Episcopal Press and News
News Brief
Episcopal News Service. January 10, 1980 [80009]
John Bluck, a 36-year-old Anglican priest and journalist from New Zealand, has been appointed director of the World Council of Churches' department of communication, effective January 1. Since 1977 he has lived in Geneva and served as editor of One World, the WCC's monthly magazine, and the "Risk" book series. He will direct a 34-member team which is responsible for a language service, media liaison, film and visual arts, radio and television production, periodical and book publishing and a weekly press service in English and French. He received his B.D. degree from Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass.
The NBC-TV network has announced plans to air a drama entitled "As We With Candles Do," on Sunday, February 24, from 1 to 2 p.m. (EST). Produced in cooperation with the Communication Commission of the National Council of Churches, the drama makes a theological statement about the significance of wedding vows in giving shape to the quality of a marriage and the way in which a marriage must be worked at if it is to succeed. (Check with your local NBC-TV affiliate for exact date and time in your area.)
F. Fletcher Coates, an Episcopalian who served for 21 years as a leading staff member of the National Council of Churches, died Jan. 4 at his vacation home in Panama City, Fla., of cancer. Mr. Coates, 67, joined the Council as an associate director of the Office of Information in 1953, just three years after the Council was founded. He became the information director in 1960 and served in that post until his retirement in 1974. He is survived by his wife of Cape Cod, Mass., where he had lived since his retirement, and by three daughters.
A continuing theological education seminar will be held in Casa de Retiros do Bom Pastor, Buraca, Lisbon, January 21-25 under the direction of the Rev. Canon Luis A. Quiroga, Ph.D., Brooklyn, N.Y. The seminar is sponsored by the Lusitanian Church of Portugal and the Spanish Episcopal Reformed Church in cooperation with the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. Thirty-nine clergy and lay persons attended a similar seminar last year in Madrid.
A 15-year struggle by the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ to protect the rights of blacks in Jackson, Miss., to television service has ended successfully with the award of the license of WLBT-TV to a black controlled group, known as TV-3. The TV-3 coalition is 51 percent black owned. The Rev. Everett C. Parker, director of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, called the decision "a resounded victory over deep-seated racial discrimination and a boon to minorities who have long been second class citizens in television and radio."