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Is the Church Dropping the Ball?
by the Rev'd Ron Barnes, D.Min. (a chapter from my doctoral thesis)
For the first time in human history, religious bodies are no longer at the forefront of communication technology. Computer communication technology is sadly lacking in the arsenal of the Church, and, with some rare exceptions, there is no great interest in the Church regaining its leadership in information technology. Why has this happened? From the result of my study, several answers are becoming apparent.
A) The first answer could well be the apparent high cost of computer technology. Though it is true that computers cost less today than only five years ago, and that the abilities of a Pentium equipped computer greatly exceeds the XT of yesterday, yet the average parish still needs to spend almost $1000, as a one time cost, for the hardware and software just to enter the digital information age. As computer needs rise in a parish, there will be a somewhat smaller ongoing annual cost for upgrading computer software, without considering the acquisition of more hardware. If one assumes a diocese of one hundred parishes, the total cost can easily exceed $80,000 for a diocese. True, a diocese leaves it to the individual parish to decide on the type and financing of their own equipment and software, but that may be exactly where the second problem has occurred.
Parishes are governed by Parish Councils, elected by the congregation each year to make decisions on the mission and direction of the parish. The persons often elected are those whose great desire is to save funds, and preserve mission. Very few of them are the same persons who are making computer decisions in business firms. Very few of them have caught a vision of the Church’s role in the Information Age. The decisions on the purchase of equipment and software are being made by persons whose desire it is to save money, not improve the ability of the Church to communicate. Does the statement, "if printed paper and the postal service were good enough for granddad, it is good enough for me" symbolize the thought of many of them? To suggest that the Church should be a leader in information technology, and that each parish should be paying for this leadership is antithetical to the thinking of most parish councils.
B) A second answer may well be a "lack of strategic leadership" from Diocesan Offices and Diocesan Committees. The strategic thinking that has been a foundation of the progressive responses from business, education, and government in the field of computers has been sadly neglected in the upper ranks of the Church. Leadership for this strategic thinking should have come from the head offices; just as the leadership in business and education has come, not from workers in branch plants, but from those in leadership who engage in strategic thinking? Companies have computerized in order to compete effectively with other companies. Schools have computerized in order to communicate quickly and effectively with others in the field of higher education, and to provide vast resource materials for students and faculty. Governments have computerized in order to deal with rapidly expanding population and civic needs. In business, education, and government, computer communication
systems have been installed by a leadership who desired the best in strategic advancement. Such has not happened in the Church.
Instead, those in leadership in diocesan offices have chosen to respond democratically to the spoken needs of parishes — parishes which rarely know that computer communication even exists or how it could help them — rather than developing strategies to integrate up-to-date information technology into the future life of the Church. While business and education have both sought better, faster, and cheaper ways of communicating amongst their personnel, the Church has relied on doing things as "they have always been done before" — complete with the inevitably slower and more expensive methodologies. We will soon be suffering the costly consequences.
As a result of the surveys and study, the evidence suggests that the lack of Strategic Leadership has been caused by a series of four factors.
1. The first is a "lack of vision" of the possibilities of computer communication. Diocesan leadership has been so focused on survival in the midst of rapid change, that it has not seen computer technology as an opportunity to find a better way of communicating within the Church. It is time for the leadership of the church to enlarge its vision — to see the advantage of a greater use of computers within the Church. It is time for the leadership of the Church to see the democratization of information possible with the introduction and use of Client/Server communication systems in each diocese to interconnect priests, parishes and people. In an age when businesses are experimenting with linking employees, working from home offices into a company owned computer communication network, the Church, with its system of parishes spread throughout a diocese, should see that it already possesses this "home office"
situation, and is already in an ideal position to integrate a team approach to computer communication in its own work place. All it takes is a determined vision from the leadership. The rest of the church will respond as it sees the vision brought to life.
2. A second reason is the pervasive effect of what could be called "broadcast mentality." Diocesan leadership, whether in head offices or in committee structures, whether clerical or lay, sees communication as a one way street --- the sending of information "from us to them" in the most convenient manner possible. The Post Office continues to manage that very well for the church — easily sending vast amounts of paper information from head office to the branch offices — expensively and slowly. Some diocesan officials have suggested the use of fax machines, which would cost the diocese less, eliminate the lengthy postal delay, but continue the "sending of paper material from us to them" mentality. In this age of the
democratization of communication, two-way communication must be developed that replaces "hierarchical thinking" with "team thinking." The implementation of diocesan computer communication would go a long way to change the "broadcast mentality" to "cooperative consultative team thinking."
