one thing for sure, when you get an email or a call from Ian Ellis you know that the task ahead of you is going to be formidable, maybe impossible, at least a challenge. Ditto if it comes from Janet as well. Ian?s invitation gives me an opportunity to look back, examine where we are in the realm of media and the current state of affairs in the Anglican Communion and in a cautious way to try to set a vision and some goals for what the future could bring for us as a 77 million-member Church in 164 countries in God?s world. First of all, however, it would be beyond my comprehension that I could stand in front of a group of people from the Church of Ireland and their friends and not say with the warmest feeling and deep emotion how much your Primate of All Ireland has meant to me in my work, a prelate who in all his busyness makes you know cares about you or me, and of course we all know what he has done for the Anglican Communion that which is beyond compare and which deserves our incredible gratitude.
I have to say for me, in my role as the Director of Communications in this great Communion - and I also might say that it was Archbishop Eames who took me for a quiet walk in a retreat centre in North Carolina, asking me to take on this post, after some very turbulent times - that I have always been supported again and again, not only professionally, but as I said personally by His Grace?s presence, prayers and often incredibly poignant hand-written notes which remain in my prayerbook to this day. So Archbishop and Lady Eames, whom I have known a long time, what a privilege to say in an assembly of your Church and its friends , thank you, thank you, thank you, Now I will get even more Irish about all this - I must also share with the audience that I eat and live and drink and exist in an Irish mode, because our current Secretary General, the Revd Canon Kenneth Kearon, is no stranger to you and has brought even more Irish pizzazz into the realms of the Anglican Communion Office in London as my boss, no less, and as a person already very much in touch with the people of the Communion world-wide after a short time in office. So other than the fact that I come from Chicago where we paint the streets and dye the river green for St Patrick?s Day, I may consider myself an honorary Irishman, but you may not be pleased with that. Kenneth has also brought into a closer tie with the southern province of the Church of Ireland and we have now been privileged to have Archbishop John Neil, whose liturgical dress is far more my style as an old fashioned Anglican Catholic, at our office in London. Dublin has become a hub city and cathedral that we all know better and that we enjoy, and indeed how good to be back at All Hallows with our Roman Catholic friends here.
I was told as a youngster that the non-Rosenthal part for me what was Scotch (not the drink), Irish, German and Swedish, so here I stand.
But back to Archbishop Eames, he was always at ease with the Press, as he was with us as communications staff and as well as other Primates and all the people he encountered in the many, many meetings that I have attended and staffed alongside him. He spoke with confidence. I always was the first to say that I wanted Archbishop Eames as the spokesman for meetings and luckily, I got my way, and I?m glad. I hope you realise that almost inevitably every time there was a really difficult moment, it was your Archbishop who was called on to moderate. That is no exaggeration. Maybe all bishops should study law!
"I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to the truth." Words of Reinhold Niebuhr.
Anyhow, moving on to the task in front of us - media, our society today, the Anglican Communion today, I won?t call it a crisis, but I do believe that the Anglican Communion will hear cries, cries of agony and despair, from the people we have tried to serve and deserve our care, as is our bounden duty and service, that we will hear cries from people if the system and what we call Communion cannot, will not, or refuses to live with the myriad differences which in some part have been around for many, many years. I have been there, seen it, smelled it, felt, wept over it, took the photo and tried my hardest to tell the story. Anglicans without clean clothes, books, food, health, O how unstereo- typical yet so real.
Addressing a question from the media in London the Archbishop of Canterbury on What is the value of preserving unity in the global Anglican Communion? Archbishop Rowan noted:
"It is my belief that there is something intrinsically valuable about union and harmony throughout the world-wide Anglican Communion ? bound together, as we are, as a voluntary union through sacramental interconnections among autonomous churches throughout the world."
There is no question that the world-wide communion is facing very real and pressing issues of that encourage divisiveness ? and not just issues of pure theology. Yet the vitality of the world-wide communion serves as the circulation of the blood of the body of Christ throughout our great institution.
What I will say in a moment reflects on why I believe the media has been such a strong part of the explosion of difference and as a church bureaucrat you will not be surprised that I may speak in the negative at times when referring to the media, at least the English media bosses, not necessarily the reporters, and the so called religious press, mainly from the USA.
As a journalist and communications officer, you will not be surprised that I say the media cannot be ignored. As a human being and someone who likes people, you will not be surprised to know that I?ll say, ?let?s engage them.? It can be done. You know, you people in Ireland are very lucky because your media folk have a reputation for excellence, accuracy and telling the truth, even in print and on the airways. In some cases the media has been a means helping heal the wounds of this beloved country.
Telling the truth, whether as we say in church terms, in love, or in the secular, in stark reality, can hurt and set in motion changes for those named as the perpetrators of this or that. When the media gets it wrong, as it does, as the church does as well, as we do in our own lives, people can be ruined. A correction on page 20 of the Daily This or That will never suffice as apology or making it right. Damage done.
