ANALYSIS –

Week before last, facing criticism, the Episcopal Church quietly removed its transparent governance pledge from the front page of its website — IAmEpiscopalian.org

The church’s top PR person said the pledge had been deleted [some time during the week of May 31] so that there’d be room for a Spanish translation to be posted. But today, roughly 11 days after the language disappeared, there’s still not a single word of Spanish on the site.

Which raises a couple of questions. 1.) How hard is it, in a city with 8.3 million people, to find a Spanish speaker to translate a 130-word statement from English into Spanish?

2.) If the change was really about making the site accessible for Spanish speakers, why was the English-language transparency pledge removed at least a week and a half before Spanish text was available?

3.) Are the problems in the communications office at the Episcopal Church, as outlined in a 2009 official report, getting worse or getting better?

In a letter to the presiding bishop, Episcopal Communicators president Jim Dela says changes are needed:

“Those in charge of [the denomination's national] media relations must lose the combative attitude toward both secular and church press that was exhibited at General Convention 2006.

Episcopal Communicators received numerous complaints from its membership, as well as from the secular press, for the uncooperative and, at times, hostile attitude of the Church Center’s communication staff. They ranged from accredited journalists not being allowed access to their own press area, to red-vested volunteers deliberately standing in front of photographers during events — church media seemed to be specific targets — in an apparent attempt to restrict coverage.”

IAmEpiscopalian.org is an electronic welcome mat, the first thing people see when they go to the denomination’s homepage, www.episcopalchurch.org

Episcopalians frustrated by the New York headquarters’ lack of transparency regarding two ongoing church controversies had been pointing to the pledge. They were asking the national church’s leadership to not just endorse openness, but to demonstrate openness.

Specifically, they called on the church to release the names of the people serving on a secretive committee on the theology of same-sex relationships.

Others believed that national church officials should follow the lead of standing committees across the country and be transparent about the consent process for the bishop-elect of Northern Michigan.

IAmEpiscopalian.org described the church as a vibrant and “freedom-loving” body:

We invite you to see and hear the very personal reasons we choose to be Episcopalians. Our controversies and conversations have been public. Our governance is transparent. You are free to see our imperfections, as well as share our joy in that which unites us – our openness, honesty and faith.

Observers were quoting the transparency pledge or posting links to the language. Then the wording disappeared.

On Saturday, June 6, this blog noted the oddly-timed deletion. Within hours, Anne Rudig, the church’s top communications czar, offered a rationale for the dropped pledge.

“We shortened the copy so that there will be room for the Spanish translation (coming soon) below it. It is part of our effort to welcome in many languages. French will be next,” she wrote in an e-mail posted by Episcopal Church Executive Council member Mark Harris. “We just thought the page needed freshening and perhaps some specificity for seekers.”(Click here to read it all.)

Almost immediately, visitors to Rev. Mark Harris’ website expressed doubts about the official explanation.

Here’s what My Manner of Life creator Lisa Fox said about Rudig’s response:

Anne Rudig now claims the revision was made to make the text shorter. Bull-hockey! Compare the character counts. It is not shorter. It’s just duller. And it avoids that icky promise of “transparency.”

Any way I look at this — as plot, or as a feeble, ill-timed revision — it is simply embarrassing.

I am reminded of the report from the Standing Committee on Episcopal Communications. Our communications are in shambles. And the blame for that resides squarely at 815 2nd Avenue [the street address for national church headquarters.]

Others note that it’s highly unusual to delete copy online to free up space on a website for changes that are going to take place days or weeks in the future.

A poster identified as Yawner wrote:

[E]very revision I’ve ever seen to make room for changes happened when the changes occurred, not to prepare for them… HTML is hardly a printing press, you can get the new site “live” at any point so why change it now…

For those of you who don’t have your own website and who don’t understand the logistics, let me offer a couple of analogies. Perhaps you have a Facebook account. If you don’t, chances are you have a child or grandchild who does. Ask them: Have you ever deleted information from your Facebook page to free up room so that you’ll have the space available in a week or two when you think you may want to post something else instead?

For those of you who don’t have Facebook and don’t know anyone who has Facebook, let me offer another analogy. Chances are you’ve got voice mail or — at a minimum — an answering machine. How many times have you erased your greeting: (“Hi. We’re not home right now, but leave your name and number…”) to free up room on the machine because you plan in a week or two to add additional information and you figure you’ll need the space. …

It’s possible that the transparency pledge was taken down because the folks who are running the site don’t understand how easy it is to cut an old message and replace it with a new one.

But the communication office’s failure to actually post a Spanish language translation is bound to raise more questions about, among other things, the communication office’s transparency.

Interestingly, the Standing Commission on Episcopal Church Communications is also expressing concerns about the transparency of the national headquarters’ PR apparatus.

Members of the Standing Commission, in a report to the church’s 2009 General Convention, say they have experienced “significant problems getting access to information” from national headquarters, including “budgets for the Episcopal Church communications, program expenses or information technology costs. ”

“It is unclear to this Standing Commission what is the actual amount of money being spent on Communications by The Episcopal Church and where the money that is being spent is coming from.”

The report also describes “disruption caused by” personnel changes and departmental reorganizations since the election of the Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori as presiding bishop.

And it says there is disagreement about whether the communications office at national headquarters should focus primarily on “journalistic principles and the need for accurate internal reporting on what is taking place within the Episcopal Church.” Or whether they should focus primarily on “marketing and public relations.”

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 10:18 am and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.