3. A third answer certainly is a "nervousness towards technology." From the results of the surveys, it became very apparent that many groups in the church were nervous about the technology involved in computer communication. There have been a significant number of stories in the press about hackers, about pornography on the Internet, and about computer viruses spread from system to system.
There is no doubt that hackers exist, but defenses against all but the best are simple and easy. The very best hackers prefer to "hack their way" into banks, commercial telephone systems, government offices, and military agencies — and wouldn’t waste their time worrying about a simple Diocesan communication system. There is nothing of commercial value in a Diocesan email system. If the fear of hackers is a substantial concern in a diocese, a commercial "fire wall" can be purchased to make it more difficult for most hackers to access the system.
Of course, pornography does exist on the Internet, though only in a minor amount compared to the vast amount of information placed there; however, the use of an Intranet or a private diocesan Client/Server system means that all users must register to be admitted to the system. This registration is a simple but realistic defense against the purveyors of pornography. The kind of individuals who might want to insert pornography into a Church system would definitely not want to register on a Diocesan email system with their name, address, and phone number. Besides, the use of Moderators for major Conferences, who understand and follow the Diocesan Guidelines, would mean that anything abusive, or worse, would be immediately deleted, and the user warned, or removed from the system permanently. Diocesan Client/Server systems, unlike the Internet, are closed systems, and are unlikely to suffer from pornographic or abusive intrusions.
Viruses and spam however are certainly probably. Viruses cannot usually be sent in a message or note written to a Client/Server email system, but are instead programs that hide inside other programs. So, though no virus could be found in a message in a Conference, a virus could be introduced into an attachment or a file posted to a File Library. However, a good Virus Checker running automatically on the Server computer will detect and delete them quickly. Diocesan Office computers are far more likely to catch a virus from a diskette brought from home by a diocesan employee than from a modern Client/Server communication system.
The fourth answer could well be feeling of "loss of control" likely to happen with the introduction of a computer communication system. When NWnet was first adopted as the official email system of the Diocese of New Westminster, the initial response from one member of the Diocesan staff was to suggest that every Conference be made "Read Only," to prevent users from posting any messages at all to anything other than Anglican Chat and their personal Mailbox. Diocesan staff instantly sensed that they would lose control of the sources of information unless they could control each and every Conference, and decide what could be posted and when. To be honest, the Diocesan staff is quite correct. By their very nature Client/Server communication systems are two-way — they encourage dialogue, discussions, a sharing of many ideas, and an egalitarian approach to information. Such a system spells danger to an authoritarian, hierarchical organization that wants to
protect its ownership of the information to be shared. Some church officials are nervous about losing control of sources of information. Is this not indicative of a lack of trust of the users of the system? What if someone should post something with which a staff member does not agree? Such fear is real, and must be taken seriously, and faced objectively. To offset it, Guidelines were posted, in a Read Only Conference, entitled Please Read, so that all users would know that their use of the diocesan system had limitations. Several other Conferences were made Read Only, so that Diocesan leaders could post information, without fear of response. Fear of the loss of control by diocesan leaders seems to be very real and must be taken seriously. Business, education, and civic leaders have all had to face the same "loss of control" that is a result of adopting a computer mediated information system.
".... Moving to a system of distributed information publishing is hard. It requires a new way of thinking — breaking old habits and forming new ones. And it means giving up some control at the top." Elgan, Mike; editorial in Windows Magazine, June 1996.
An optimistic view would declare that there is a place in the Church to develop leadership in computer communication at both the parish level and the Diocesan level. At the parish level, local leadership should be finding better ways to meet the needs of the community, to develop outreach, to do mission, to care for the sick and the poor and the unemployed, to heal the sick, clothe the naked, and challenge the ungodly institutions of our society. At the Diocesan level, leadership should be finding better ways to network, to share, and to communicate, in the fastest and most economical manner. To argue, as some are still doing, that parish secretaries "can’t manage anything more complicated than opening mail" is to invite failure. Diocesan leadership should be envisioning the best and most economical methods for the Church, strategizing for the future, and making such methodology easily available for the Church.
The Presbyterian Church USA has shown leadership in communication strategy, for their particular branch of the church, by adopting Ecunet as their nationwide communication system. By paying the costs nationally, they have guaranteed a free email system, second to none, that is available for every one of their congregations, their ministers, and a number of their laity. Any criticism of Ecunet not withstanding, it is an excellent system that meets many of the needs of the Church for fast, simple, and universal communication. The leadership of Ecunet is showing such a vitality and desire to change and improve that it is almost certain that Ecunet will overcome its deficiencies and expand beyond North America.
