Information and communication are significantly changing the world we live in. Instead of establishing commonness and solidarity, public communication now tends to reinforce divisions, widen the gap between rich and poor, consolidate oppression, and distort reality in order to maintain systems of domination and subject the silenced masses to media manipulation.
 Yet communication remains God's great gift to humanity, without which we cannot be truly human, reflecting 'God's image'. Nor could we enjoy living together in groups, communities and societies steeped in different cultures and different ways of life.
It is both the potential for solidarity and the threat to humanity which modern communications contain, that have prompted the members of the World Association for Christian Communication to examine their communication practices and policies on the basis of the Good News of the Kingdom. By accepting Christ's sovereignty, the Christian communicators proclaim God's Kingdom. For this reason, Christian communicators promote ecumenical communication so that Christians can speak with one voice, thus bearing witness to the one body of Christ.
Christian communicators, as witnesses to the Kingdom, should awaken and reflect the corporate witness of the church. The lives of Christians, as well as the work of communicators, need to be set free from the individualism which characterizes some cultures and traditions. The church as a community of believers is God's instrument for building the Kingdom of Peace.
Jesus announced the coming of God's Kingdom and commissioned us to proclaim the Good News to all people until the end of time. Hearing the Good News, living by it and witnessing to it, is the basic calling of all Christians. The Good News addresses itself to the whole person and to all people. The Gospel, being the Good News for the poor, needs to be constantly reinterpreted from the perspectives of the poor and oppressed. Christ's own communication was an act of self-giving. He 'emptied himself, taking the form of a servant' (Phil 2:7). He ministered to all, but took up the cause of the materially poor, the mentally ill, the outcasts of society, the powerless and oppressed. Jesus’ preferential option was for the marginalized. He took sides with the people on the margins, to lift them and to give them the right to human dignity.
Hence Christian Communicators are called upon to take sides with the poor and the marginalized people of the society to give them communication rights and build viable communities of peace and justice.
The WACC's Congress 2008 held at Cape Town, South Africa focused on the theme 'Communication is peace: building viable communities’. It brought together about 300 communication and media professionals from 73 countries, ending with a call to give peace a chance.
The General Secretary Rev. Randy Naylor said, “War has had enough time. We have given war enough space in our publications, but as Christian communicators, the time has come that we give peace a chance. We should start writing about peace – peace that builds viable communities, inclusive communities.” The President of WACC, Mr. Dennis Smith also stressed, “In a day where identity is so precarious because of the forces of consumer society and the political, religious and ideological movements, communication and the right to communicate--especially of those who have been silenced, those who have been invisibilized--is going to allow us to strengthen voices of civil society through diversity. It makes us think of the need for peace … to give voice to the voiceless and face to the faceless in our societies.”
The world is experiencing peacelessness throughout the globe, where terrorism, war, oppression, marginalization of the poor, women, children and immigrants and refugees, increase the number of people on the margins. All our Communication efforts should focus on bringing the people at the margins to the center. A right to communicate is one of the key issues of the world and WACC will be present in the global struggle for this right.
Joanne Sandler, Deputy Executive Director - Program UNIFEM said that, “We can’t do this alone… Working together, finding a way to bring synergy … is a precondition for making the kind of change we want to see.” World Association for Christian Communication - Asia Region agrees and aims at working together with the people at the periphery, to be the voice of the voiceless and give face to the faceless as an instrument of Peace with Justice following WACC’s Christian Principles of Communication.
The communication of Christians is ultimately meant to glorify God. In that sense, all Christian communication is an act of worship, a praise of God through the shared word and action of a community living in the consciousness of God's presence. Christian communication is challenged to witness to God's transforming power in all areas of human life. Hence, we are calling for Asia Communication Sunday 2009 to be observed during the month of June, ideally celebrated on 21 June 2009 in all the churches in Asia. The theme chosen is: “Communication is Peace: Taking sides to build viable Communities.”
We invite your suggestions for Asia Communication Sunday 2009. Let us share and celebrate this meaningfully, “Taking Sides” to build viable communities in order to establish Peace in our families, communities, churches, our nations and our world as Christian Communicators.
Prof. Dr. Samuel Meshack
Chairperson, WACC-Asia
The materials for Asia Communication Sunday 2009
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