In case you are wondering, Council on Church and Media is alive and well – but is going through a not-too-extreme make over. Your dedicated executive committee and new executive director spent eight hours Aug. 23-24 working hard at MCC’s "Welcoming Place" (great lodgings, by the way, that make you think you’re waking up in Africa, Europe or South America somewhere).  CCM will undergo a few tweaks here and there, including a recommended new name, as you will see in the rest of this newsletter that is resuming circulation with this edition.

We are most excited by the offer of some of our northern cousins (John Longhurst, Dan Dyck and Rick Fast) in Winnipeg to plan a blow out great conference for Oct. 2007 on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University. Yeah, I know that’s three white men for planning but they’ll work on that, too.

We also want to welcome Fred Steiner as our new staff person working from his home in Bluffton, Ohio, and CCM’s new home office (everything’s been moved from Elkhart, which is part of why it has taken so long for you to hear anything out of the May 9-11 meeting in Cleveland). There has been megachange in bringing a totally new person on staff, moving the office, having a new chair (I haven’t been on the executive committee) yadda yadda. As editor of the Bluffton (town) newspaper, Central District’s (MCUSA) newsletter, and curriculum writer, Fred has much experience in journalism, and is getting acquainted with the larger Anabaptist communications world. You’ll see more in separate articles.

I’m pleased to try to give some leadership to this organization that I have benefited from for the past 20 years and look forward to getting to know many of you better in this capacity.  That is the true benefit of an organization like this: it is only as we get involved and work together that we reap the benefit of networking relationships which, in the CCM context, enhance skills, build career opportunities and strengthen faith.

That’s enough for now. If you have any concerns, questions or feedback, feel free to e-mail or call me, at melodied@mennomedia.org or 540-574-4874.

Melodie Davis
Chair
Council on Church and Media