Media makes a difference in a big way through the many vehicles it has at its disposal. I know the internet overwhelms but print is ever present. Look at any newsagent for proof. The church needs help in using all realms of media, but it needs money to do so, it won?t come naturally. So many times I wished I had enough money to take one page adverts in church papers or secular dailies, to really show ?them? ? whoever they are, the real story. But alas?
I was tempted to create for this audience the 39 Articles of Communications or the Ten Commandments of the same, but alas I will stick to the very Celtic Trinitarian model of 3 points to ponder:
Co-operate
Communicate
Commiserate
The Anglican Episcopal churches are struggling, as are all mainline churches, and those who have majesteriums and fundamentalism and say they are not will come to a sad awakening some day. To not be in conflict with this world, this wonderful, yet bizarre, this poignant yet diabolical world, is to be brain dead or numb to the suffering so vividly known to Anglicans as the via dolorosa, the way of the cross, the crucifix that adorn our churches.
Some people even thank us as an ?institution? for dealing rather painfully with sexuality issues, gender issues, power issues. These thanks come from ranking officials in other churches and organisations. The reality and truth is that other ?condemn? us for being open to the ?truth? ? remembering Pilate?s question to Our Lord ? what is truth? And maybe being open to the Spirit of Truth as well. The great phrase tossed around when women were first ordained was that the move was a ?testing? of the spirit, if of God it would be blessed and it not, well, then, it would fade away.
The daily news in print or TV/radio offers many things to the consumer. One thing the media provides for me is a prayer list. A strange attribute to the press, but jot down ten items on the 6 o?clock news or the first 10 pages of any paper and you have enough to pray without ceasing form sure.
Read a headline and say Lord hear our prayer, it is shocking. It helps keep you from wondering what someone else may be up to somewhere far away!
Any church, namely our churches, who thinks they can ignore or hide from the media ? such persons live in a rather mythical state. We must co-operate. Journalists and reporters have a job to do and we must meet their requests with professionalism, honesty and confidence.
Any media outlet that rubbishes the churches, even in this new world of multi faith, is foolish, half-hearted and unwise. In our communities churches continue, even when flawed, to be places of gathering and purpose for the wider community.
Hard questions are hard to answer but we must try. Is the Anglican Communion falling apart you might ask, no I say, but changing leaps and bounds. Is the Archbishop of Canterbury to be a pope, no I say, but his role, again with expectations on his role somewhat media driven, as we know some much more and faster, is becoming more all encompassing. Should Anglicans become Roman Catholics or Baptists, well if some see that form of church as meeting their response to God, then so be it. But we must remember that if Anglicanism is to vanish, many of the remnant, those left behind would hardly seek solace and strength in other Abrahamic expressions of worship. Yet we as Anglicans, as Archbishop Temple always said, we need to worry about the millions who find crossing the threshold of a church beyond their wildest imagination. The church must focus more on the elderly and young. Look at the church schools in England, many of the classrooms are full of stories of interfaith understanding and excellence. What an opportunity, maybe even a media opportunity? Are your churches overflowing? Is there room for others that possible some on the ?inside? are keeping out!
Communicate ? a weekly newspaper or an up to date website ? these are gifts beyond compare, especially when it can share the joys and sorrows of a community and open the hearts and minds of its readers to the vast expanse of global church we are so fortunate to embrace. When the media gets it wrong, for God?s sake let the church get it right. In England and USA prime time or even Sunday time (while many sleep) is no longer open to ?churches?. Budgets need to reflect the age of internet and google alerts and news updates, sometimes a story lasts no more than 10 minutes.
Even the ACO?s own ACNS finds us updating once or twice a day.
Commiserate ? like it or not the media have a job to do and we must join in that reality and help them, and maybe they will be more open to helping us. I remember a visit to the Holy Land with Lord Carey and the hourly exchanges on mobiles with a reporter begging for something quirky or the person?s editor would not run the otherwise brilliant piece the reporter had written. The editor (and as an editor I know the power and the problems) eventually said no and a major page 2 article became four lines on the back page of section one. The then Archbishop heard the negotiations as we were in the car. Help those who can help you.
How about the spiritual and human needs of the journalists? What makes them tick as we say? Sometimes when we find out their story we may understand more but am sad such persons can?t emotionally separate their story from the stories they create. How horrid it is, let me tell you I know, when someone in a church points to you (or a known journalist) and says ah ha, he is from the ACO, be careful, or he or she writes for this or that, be careful. We rush to guard our bosses from these people..why? Part of the mystique I guess.
The Communion ?
Lord Runcie often spoke of the provisionality of Anglicanism. Maybe he was correct. Yet in visiting over 60 countries many more than once, I find our unique expression of scripture, tradition and reasons allows people to grow in grace and provides new life to those who cannot and will not submit to other forms of religious institutions. As the hymn says we have a gospel to proclaim. We know in scripture we have 4 gospels, John is way different than the others, and all of them relate to stories of the Risen Christ in varying, yet not conflicting ways. To me this says it all. This is where our various expressions begin not stop. May I repeat.
