"Communications for Peace and Harmony”
The Commission on Communications and Relations (COCR) of the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) along with India Peace Centre (IPC), Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society (CISRS), Amritsar Diocese of the Church of North India (CNI) and, Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (ISPCK) organized a Training Workshop on the theme "Communications for Peace and Harmony” from August 25 – 29, 2014 in Baring Union Christian College Association (BUCCA) in Batala, Punjab. The program was hosted by Christian Institute for Religious Studies (CIRS) which is a theological component unit of BUCCA.
The program was inaugurated on August 25th by Dr. Derrick Engles, Secretary of BUCCA,
Rev. Vijay Kumar, Secretary of Diocese of Amritsar of CNI, Dr. Edward Masih,
Principal of Baring Union Christian College. Also present at the inaugural and participating
throughout the program were members of the local coordinating team of BUCCA:
Prof. Dr. Rajan Chaudhary, Prof. Neeraj Sharma, Mrs. Neelam Chaudhary, Mrs.
Kamani David, Mr. Krishan Dutt, Mr. Ram Chand and Mr. Pankaj.
The session on August
25th focused on perspective building
in which Mr. Kasta Dip (Director of IPC), gave an overview of the issues of
peace and harmony, with reference to various situations in India. He stressed
the importance of being leaders and communicators for peace-building for which
it is essential to be open and unbiased. It is important to see situations and
issues with a wider perspective than one’s own to be able to make appropriate
responses. It was an interactive session in which participants’ perspectives
were enlarged to enable them to understand differences and the need for
contextualization. In the evening, Mr. Kasta led the participants into a
candle-light peace vigil and special
prayers for the people affected by Kandhamal issues.
The morning
session on August 26th focused
on skills and techniques in offline
publications, in which Rev. Sunil Raj Philip (Executive Secretary of NCCI’s
Commission on Dalits), presented the challenges of secular media and Christian
media with special emphasis on print media. His presentation gave a
well-rounded understanding of the role that Christian communicators are
required to play to regain the balance that is upset by secular media which is
often found misused as a tool for greedy and ignoble purposes. Rev. Sunil then
explained the basic concepts of the various elements of publication, and using
the example of newspaper publication, led the workshop in which participants
worked in groups to prepare news pages using the concepts taught. The
importance of colors, design, layout, fonts, sizes, pictures, etc. in enabling
the communication of a purposeful and effective message, was grasped well by
participants in the preparation of their group-specific news page. Each group
prepared and displayed the news page they prepared which was evaluated and
discussed in the plenary.
The afternoon
session of August 26th,
focusing on skills and techniques of photography
and photo-editing, were conducted by
Rev. Caesar J. David (Executive Secretary of NCCI’s Commission on
Communications and Relations) and Rev. Sunil Raj Philip respectively. The
importance of images was explained in some detail. Photography techniques
covered basic principles of light, aperture, shutter speed, iso, composition,
etc. Using commonly found softwares MS outlook photo editor and photoshop, photo-editing
skills like adjustment of exposure and colors, resizing images, using clone
tool, cropping, use of layers, upscaling, etc. were explained by Rev. Sunil by
live demonstration.
On August 27th
a field trip was organized in which
participants were taken to the Golden temple in Amritsar, Jallianwala Bagh and
Attari border. The day’s program proved to be a perspective-enlarger as
participants discovered and tried to understand differences in people on
account of faith, region, etc. This contributed to discussions and thoughts
that probed deeper into the area of communicating in situations of contrasts.
In the morning
session on August 28th,
the creation and use of Microsoft’s PowerPoint presentation was explained by
Rev. Caesar by live demonstration. Along with the various capabilities of
PowerPoint, helpful guidelines for good presentations were given. In focusing
on online publications / networking tools,
Rev. Caesar explained the importance of upgrading communication system skills
and tools in order to continue being relevant in current times where online
networking and media are being used more and more commonly. Participants were
given an overview of common tools of online social networking such as facebook,
twitter, blogs, youtube, mobile apps, etc. The simplicity of setting up and use
of these tools was demonstrated with specific instructions and helpful
guidelines. In this interactive session, participants practically experimented
with some of these tools. Two short videos from youtube were shown to exemplify
the simple effectiveness of online media content. Some part of integration of
online networking tools were also explained such as can be beneficial for use
by Churches and organizations where collaborative administration may be
required.
In a split session, Asst. Prof. Krishan Dutt, of
Baring Union Christian College showed two short documentary videos to explain the
opportunities and challenges to using online social networking and media
especially with reference to youth in the Church and society. He urged
vigilance in using the internet in light of its many distractions. He also
recommended that more training programs for Church youth should be arranged to
ensure that they are guided and their potential duly utilized towards good
purposes such as supports the agenda of the Church.
The afternoon
session on August 28th was devoted to the fundamentals of video editing in which Rev. Caesar
explained the basics in a live demonstration using Windows Movie Maker.
Creation of a video, editing, as well as video slide show using still pictures,
was explained. The workshop consisted of participants being divided into three
groups, each working on a computer, and making a movie compiled from stills and
videos that they had taken. Each group was successful in making short
experimental videos.
On the evening
of August 28th a Cultural Program was arranged in which
participants played a few games, and performed songs, folk dance, poetry
recitation, story-telling, etc. Ladies from the Baring Girls’ Hostel joined the
program with their special Punjabi folk dance. The Punjabi folk dance /
story-singing was a novel and educational experience for most of the
participants. This folk dance was used as a reference for the following day’s
session on “other media” / “alternative media”. Former moderator of CNI and
former Bishop of the diocese of Amritsar of CNI, Rt. Rev. Chandulal Anand, and
former secretary of BUCCA, Mr. R. Chaudhary were also present at this occasion
and spoke a few words each, mainly stressing the importance of peace and
encouraging the youth in Churches towards communication for peace and harmony.
The morning
session of August 29th covered alternative / other media, in which Rev. Caesar gave an overview of
traditional media that can be seen and used as effective communication tools. Using
the example of the Punjabi folk dance and story-singing of the previous
evening’s program, the elements of communication space, participatory
communication, value of non-digital media, easy communicability, community
advantages, etc. were explained. Other examples of ‘other media’ include street
theater, puppetry, magic, story-telling, song, dance, paintings, symbols, etc.
The workshop of this session consisted of the participants breaking into two
groups and putting together a ‘street-play’. The issues discussed as the social
change message to be communicated were related to: child labor, superstition,
dowry, discrimination against women, caste issues/ untouchability, etc. The
groups successfully put together two skits on child labor and discrimination
against women which were then presented in the plenary at the closing session.
At the closing
session on August 29th, each of the two groups performed their workshop
activity of street play they had prepared. Dr. Derrick Engles was present at
the closing to wish the participants well in pursuing the cause of peace and
harmony. Mr. Kasta Dip thanked BUCCA for their kind support and cooperation.
The program concluded with prayer and benediction by Rt. Rev. Chandulal Anand. The
certificate of participation along with three titles supplied by ISPCK were
given to each participant.
A special word of thanks is due to Dr. Derrick
Engles and the coordinating team at BUCCA, all of whom personally interested
themselves in the program and its objectives. They spared no effort in
organizing local logistics and resources to enable participants to have a most
pleasant and comfortable stay during this program. The partners of this program
are very grateful to all the Churches and organizations that sent their members
to this training workshop, and hope that explorations, study, trainings and
cross-learnings will continue that lead us to using communications towards peace
and harmony.
____________________________________
Reported by
Rev. Caesar J. David
Executive Secretary,
Commission
on Communications and Relations, NCCI.
 |
| Jag Bani | Batala | August 25, 2014 |
