Episcopal parishes and a local television stations are working together to develop an advertising campaign and web-presence that highlights the churches in the station’s viewing area. The Episcopal Churches in the Northern Tier of the Diocese of Bethlehem have partnered with WNEP-TV in Scranton, PA as part of that station’s Good Things Are Happening project.
The Rev. John Major, Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church of West Pittston, PA, and Prince of Peace Episcopal Church of Dallas, PA, explained the project:
The Good Things Are Happening in The Episcopal Church in Northeast Pennsylvania project involves the production of three 30-second spots to be utilized on WNEP TV in their Good Things Are Happening segments for one year (if we can afford to run the spots this long).
The spots help to reintroduce our population to The Episcopal Church in our area and reveal
1. The Episcopal Church as a “sacramental” Church,
2. The Episcopal Church as a “Church of diverse people involved in the life of their parish and the mission of the Church” and
3. The Episcopal Church reaching out to one another and caring for neighbors in need”.
We are on schedule to launch the spots the week before Palm Sunday. It’s likely that the frequency of air time will be heavier before Easter and during the Easter Season, then lighter in the summer and heavier again during Back To School time and before Christmas.
The effort includes the use of a new “The Episcopal Church in Northeast Pennsylvania” logo that will be continuously displayed on WNEP’s website. An inquirer will be able to click on our NEPA Episcopal logo on WNEP’s site and will be linked to our new “common web page,” www.nepaepiscopalchurch.org, which will be up and running in about one week.
This new site will display the names of all the parishes in the north and central region and more. A click on any parish name will take the inquirer directly to the website of that parish. If a parish in the north and central region does not have a website, the link will take them to general information about the parish and the parish schedule. Various other links are on this site as well, including our diocesan and national websites. All of our parishes in The Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem can be easily found by an inquirer visiting www.nepaepiscopalchurch.org.
The northern tier of the Diocese of Bethlehem is WNEP-TVs prime viewing area. It consists mainly of rural, small-town and some small-city congregations in an area once defined by coal-mining and railroading. The area was highlighted in the last presidential election by the mandatory pilgrimages of candidates who paraded to Scranton. The project is led by local clergy and lay-leaders from across the region.
Read more here.