So the questions:
Within the Anglican Communion are there?:
Women bishops ? answer yes
Women clergy ? answer yes
Gay bishops, priests and deacons ? yes
Sexuality standards and norms ? yes, Lambeth 110 is but one such guide
Churches that ignore required liturgical norms - yes
Official Gay Marriages ? no
Believe what you want ? no ? catholic creeds, Bible, bishops and all
All faiths are the same ? no
Financial needs ? yes
Complete break-up ? no
ECUSA is out of Communion ? no
Traditionalists are unwelcome ? no
Good clergy ? yes
Bad clergy ? yes
Are your statistics accurate ? who knows
How many, where are they,
Is Nigeria the largest church ? no well maybe yes?
Is England the largest church ? yes? Well is it really?
Will all bishops come to LC 2008 ? I don?t know ? would they come to a LC in Africa? Ask them. No one has said they are not coming or have they ? 1998 was the first ?all? came anyhow? Invitations come from one man alone.
And the most asked question
How do we reach Archbishop Tutu?
The Anglican Communion News service, for instance, exists for the Communion and a vehicle for the Anglican Communion Office, a forum to share and compare. Some of what we issue shocks others, but frankly people need to know what others, seemingly in authority, say. We can?t escape to a Narnia when it comes to conflict within. But it also should as a warning to those to whom words come fast and without measured reflection on the consequence of the same. Too many ?I didn?t mean to say that? spells disaster.
Again from Archbishop Rowan, speaking to the media in his home at Lambeth
"Christian belief takes as fundamental the idea that humans are created for communication; they are gifted with language. They are designed to speak to God and to each other and to give names to the things of the world around them. They are who they are in and through how they communicate. There is quite a bit in the New Testament from Jesus and St Paul and St James on the dangers of ?idle? speech, speech that debases the currency because it is inflated, untruthful, aggressive, contemptuous or salacious. Corrupt speech, inflaming unexamined emotion, reinforcing division, wrapped up in its own performance, leaves us less human: fewer things are possible for us. Bad human communication leaves us less room to grow. So the question that a religious believer, a Christian in particular, might want to be pursuing here is what the responsibility of the media is for the quality of communication in a society."
The Anglican Communion motto is taken from John 8.32, the truth shall make you free, or as one high prelate told me, the truth shall make it difficult. So be it. Difficult is an ?in? concept. These are, like times before, ?difficult times?. Again scripture speaks of major conflicts in the early church. Why are we surprised? Jesus wept then, he may be weeping now, yet we ponder those who love him, as at this Francis tide, Lord make us instruments of peace, of care for creation and each other.
Spin. I get dizzy when I spin so I try not to do it, maybe others are more dizzy than I am but spinning becomes endless and goes nowhere. ?I do not know but will attempt to find out? can eleviate symptoms of spin.
The church media officers must have the full support and open communication with their bishops and those in power roles in church structures. If they do not have the facts and tools to deal with the media, what is on offer resembles nothing more than a Sunday School approach, and be aware in this internet children are more able and aware than ever before. Trust is essential to truth, truth is essential to communication.
Dear friends, one of the realities we also face is the media becoming bored with the naval gazing and internal squabbles of an inward looking gathering of churches. Maybe our people are bored as well.
What is the church for, a weekly treatise on global church politics or an encounter as community with a living God that provokes within us radical and wild responses to terror and mistrust, gloom and doom, and powerless institutions?
In England the reverse as well, we have a new phenomenon -the bubbly and lively Archbishop of York John Sentamu is finding his photo blazoned on broadsheets and tabloids alike for doing things like washing feet on Maundy Thursday and baptising new converts at Easter, albeit in a tub in front of the Minster! At a recent gathering in Liverpool diocese his wife Margaret said to me, ?Jim, it is amazing, all the media want him to talk about is Jesus?. Something different maybe then what journalists get from church leaders! A new Tutu in our midst!
One bishop recently asked for a 30 day moratorium on emial blogging; others including Archbishop Williams have said of the internet that it can be evil. Our words are harsh. Sometimes we must show we, too, mean business.
There are dangers that confront the non- Eames style clerics in our midst. The bishop answering the door to a journalist with ?how did you know that? or Archbishop Ramsey and the famous night-club remark in New York. Or the quotes that get clerics in trouble --- but are actually true.
I have tried to give this address without using the words, inclusion, diversity, rights, as to me these words should be always the given of anything any Anglican who preaches or teaches or speaks in public. Engaging in cliché is not sufficient in a fast changing world.
The first communicators for me are the women at the empty tomb, the command was go tell and guess what, the apostles didn?t believe them, at least some didn?t. Let?s embrace the gift of communication as a resurrection gift and use it, even in our humanity, to tell a story that others can encounter, and when possible, through that encounter, have their lives changed, not ruined by gossip and untruths, but changed for good. What a gift we have as a Communion, advocacy, faith and privilege. From the wave of perpetual despair that abounds ? Good Lord deliver us?.that is my hope and vision, a church delivered, free and ready to make headlines!
JMR