1906. Responsibilities--Specific responsibilities and functions of the General Commission on Communication and its staff are as follows:
1. It shall be the official news-gathering and distributing agency for The United Methodist Church and its general agencies. In discharging its responsibilities, in keeping with the historic freedom of the press, it shall operate with editorial freedom as an independent news bureau serving all segments of church life and society, making available to both religious and public news media information concerning the Church at large.
2. It shall have major responsibility on behalf of The United Methodist Church in the United States to relate to the public media in presenting the Christian faith and work of the Church to the general public through broadcast, the press, and audiovisual media. It may develop such structures for broadcast and audiovisual communication purposes as are deemed helpful to the Church in its witness through the media. It shall serve in unifying and coordinating public media messages and programs of United Methodist general agencies.
3. It shall give special attention to television, including broadcast television, cable, videotape, videodisc, and satellite. It shall provide counsel and resources to annual conferences--and through conferences to districts and local churches--to develop and strengthen their television ministries. Responsibilities of the commission shall include program production and placement, and relationships to commercial broadcasters at the national level in the U.S.A.
4. It shall represent The United Methodist Church in the Communication Commission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and in other national and international interdenominational agencies working in the area of mass communications. Budget allocations and other funds granted to these ecumenical agencies shall be administered in accordance with 918.
5. It shall have responsibility to work toward promotion and protection of the historic freedoms of religion and the press, and shall seek to increase the ethical, moral, and human values of media structures and programs.
6. It shall have general supervision over the conduct of public relations activities for The United Methodist Church in the United States, planning and carrying out public relations work at the denomination-wide level and giving counsel to the various units of the Church in regard to their public relations needs. It shall interpret to the constituency of the Church the significance of the denomination and its various programs.
7. It shall develop and oversee a unified and comprehensive program of audiovisual materials for the Church. It shall plan, create, produce or cause to be produced, and distribute or cause to be distributed, audiovisual materials that are informative and vital to the religious life of all United Methodists. It shall unify and coordinate the audiovisual programs of all United Methodist agencies dealing with projected pictures, recordings, videotape and other audiovisual or electronic materials.
8. It shall give oversight to a comprehensive communication system for the Church, providing a total view of communication structure and practices, including telecommunications. It shall create networks of communicators at all levels, including local church, district, conference, jurisdiction, and general. These networks may include periodic consultations for such purposes as idea exchange, information sharing, joint planning, and monitoring and evaluating the total Church's communication enterprises. With respect to the use of computers for communication purposes, the agency shall cooperate with the General Council on Finance and Administration (see 907.6).
9. It shall provide guidance, resources, and training for the local church coordinator of communications (263.3), provided that training at the local level shall be through and in cooperation with annual conferences.
10. It shall be responsible for education and training in the principles and skills of communication, including the following: (a) national workshops and training experiences in communication skills related to the various media; (b) consultation with and assistance to annual conferences, districts, racial and ethnic groups, in the training of local Church persons, especially the local Church coordinator of communications; (c) training experiences for bishops, personnel of general Church agencies, and other groups on request; (d) providing and facilitating apprenticeship, internship, and scholarship programs for Church communicators; (e) counseling schools of theology and other institutions of higher education about the training of faculty, candidates for the ordained ministry, and lay persons in the principles and skills of communication, media resource development, and media evaluation.
11. It shall determine and implement, after consultation with the Council on Finance and Administration, policy for the interpretation, promotion, and cultivation of all financial causes demanding Churchwide promotion or publicity. The General Commission on Communication shall assist episcopal areas, annual conferences, and districts by means of a field service program providing counsel and resources in communication, program interpretation, and the promotion of benevolence and administrative funds.
12. It shall be the central promotional agency for the purpose of promoting throughout the Church the following general church funds: World Service Fund (912.1), World Service special gifts (913), the Advance (914), One Great Hour of Sharing (916.2 and 275.2), World Communion Offering (916.4 and 275.3), Missional Priority Fund (922), General Administration Fund (917), Interdenominational Cooperation Fund (918), Temporary General Aid Fund (920), Ministerial Education Fund (921), Episcopal Fund (923), Human Relations Day (916.1 and 275.1), Black College Fund (919), United Methodist Student Day (916.3 and 275.4), Christian Education Sunday (277.1), Peace with Justice Sunday (916.5 and 275.5), Golden Cross Sunday (277.2), Youth Service Fund (1310), Native American Awareness Sunday (916.6 and 275.6) and all other general Church funds approved by the General Conference, as well as any emergency appeals that may be authorized by the Council of Bishops and the General Council on Finance and Administration (911.4). In the interpretation, promotion, and cultivation of these causes, this agency shall consult with and is encouraged to utilize content material provided by the program agency responsible for the area and with the agency responsible for the administration of the funds. Budgets for the above promoted funds shall be developed in cooperation with the General Council on Finance and Administration. In cases where the General Conference assigns a portion of the promotional responsibility to some other agency, such promotional work shall be subject to coordination by the General Commission on Communication. The cost of promotion of the funds shall be a prior claim against receipts, except that the cost of promotion for general Advance specials shall be billed to the recipient agencies in proportion to the amount of general Advance special funds received by each (915.3), and the promotion of World Service special gifts shall be borne by administering agencies (913.6). The administration of the money thus set aside for promotion shall be the responsibility of the General Commission on Communication.
13. It shall undertake the promotion of any cause or undertaking, financial or otherwise, not herein mentioned, demanding churchwide promotion or publicity; provided that such action shall have been previously approved by the Council of Bishops and the General Council on Finance and Administration, or their respective executive committees. The General Council on Finance and Administration shall determine the source of the funding for any such authorized promotions.
14. Appeals for giving that are made to United Methodists shall be consistent with the aims of Christian stewardship. There shall be cooperation between this agency and the General Board of Discipleship in order that programs and resource materials of the two agencies may be in harmony in their presentation of Christian stewardship.
15. It shall publish a program journal for pastors and other Church leaders that shall present the program and promotional materials of the general agencies in a coordinated manner and shall be in lieu of general agency promotional periodicals. This agency shall determine the manner of selecting the principal editors, who shall be responsible for the content of the journal. This agency shall obtain from the Churches or district superintendents the names of Church officials entitled to receive the journal so as to compile a subscription list compatible with regulations of the U.S. Postal Service.
16. It shall supervise the use of the official insignia of The United Methodist Church and preserve the integrity of its design. It shall maintain appropriate registration to protect the insignia in behalf of The United Methodist Church. The insignia may be used by any official agency of the Church, including local Churches, to identify the work, program, and materials of The United Methodist Church. Any commercial use of the design must be explicitly authorized by an appropriate officer of this agency.
17. It shall give leadership in study and research in the field of communication, applying research findings from the professional and academic communities to the work of the Church, and in evaluative research in the field of communication. It shall cooperate with other agencies and other levels of the Church in research and development work in the field of communication and share the findings of study and research.
18. It shall represent United Methodist interests in new technological developments in the field of communication, including research, the evaluation of new devices and methods, and the application of technological developments to the communication services of the Church.
19. It may develop information services and other innovative services which provide channels of communication to and from all levels of the Church.
20. It shall provide resources, counsel, and staff training for area, conference, and district communication programs and develop guidelines in consultation with persons working in areas, conferences, and districts.
21. It shall produce materials for program interpretation in cooperation with the General Council on Ministries and the general program boards, including the official program calendar of the denomination.
General Conference Webmaster: Susan Brumbaugh
PETS Creator: John Brawn
1992 Book of Discipline: ¶ 1906
1996 United Methodist General Conference