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Church Video Teams Film in Holy Land

Episcopal News Service. March 15, 1984 [84055]

NEW YORK, (DPS, March 15) -- A collaboration among Episcopal Church video teams enhanced a filming tour of the Holy Land and has provided the Church with videotapes that can meet a number of needs.

Whitney Smith of the Episcopal Church Center; Jack and Linda Hanick of Trinity Church, New York; and the Rev. Lois Pinneo, the Rev. Rob McCann and the Rev. Phil Wiehe, from the Diocese of California were all in Israel Feb. 1-8, traveling together but with different mandates.

Smith, a video producer on the staff of the Episcopal Church Center, was gathering information for a program to highlight ministries in the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East, particularly those supported by the Good Friday offering.

Trinity Church sent the Hanicks of Good News Communications to produce two programs for Trinity's weekly half-hour series, Searching.

At the request of Bishop William Swing of the Diocese of California, McCann and Pinneo were taping material for their diocese. They were also preparing videotape for St. George's College, Jerusalem. Pinneo and McCann chair the video task force of the diocese. Ann Scott, the only reporter on the tour, is religion writer for the Contra Costa Times and a member of the diocese's communication committee.

Wiehe, from Palo Alto, Calif., is executive director of the Episcopal Foundation for Drama, a national organization. He performed his own brief Christmas drama which was taped in the Shepherd's Fields in Bethlehem.

The Americans discovered quickly that it was most efficient to form a single production team and have everyone work together on all of the projects. This was so successful that the group returned to the United States with enough videotape for all of their projects and also managed to create and execute several more during the trip.

The Israeli Ministry of Tourism permitted the crew to videotape in places not ordinarily accessible to the public. For example, there was a media conference in Metulla, the northernmost town of Israel.

The video crew interviewed the assistant mayor of the town and the captain at the nearby border crossing called "the Good Fence", on the Lebanese border.

In summing up the tour, McCann commented: "Tourism is gradually replacing pilgrimage as a reason to go to Israel. This represents, in part, a failure of the Christian community to support an aspect of traditional spirituality." The communicators were unanimous in the hope that their work would provide for viewers a sense of the spiritual significance of the Holy Land. Smith said: "We have seen and felt some of the unique essence of this holy land where our spiritual roots still draw strength. Israel today is a complex mix of the ancient and the modern, of the secular and the spiritual. We hope our video efforts will convey the vitality and joyous life that both citizens and visitors in Israel, regardless of creed, draw from this amazing place."