Multimedia ‘curriculum’ is on task force’s agenda
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, August 5, 2002
CHICAGO – Even though the Task Force on Peace, Purity and Unity is far from coming to any conclusions, the panel is already considering developing multimedia curriculum that would spell out its processes and determinations.
Several members of the task force are convinced that its processes – an elaborate effort to promote harmony – are as important as the theological conclusions it hopes to reach. But there has been no debate or discussion of the hot-button issues in the denomination – including whether to ordain self-affirming, practicing homosexuals – so the task force’s amiability has not been tested.
After one member suggested the cost of multimedia curriculum could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – money that the financially strapped denomination may not have – the task force decided to have a consultant provide a breakdown at its October meeting.
Consulting help OK’d
Gradye Parsons, associate stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), said the denomination could provide a consultant – but he made no commitment beyond that. Earlier this year, the Louisville headquarters of the PCUSA eliminated 66 staff jobs and 34 missionary assignments because contributions and income from stocks have declined.
Furthermore, the PCUSA’s most recent publishing ventures have lost millions of dollars, although the 214th General Assembly anted up $750,000 for another try.
The task force members discussed the multimedia curriculum – or “resources,” as some called them – at length during their meeting in Chicago August 1-3. They reached no conclusion, but they did assign a work group to follow up on how to produce and pay for all the whistles and bells of multimedia presentations.
The consensus – the way the task force has decided to do its business – was that video, sound and other components of multimedia presentations would grab the attention of Presbyterians better than the panel’s written report.
The task force also began mapping plans for soliciting “mirror” or “shadow” presbytery task forces to engage in a similar process of building community and consensual decision-making as a means of testing whether the denomination’s panel is on the right track.
Assembly called for both
The 2001 General Assembly that established the task force called for both elements – feedback from other governing bodies and an “instrument” to communicate the task force’s process and conclusions to the Presbyterian Church (USA). But the General Assembly did not specify how the task force should implement those mandates.
The task force’s discussion about the two issues ranged from optimism about their effectiveness to some sober reality of the costs – which have not been estimated.
But task force member Scott D. Anderson, executive director of the California State Council of Churches, said his organization is producing six 10-minute videos for distribution to 4,000 congregations at a cost of $300,000. Also, Anderson said it has taken months of planning to produce high-quality video.
As originally proposed by the task force’s subcommittee on communications, the multimedia material would be produced in stages to coincide with the task force’s considerations of Christology, ordination standards, Biblical authority, power and other issues that have been long-running controversies in the denomination.
Also, it would distribute the multimedia presentations to presbyteries fairly quickly after the task force considered issues so that the presbyteries could provide feedback that might help shape the task force’s final report.
But where are you going?
Task force member Milton J. “Joe” Coalter, a faculty member at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, expressed reservations about fast-track preparation of multimedia material for presbyteries. “There is value in moving people along with you, except if you don’t know where the hell you are going,” Coalter said. “I love talking about what we’re going to deliver to the church in 2005, but we have to get through October to do that.”
In October, the task force will meet in Louisville and, for the first time since it began its deliberations in the fall of 2001, begin considering the theological issues that were assigned to it. The first issue on the table is Christology.
Barbara Wheeler, president of Auburn Theological Seminary, noting that “modes of learning are changing dramatically,” said she did not question the desirability of developing multimedia resources – “but I have huge questions about the means to do it.”
Sarah Grace Sanderson, a recent graduate of McCormick Theological Seminary who is pastor of a church in New York, outlined the multimedia proposal to the task force.
She said the communications subcommittee had four goals: 1) to reintroduce the denomination to “important parts of our heritage;” 2) to prove “a range of compelling views that all fall under the Reformed banner; 3) to make the material accessible to all Presbyterians; and 4) to bring people closer together.
The downside of the proposal, she said, is “money, money, money.”