Anglican Communicators Gather in Fredericton and on Zoom for Annual Conference

For a moment at the start of June, as I listened to the pump organ being played in St. Mark’s Chapel-of-Ease at King’s Landing in Fredericton New Brunswick, I thought about my Anglican roots ensconced in prairie churches thousands of kilometers away.

Countless moments, like singing “Come Down, O Love Divine” in a little Maritime church, are the gifts of coming together with members of the Anglican Editors Association (AEA) at our annual conference for encouragement, inspiration, strength and friendship. 

This year, members of the AEA, an association of 21 editors and 3 associate editors from dioceses across Canada, met in person at Christ Church Cathedral Memorial Hall and virtually on Zoom. We received an update on the circulation of our publications by Alicia Brown and Joe Vecsi of the Anglican Church of Canada. From Tali Falkins, editor of the Anglican Journal, we heard about the challenges of publishing controversial content. 

Many editors also manage communications for their dioceses, and as such can be writers, editors, photographers, graphic designers, web and social media managers. Therefore, we were also given the opportunity to learn about video production from Mark Hauser, communications officer and Dialogue editor, Diocese of Ontario. We uploaded our video of the grand, Gothic Christ Church Cathedral and Mark produced one seamless clip while demonstrating several video editing programs.

Some of us were brought to tears by a poem by 12 Neighbours community founder Marcel LeBrun who leads an initiative to provide housing and support for people who have been beaten down by life and can no longer see their own self-worth. 

We heard about the potential for sharing content and reaching a wider audience from Brian Bukowski, web manager for the Anglican Church of Canada, who has helped several publications join the national digital news platform anglicannews.ca. The Messenger will be launching on the platform soon. 

We further explored creating digital content with Giuliana Grillo de Lambarri, a student in the Journalism program at St. Thomas University, and editor of the online publication The Aquinian.

Throughout the conference, our host Gisele McKnight, whose publication The New Brunswick Anglican was recently awarded first place in the general excellence category by the Canadian Christian Communicators Association of which the AEA is a member, shared her tips and tricks for writing and editing.

After participating in Evening Prayer at St. Mark’s, we enjoyed a banquet with members of the Fredericton diocese at the King’s Head Inn. Archbishop David Edwards, whose self-proclaimed raison d’etre is “mission,” said as communicators of the gospel we must find ways to connect with people over what is important to them. 

It is not uncommon now for people to be unfamiliar with the gospel message. 

“Unless we can relate a new piece of knowledge to something we already understand, we tend to kick it out of the way,” he said. “And so, as we think through how we communicate with people, where are those hooks to at least start a conversation and then, perhaps, the gospel message can be entertained?” 

Members of the 2023 AEA Executive are Margaret Glidden, President; Fr. Matt Koovisk, Treasurer; Gisele McKnight, Secretary, Janice Biehn, Conference Host; Emily Rowe, Member-at-Large. 

God willing, the 2024 AEA Conference will be held in Toronto next spring.