Church in a spin

Connection number one I will encapsulate in a sentence. – Senior clergy should never speak to the press without consulting their press officers first, we are worth our weight in gold, Lambeth palace needs to bolster its Press office (was it a coincidence that all this happened following the departure just a week or two earlier of Jonathan Jennings the senior press officer) and I should be paid a lot more than I am!

Connection number two is a bit more interesting Let me summarise in two sentences:

Pancake racing , as a quasi religious community activity, should be granted freedom from red tape instead of having to apply every year for permission from some jumped up secular council which thinks it has rights over minority communities, in this case the Cathedral community. It should be exempt from stupid ‘vexatious’ claims for compensation if someone trips over on the cobbles of Kirkgate and allowed to operate under its own ancient rules without interference.

There – simple ain’t it! We solve two problem stories in one go. The papers can stop jumping up and down about both the Archbishop and the Political Correctness Gone Mad by recognising that the red tape they railed against at the beginning of the week (especially the Mail and Express) is the same ‘British Legal system’ they are defending over against the rights of religious minorities at the end of the week. The legal system which allows someone to sue the Cathedral and the Council if they trip over their clerical robes while running up the street tossing their pancake should just butt out, and recognise that Pancake racing is a centuries old tradition and in this case the rights of the religious community should take precedence over the local council, the high court or even the European Court of Human Rights.

This may not be a central plank of my argument on Radio Leeds at 8.05 tomorrow, but I’ll try and winkle it in somehow.

This may not be the best blog posting I’ve ever done.. a tiring day after a tiring week so a few random and unconnected observations, though all germaine, one hopes, to the overall raison d’etre of this electronic diary..

1) Last Sunday, the Archbishop of York’s Press Officer’s phone suddenly started ringing as journalists called asking for more details about the boss's dramatic TV coup. Arun Arora told me in church that evening that the phone hadn’t stopped since John Sentamu had cut up his dog collar on the Andrew Marr show. Not only was this piece of television drama covered on bulletins and in every major newspaper throughout the following week, but clearly has caught the popular imagination too, if the conversations I’ve been having since are any indication. Apparently the Archbishop had been having trouble sleeping the night before the programme and felt God prompting him to think about the people of Zimbabwe, suffering under the Mugabe regime. He hadn’t actually warned Arun before the broadcast that he was carrying a pair of scissors in his pocket, but when he pulled them out and decimated his collar there was cheering in the Gallery, and not surprising. It was both dramatic and heartfelt and reminded me of the sort of spontaneous acts of the Old testament Prophets. He’s promised not to put the collar back on until Mugabe is deposed. Let’s hope it’s not too long.

2) So do we need press officers at all? It’s a question asked this week on Radio 4’s The Message (listen again) which wondered why politicians, for example needed spin doctors and couldn’t speak (Sentamu style) direct to the public. It was a question which was raised by Tim Livesey, the Lambeth Palace head of external communications as he told us about changes to the Press Office in the New Year, last week. A more accessible Archbishop of Canterbury, and more emphasis on direct communication with the public using new technology, less of the ‘old fashioned’ communication mediated by the middle men and women called journalists. And one less press officer! Well, let’s watch this space. My own feeling is that we need and will continue to need a mixed economy of communication methods. Just as announcements of the death of popular television could be premature (see previous posting) so too the view that press releases and press officers are ‘old fashioned’. After all, it was precisely the direct approach of the Archbishop which ruined m’ colleagues day off as he answered the phone and put out statements.

3) However…. The issue of more direct communication with the public, via new technology and the internet is something I recognise I need to spend more time on , especially as we start work on a new Ripon and Leeds website and look at the potential for generating video news, podcasts, and effectively TV and Radio on the web. Are we starting our own Christian broadcasting? Across the CofE communicators network, it has long been the strategy not to try and develop religious tv and radio but get the message across through the existing secular channels. But as the communications landscape rapidly shifts, that position is looking increasingly anachronistic – and when is a Christian video podcast not a broadcast? It’s an attractive thought to believe that we no longer need to rely on the hit and miss approach of relying on the vagaries of the newsroom to mediate our message – but is it realistic? Lots of questions and plenty to think about..

4) I managed to get together a programme of Communications training for Spring of 2008 at last – phew! Working with Bradford and Wakefield dioceses we’ll be making use of Trinity and All Saints College as well as an evening session with TV producer Andrew Graystone who is also Director of the Churches’ Media Council. Senior clergy will hopefully be learning how to handle television interviews, using the excellent facilities at the Horsforth college, as well as Geoff Druett, the genial Yorkshire TV presenter. So, hopefully if we do need to continue relying on journalists (of the TV variety), at least we’ll hopefully not make too much of a mess of it. (Geoff Druett pictured right)