Episcopal Life has this essay by Herb Gunn, questioning changes in the media strategy of the church, changes endorsed by General Convention. He begins:
When General Convention decided to let plans go forward to switch the Episcopal Church’s monthly newspaper to a quarterly feature-oriented magazine without further study, the decision was about more than the loss of a newspaper. In fact, it never was strictly a debate between parchment and pixels, per se.
Undergirding the discussion about dramatically shifting the communication strategy of the Episcopal Church is the question of editorial integrity — which I quickly grant is neither guaranteed nor necessarily imperiled in any specific vehicle of communication.
With action taken at General Convention, however, the Episcopal Church is embracing a clear priority for branding, marketing, messaging and public relations over news dissemination, and this raises significant questions about the credibility of our story told in a world in which people are letting authenticity guide their religious choices.
How and where do we now tell our stories with revelatory honesty? How and where do we proclaim the Good News even when proclaiming the Good News sometimes involves telling the bad news?
Read it all.