Official Anglican Web Portal launched by the Anglican Consultative Council

Subject: ACNS3144 [ACC12] Official Anglican Web Portal launched

ACNS 3144 - ACC12 Media Release No 14 - 24 September 2002

[Hong Kong - ACNS] A major expansion of the Anglican Communion web site, published by the Anglican Communion Office, London, was announced on 23rd September at the 12th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. The web site will become the Official Anglican Web Portal and be a comprehensive source for news, photos, information, and educational resources and have links to other official Anglican web sites around the world.

ACC members gave the news of the Anglican Web Portal a rousing welcome and enthusiastic endorsement. The Revd Canon Emmanuel Adekola, Director of Communication for the Church of Nigeria, was also present and offered a powerpoint explanation of CHONACONet, the latest development in 'global private telecommunications.'

The new portal will be available soon at www.anglicancommunion.org and is expected to improve the way information about the life and work of Anglicans is accessed on the worldwide web. Members and leaders in the Church, the public and the media will be able to use the portal to locate or request information about the worldwide Anglican Communion and its 38 primarily national Provinces with 70 million members.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, who presided at the portal launch, was praised and thanked by the Revd Canon Oge Beauvoir of the Parish of Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York, as a model for Anglican leaders by the way he has used email and the web to stay in touch with issues and colleagues during his extensive travel and global ministry. Canon Beauvoir said, "He has been a model by his avid and even experimental use of the internet as a tool for research and intercommunication in his own ministry."

Canon James M Rosenthal, Director of Communications for the Anglican Communion, said, "The web portal will allow us to provide much more than web pages. It will be the hub of a computer networking system on the Internet that will offer online collaboration tools for church related committees and staff; private email based discussion groups for bishops and other leaders; and an enlarged online shop for books and materials about the life and mission of Anglicans."

This telecommunications initiative is being funded by a two year grant from the Parish of Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York City, in response to requests and consultations from and with web specialists and communication officers from Anglican Provinces and Dioceses, many who already are developing web sites in their parts of the world. They have cited the need for a coordinated and comprehensive web portal, a "Window on the Web," to represent and serve the Anglican Communion.

The Trinity Grants program has supported innovative telecommunications ministries since 1985, recognizing before many others, the potential for using emerging technologies to further the Gospel and the mission and ministry of the Church, according to the Revd James G Callaway Jr, Trinity Parish Deputy for Grants.

The Revd Clement W K Lee from the Office of Communication in the Episcopal Church, USA, and an adjunct staff member of the Anglican Communion Office is convener of the working group developing the new portal. The group, doing most of its work online, includes Canon James Rosenthal and Mr Christopher Took, from the Anglican Communion Office, the Revd Dr Joan Butler Ford (California), Dr Dennis Johnson (Washington, DC), Mr Tom Lopez (New Mexico), Mr John Allen (New York), the Revd Canon Emmanuel Adekola (Abuja, Nigeria), and the Revd Peter Moore (Gilgandra, Australia).

ENDS

(From the ACC News Team: Dan England, Margaret Rodgers, James Rosenthal)