261, Jun 2005
 | |
This issue looks at the WACC photo competition Images of Communication, the cover image shows a winning image of boys using sign language in India; read a report on the tenth European Christian Internet Conference, ECIC X, hosted this year in Rome and looking at The Church in the Digital Society; read about the bombing of the Lebanese Radio Voice of Charity and an interview with Fr Elie Nakhoul; there is also a short piece on the sacking of Thomas Reese, editor of Jesuit Journal America; New books from WACC; and a report on the first full-time community radio licence granted in the UK as well as a report from David Lin on WACC activities in Asia and the Pacific
This year's Images of Communication Photographic Competition received more than 400 submissions from all over the world and was recently judged by a panel at WACC. Communication was illustrated in many moving ways and the quality of the submissions was high. After much deliberation, the prizes were awarded as follows:
Sean Hawkey
As mopeds were racing past religious architecture and ruins in Rome, Church webmasters and webpastors from all over Europe met for the 10th European Christian Internet Conference, ECIC X, to exchange experiences and celebrate the rapid progress of their work as it blazes stylishly past the slowing traffic of traditional church. For religious website managers, just as for Roman moped riders, it is quite a thrilling ride.
Sean Hawkey
The editor of a leading Catholic magazine has been forced to resign for publishing articles on issues such as condoms and HIV/Aids, homosexuality and religious pluralism. Suppression of discussion and ideas imposed by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was quite common during the papacy of John Paul II, under Cardinal Ratzinger, with more than 100 theologians silenced in this time. This is the first censorship by the Vatican since Cardinal Ratzinger was appointed as Pope Benedict XIV.
Sean Hawkey
The Voice of Charity, a Christian radio station with an inter-faith perspective in Lebanon, was destroyed by a bomb on May 6. This is the most recent of a series of bomb attacks in Christian areas that no-one has claimed responsibility for.
South Korea has been a land of division in Asia for a long, long time. It is the only country still divided into north and south even now. It was against this background that I travelled to Seoul, capital of South Korea, on 17th April, 2005 to attend WACC Asia Region's Triennial Assembly which has as its theme "Communicating for Peace and Life in Asia".
The UK's first fulltime community radio station Forest of Dean Radio was awarded a five year licence on 11th March. The Community Media Association and its members have long campaigned for community radio stations. Director of the CMA, Diane Reid said: "This is a day to celebrate! At last communities have a real stake in the airwaves.