"This eBook provides a follow-up conversation with key contributors from The Distanced Church, published in April 2020, which explored how church leaders were responding and adapting to the need move their traditional services online during the first lockdown of the covid-19 pandemic. Revisiting the
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Distanced Church offers not only a "then and now" reflection on how pastors and scholar see the evolving relationship between the church and digital media one year later after the global migration of the church online. It also provides a unique look into the long term implications of these technology choices and experimentation on the church, how leaders and scholars are reflecting on the present-future of digital ministry, and the areas in need of further theological reflection due to these changes." (Abstract)
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"This article discusses greeting messages as a genre of interreligious communication. Greeting messages are defined as official communication issued by religious institutions and addressed to the members of another religious community on the occasion of specific feast days or anniversaries. Drawing
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on the insights of politolinguistic analysis, this article treats these messages primarily as a form of public diplomacy. The case study analyses the messages issued on the occasion of the Hindu festival Diwali/Deepavali by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and World Council of Churches between 2015 and 2017. Distributed through the social media and posted on the institutional websites, the Diwali messages seek to speak as a Christian voice to all Hindus. Beyond the official addressee, the messages also potentially face the scrutiny of the global public sphere, especially an internal Christian readership. This article analyses what language strategies are used to deal with these varied demands." (Abstract)
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"This book focuses on the construction of the human rights discourse inside two religiously affiliated organizations: The Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) and Pax Romana (IMCS / ICMICA). These organizations have been formally accredited as NGOs by the UN, label themselves a
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s religious, and look back upon a long and intense cooperation with the UN. Lehmann presents material from the archives of those two organizations that has so far rarely been used for academic analysis. In doing so, as well as documenting the encounters between those organizations and the UN, and looking at the Protestant and Catholic spectrum, the book provides new insights into the very construction of the notions of 'the religious' and the 'secular' inside those organizations." (Publisher description)
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"The process of communication between individuals and institutions was central to the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948. Yet communication is often taken for granted, being understood as a tool to advance the organizational objectives of ecumenical organizations. Only on occasions h
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as the ecumenical movement in its organized expressions engaged in intentional reflection on the theological, societal and ecumenical challenges posed by communication." (Abstract)
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"The purpose of this book is primarily to provide a comprehensive reference and source of information for those who labour daily in the churches and organizations that make up the ecumenical movement. It is hoped that, beyond that circle, the book will also serve all who have a passion for, or an in
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terest in the movement. A Handbook of Churches and Councils – Profiles of Ecumenical Relationships replaces two earlier publications: the Handbook of WCC Member Churches, and the Directory of Christian Councils, both dating back to 1985." (Introduction)
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"Im Mittelpunkt der Studie steht die Frage, wie sich der Ökumenische Rat der Kirchen (ÖRK) als Zusammenschluß von über 320 Kirchen verschiedener Konfessionen an der Diskussion über eine "Neue Weltinformations- und Kommunikationsordnung" beteiligt und zu den in ihr verhandelten Themen Stellung b
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ezogen hat. Um eine Bewertung und Einordnung der kirchlichen Position zu ermöglichen, werden zunächst die theoretischen Grundlagen der Diskussion und die politische Auseinandersetzung über eine neue Weltkommunikationsordnung dargestellt: einleitend wird der Kontext der Diskussion aufgezeigt, indem die vielfältigen Beziehungen zwischen Kommunikation und Entwicklung problematisiert werden. Sodann werden die politischen Auseinandersetzungen über eine neue Weltinformations- und Kommunikationsordnung unter Einbeziehung der einschlägigen Dokumente referiert und die verhandelten thematischen Schwerpunkte analysiert. Die Haltung des ÖRK wird unter historischen, strukturellen und inhaltlichen Aspekten untersucht und erlaubt so einen Vergleich zwischen kirchlichen und politischen Schwerpunktsetzungen in der Auseinandersetzung über eine Neue Weltinformations- und Kommunikationsordnung. Aus der analytischen Bündelung der Medienfunktionen aus Sicht der Kirchen lassen sich Ansätze einer christlichen Medienethik ableiten, die eine Art "alternativer" Kommunikationspolitik darstellen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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