Greetings, RCC Family.
With the rapid growth of the RCC, The
Vicariate of Communications is in greater need than ever of the voluntary
support of our clergy. We rejoice in the work of the Spirit as our Church
family continues to grow; we likewise recognize the need to meet the demands
placed upon us as stewards of the Reformed Catholic Church. The technology
available to us is – without question – one of the most powerful tools in
making known the good news of the RCC locally, nationally and globally.
Bearing witness to the effectiveness of these gifts in the area of
evangelization, the Vicariate continues to move and more rapidly than ever
as of late.
For the sake of clarity, the Vicariate is a
single unit comprised of multiple channels; each with a particular area of
specialization. Generally speaking, our mission is to utilize every possible
venue to communicate with clarity and enthusiasm the presence of the
Reformed Catholic Church in her many varied
ministries.
The Vicariate of Communications
produces and distributes official statements and press releases of the RCC,
maintains relations with the media, and responds to requests for information
of a general and specific nature. More specifically, the Office of Media
Relations represents the RCC to the media and the media to the bishops of
the Church. Responsibilities within this Office include preparing and
distributing statements and other resources for the media, skillful
Marketing, Media Relations, Internet and Technological applications,
Resources Deployment and the many general administrative functions necessary
to functionality of this Office.
As part of its ongoing work in media
relations, the Vicariate of Communications continues to strategize to
achieve optimal placement of stories in local or national media, and to
refer media to the Office of Media Relations. There is always a great need
in this area, specifically, for more RCC personnel with strong communication
skills to submit articles for Pax Press, Local, Regional, and National News.
To strengthen awareness of RCC ministries and services provided through the
Vicariate, we welcome – gladly – additional help in the planning for
strategic news articles, media targets, and public awareness. We are
looking to fill the position of Communication Officer whose
responsibilities will have a more specific focus in generating material to
be processed in Media Relations.
Additional channels of Communication within
the Vicariate – and these also are always welcoming of extra help – are the
following:
The
Broadcast & Multimedia Advisory
Committee is responsible for
strengthening RCC communication via television, radio, and web technologies.
The Committee works collaboratively in strategizing and developing for local
broadcast use.
The
Reformed Catholic
Church Radio
is a daily podcast
produced by Father Warren Taylor, RSJ, and is designed to share the message
of Jesus Christ and news about the RCC to the faithful around the globe.
Father Taylor’s ministry is another area in which RCC parishes and
apostolates are invited to make a valuable contribution simply by sharing
local RCC news with a Program that amplifies it internationally on the
airwaves.
The Vicariate also is responsible for
production of The RCC Pax Press Official Newspaper, Pax Press
On-Line News Service and other publications, both internal and external.
Vicariate of Communications is always eager for new material. Electronic
News services may take the form of an electronic edition for the RCC
newspaper, or as material for submission to Pax Press Express, Blog or
Radio. Two model programs in this regard are the Pax Press Online and Pax
Press Radio as these make news available on a near daily basis.
The following is an update of recent
innovations within the Vicariate:
The Web Site,
the “mother” of our communication strategies and development moves
diligently forward with continued expansion of online resources. Continual
updates, work in the process of refining the website for smooth and
effective navigation and content organization.
On this note, the Vicariate of Communications
is continuing to update parish and clergy information and to develop a
cross-reference directory of the RCC. We have integrated the Global
Directory in the RCC E-mail Server. When entering the RCC E-mail Server, be
sure to update your profile with your current information as this will be
automatically update the RCC Global Directory. This will assure that the
Global Directory is up-to-date, and all RCC members will have your current
information. Furthermore, this will allow the RCC E-mail Users to view the
RCC Global Address List, displaying all email addresses and users at the
domain-level. This adds increased functionality to the auto-complete
features, speed communication and reduces the number of misdirected emails
due to mis-addressed emails.
Email is an absolutely crucial communicatory
tool for the whole of the Church.
It is supposed to take communication, organization and resource-sharing to a
higher level. The New – full featured - RCC E-mail System is designed
to help achieve that. It comes with advanced features such as account
statistics, content filtering, variable inboxes, calendar, RSS feeds and
much more. The system affords us a trouble-free sharing of contacts,
calendar events, tasks and notes as a resource for communication and
collaboration, allowing the RCC members to view and share email folders. You
can set “Read and Write” or “Read Only” permissions for these folders. The
password that was assigned will be used to gain assess to the secure parts
of the web site, and share files.
We hope you are finding these upgrades
helpful and welcome your input as to your experience working with the New
System.
The Vicariate of Communications Resources
and Parish Services assists with supplying informational ideas. These
materials are inclusive of books from seminary/formation listings and other
material useful in parish building. Resources for Ministry, a
resource list of services makes items such as the following available to
you: information on free pews, Vonage phone, free software, etc. Resources
for workshops and consultation services on a wide range of
communication-related topics and ministries are also to be made available
through the Vicariate of Communications
The Resource Department supplies [and
continues to be in the process of supplying] a variety of special
publications including brochures, flyers, the Global RCC Church Directory,
official public documents and other resources issued in conjunction with
special events in the life of the Church.
We are very pleased to announce the two most
recent services which have been added, as well as the two projects we look
to next. The new IM Chat service and Inter- Office Memo has
been installed to the RCC Website. These services can be found under the
Clergy Resources area. The New Library Service will be added soon.
This will allow RCC members to check out books from the lending Library.
And, lastly, soon to be open is the RCC Internet Store. Msgr. Michael
Baremore has taken on this wonderful project.
The Vicariate of Communications is a very demanding area and can
only operate at its full capacity with the generous gifts of the time and
energy of many. If you feel you can help in any of these areas or if you
have questions, concerns or ideas with regard to these many projects please
contact the Vicariate of Communications.
In Christ
Marcis+
Msgr. Marcis Heckman RSJ
Vicar of Communications
Communications@reformedcatholicchurch.org
419-517-6762
