275, March 2008
|
In this issue: WACC’s Project Partner produces a documentary to challenge discriminatory attitudes towards children who are intellectually disabled. The documentary, aimed at equipping parents and professionals with practical tools to live and work with children with special needs, is now being broadcasted by some media channels in Egypt.
|
||||
| Cover Photo by Media House, WACC’s Project Partner in Cairo, Egypt. | |||||
|
Easter Message from General Secretary, WACC
Greetings from WACC during Holy Week! Easter seems to have ‘arrived’ so much earlier this year!It feels like the year has only just begun and here we are in Holy Week.I suspect that many homilies this week will make passing reference at least to the fact that Easter has caught many people unprepared this year. Perhaps this sense of being caught unprepared is not out of keeping with the Easer message. |
||||
|
WACC participates in ecumenical walk
WACC staff participated in a “Walk for Justice” through downtown Toronto on Good Friday, March 21. The walk was organized by a coalition of local churches and ecumenical organizations. The walk continues a tradition begun more than 20 years ago in which Christians from diverse churches hold a creative alternative to traditional Good Friday services. Their “Walk for Justice” draws inspiration from the Biblical account of Jesus’ execution as a political criminal. Walkers focus on sites that remind them of people treated unfairly by our society. |
||||
Congress |
|||||
|
WACC to honour three leading communicators at Congress 2008
WACC will confer honorary life membership on three highly-respected international communicators at its global communication conference, Congress 2008, scheduled to be held in Cape Town, South Africa in October. In announcing the 2008 honorees on behalf of the Board of Directors, the General Secretary, Randy Naylor said, “Each of these three individuals has made an outstanding contribution to the cause of communication rights in careers of service to the church, academia, and international institutions. WACC has benefited greatly from their contributions to its mission of advocating for communication that contributes to peace, justice and democracy.“ |
||||
|
Desmond Tutu continues to confront injustice and preach peace
Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, who will give the opening address at WACC’s Congress 2008 on 6 October in Cape Town, is one of the moral icons of our era. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, he is currently serving as one of the group of respected ‘Elders’ which includes former presidents Jimmy Carter of the United States, Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique and Mary Robinson of Ireland along with Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, and Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin group of companies. Their task is to mediate peace in situations of conflict around the world. |
||||
Programme Stories |
|||||
|
Coal widows speak out
More than one hundred years of silent oppression scar the coal-mining region of Coahuila State, in the north-east of Mexico. Recently, with support from WACC, a local NGO called Didaxis has filmed some of the women who have been widowed and left to fend for themselves after mining accidents killed their husbands. On 19 February 2006, shaft 8 of the Pasta de Conchos mine exploded, leaving 65 miners trapped below ground. |
||||
|
Rural women in Congolese village launch a community radio station
The inhabitants of Mugogo, a village situated some 2,000 kilometres from Kinshasa, capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, will long remember 4 January 2008 as a very special day in the life of their community.That was the day when the first broadcast of Radio Bubusa hit the air. |
||||
|
Better Start Early
“Changing attitudes towards intellectual disability remains a big issue in the Arab world”, says Wimco Ester, the Managing Director of MediaHouse (MH), a WACC partner based in Cairo, Egypt. In 2007, MediaHouse embarked on a documentary initiative dubbed “Early Start” to challenge discriminatory attitudes towards children who are intellectually disabled and their families. |
||||
| Book Review | |||||
|
Love to Share: Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright, and Christian Churches Co-published by WACC and WCC
At first glance, one might wonder why Churches would be concerned about legal matters such as intellectual property rights and copyright issues. As it turns out, Churches regularly have to deal with these matters, particularly concerning music and liturgy for worship. How can Christians be fair to the creator of these works, while at the same time promote a generous spirit of sharing? |
||||
Features |
|||||
|
Media messages from imported evangelists fuel inter-religious conflict in Indian state
Media ministries are aggravating tensions between Hindus and Christians in the Indian state of Orissa says an Indian communications specialist. “Missionaries from South India are involved in ‘spiritual warfare’ using the media and Christian networks,” says Professor Pradip Thomas of the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland, Australia. |
||||
|
Riots in Orissa
Seven churches, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, and Independent were burned in Barakhamba village, Kandhamal district, central Orissa. December 23, 2007: Hindutva (Hindu supremacist ideology) affiliated Adivasi (tribal) organizations organized a march, rallying, “Stop Christianity; Kill Christians”.A Dalit (formerly "untouchable" groups) Christian leader testified, “We went to the local police and informed them of the situation. |
||||
| Pictorial News | |||||
|
Tim Meadley, Manager of Administration, WACC, wearing the insignia (medal) of an Officer of the Order of St John presented to him by the Prior acting on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen of England, the Sovereign Head of the Order, who approves all admissions to and promotions in the Order. The picture was taken in the garden outside the Priory Church at St John Gate, Clerkenwell, UK after the Investiture held this month. |
||||