However, based on the results of this study, it is my belief that a decentralized system, such as a number of diocesan Client/Server Intranet email systems, networked together, using Ecunet or Quest as the hub, will better serve the needs of a diocesan centred Church — and do it more cheaply, simply, and universally. The implementation of a network of a number of decentralized diocesan systems will take leadership and imagination at the top, as well as a desire to plan for the future of the Church. It can be done; in fact, where Diocesan leadership has shown some encouragement, it is already beginning to happen.
The purpose of this thesis has been to show how a diocese can install and configure an electronic communication system, simply, cheaply, and easily, for the increased benefit of communication between parishes, priests, and people. Together with simple Workshops designed to get users up and running, the leadership of a diocese can implement the best of modern private email system in the Church, and save time and money in the process. Email will do more than just replace the postal service; it will initiate a sharing and communication amongst priests and laity that is badly needed. This communication will not replace face to face meetings, but will continue a daily dialogue, involving many in deciding on the changes necessary to advance the Church towards the Kingdom. A private diocesan email system will reduce hierarchical thinking by giving everyone a chance to receive information, quickly, easily, and without cost, and to read and respond online to a multitude of ideas. Priests in
outlying parishes will discover that they are as close to the centre as everyone else. Laity will discover that they have an equal voice with others in the discussions. Youth and seniors will discover that they can talk to each other without knowing or caring about differences in age or culture. Colour, age, and race cease to have any consideration online — email notes are all the same for everyone. Only ideas count.
Email is not the answer for all the ills of the Church! It is only one answer that will help improve communication, and save resources. By grasping the challenge of integrating electronic communication into the future of the Church, diocesan leadership will have increased information sharing, challenged hierarchical thinking, drawn distant priests and parishes into a closer connection with the whole of the diocese, and helped prepare the Church for increasing needs of the twenty-first century. It is an idea whose time has come.
The change to electronic mail made the Diocese of New Westminster the first diocese in North America, perhaps the world, to utilize email so substantially. The decision for such a change is being made because of three reasons:
1. The cost of mailing paper information has escalated so much that the saving realized by switching to electronic mail, using NWnet, are substantial. There is no doubt that the Diocese will save more than $10,000 in postage, paper and envelopes alone by eliminating the mailing of printed paper to individual priests and parishes. But the Diocese also realized that printed information re the annual Synod, the printed Canons of the Diocese, and other printed papers could save substantially more.
2. The annual use of vast supplies of paper information was poor environmental practice. For years, some members of the Diocese had campaigned for a reduction of the use of paper. Attempts were made to print information on both sides of each sheet of paper, but even then, the constant growth in the amount of paper consumed in the mailing of diocesan information was substantial. The conversion of the Diocesan Information and Clergy Mail to electronic medium would not just reduce the use of paper, but virtually eliminate it for these two specific items. The Diocese, in its decision to use NWnet as its primary information centre, had taken a decisive and courageous step towards bettering the environment. Less paper used meant fewer trees consumed, and a smaller
contribution to paper garbage.
3. The decision to use NWnet as the primary centre of information meant a substantial reduction in postal delay. No longer would information have to wait for several weeks to be inserted in a Clergy Mailing envelope. No longer would the Clergy Mail be delayed by slow postal delivery. A notice could be posted to the Clergy Mail Conference in NWnet when it was ready. Information thus posted became instantly available to all parishes, for reading, downloading, printing, or incorporation into parish newsletters. One posting, and the information was there for all to see. No postage, no delivery delay, no labour intensive stuffing of envelopes, no waiting for the mail to go out. Instant, free, information delivery.
The decision to use NWnet for all Diocesan information was a courageous decision, made by a few diocesan staff who were determined to find a new and better way to communicate. This decision was communicated to all parishes in such a way that if a parish was not ready to receive its Clergy Mailing and Information electronically, it could opt out of the email system, and request a temporary continuation of the paper mail. Though almost all parishes have computers, a number do not yet have modems, nor the skill to operate the simple FirstClass program necessary to retrieve the information. Workshops on the use of NWnet are being held regularly through the year in different areas of the diocese, following the established Workshop design. Information on the acquisition of modems, software, manuals, and computer upgrades was made available to all priests and people. Assistance was promised by staff to all parishes requesting help in computerizing. Though the decision had been made to
boldly move ahead, there was a determination to bring all members of the diocese along at a comfortable pace.
The Diocese of New Westminster has shown bold leadership and determination to move its practice of communication into the 21st century. It is the first Diocese to move virtually all of its Diocesan Information into the electronic medium. It deserves acknowledgment and recognition for its progressive and courageous decision. The years ahead will show the wisdom of its choice.
© The Rev'd Ron Barnes, 1997 | |
