Our services are funded by your generous support of the World Service Fund, through the sale of products & services, and through individual gifts. Learn more about our stewardship.

Content reproducible for church use with our permission. Learn How

News

Making of Africana Receives Award of Excellence

(NASHVILLE, Tenn., March 16, 2009, GBOD) — "The Making of Africana," an audio series about the Africana Worship Book series, produced by the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship received an Award of Excellence from the Religion Communicators Council (RCC). The DeRose-Hinkhouse Award ceremony will be held in Boston, Mass., on March 29, 2009, in conjunction with RCC's annual meeting, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary.

"The Making of Africana" was recognized in the non-broadcast audio and video category. The award recognizes the achievements of RCC members who demonstrate excellence as religion communicators. Entries in various categories were judged by the communications faculty of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. The awards honor the late Victor DeRose and Paul M. Hinkhouse, who were leading lithographers in New York City.

The Rev. Kwasi Kena

Paul Black, coordinator of the DeRose-Hinkhouse awards, reported that the judges had to make some difficult choices due to the high quality of the submitted entries.

"The excellence in your members' work is very impressive. All the judges found such outstanding work, beautifully done and very effective," remarked Terry Lynn Johnson ABC APR, associate professor in the journalism department at Eastern Illinois University.

The RCC is an interfaith association of religion communicators at work in print and electronic communication, marketing, and public relations. Established in 1929, it is the oldest association of religion communicators in America. There are twelve local chapters around the country as well as members-at-large in cities where a chapter does not exist. The chapters meet monthly, providing an outlet for education and networking. The chapters also serve to promote excellence in the communication of religious faith and values as well as understanding among diverse faith groups. Kena says he is overwhelmed and deeply humbled to receive the award, considering that the Religious Communicators Council members are highly competent communicators. "To be recognized by this group is a tremendous honor," Kena says.

"Second, because this project had no funding, I am indebted to the generosity from the many people who made this possible. Some people gave me access to equipment and editing software. The interviewees graciously consented to share their time and thoughts in hotel rooms, empty offices, or by telephone. The quality of their responses is what made this an award-winning project. I believe the award celebrates the efforts of everyone involved."

The concept for "The Making of Africana" evolved from the audio segment of demonstration pieces produced for The Africana Worship Book Year B, the second book in the series, from which Kena selected and recorded twenty-six pieces, creating a basic "how-to" resource to inspire people to read liturgy meaningfully and dramatically. After finishing that project, he began thinking about ways to provide an even better audio resource for the final Africana Worship Book in the series. "Somewhere in that thought process I wondered if people might appreciate the back-story surrounding the Africana liturgy project."

Initially, imagining five or six interviews, Kena soon realized that, in keeping with the community-minded approach to life embraced by Africana people, he had to invite the entire Africana Worship Book Year C writing group to share their experiences and select key users from the worshiping community to share their impressions of The Africana Worship Book series.

In the future, Kena hopes to see the Africana writers' group continue in some form.

"There is an incomparable synergy created each time we gather," Kena says. "Africana has spurred a small liturgy-writing movement. Throughout the Africana liturgy project, we stressed liturgy as 'the work of the people.' Now, it seems people have embraced liturgy as their work, which they can write with genuine relevance to their church cultures."

Now that Kena has "caught the production bug," he is preparing to do a prayer video project, called "Pray," with the Reverend Eric H. F. Law, founder of the Kaleidoscope Institute in Los Angeles, Calif. The two will collaborate in instructing select teams of three persons each to produce videos about prayer. The videos will be designed to inspire people, in or out of church, to pray and to motivate Christians to deepen their current prayer lives.

Such a focus on prayer is important -- in light of a recent study called "The Place of Prayer in United Methodism," which revealed that while 100 percent of the churches interviewed said prayer was either "very important" or "extremely important" only 16 percent of those same churches had an intentional process in place to teach people how to pray.

A complete list of the 2009 DeRose-Hinkhouse award winners can be found at www.religioncommunicators.org.

In 2010, RCC will be meeting with 89-plus organizations at the Religion Communicators' Congress in Chicago, Illinois, April 7-10, at the Downtown Marriott Hotel on The Magnificent Mile. Please see www.rccongress2010.org for more information.

The General Board of Discipleship's mission is to support annual conference and local church leaders for their task of equipping world-changing disciples. An agency of The United Methodist Church, GBOD (www.gbod.org) is located at 1908 Grand Ave. in Nashville, Tenn. For more information, call the Media Relations Office toll free at 877-899-2780, ext. 7017.