UISG set to hold first meeting of ‘Communication for Religious Life'
By Sr. Titilayo Aduloju, SSMA
The first International Meeting of Communication for Religious Life is set to offer an opportunity for communicators of various congregations across the world to deepen their commitment to the Church’s mission of communication.
In a press release by the organization on 23 November, “The First International Meeting for the Communication of Religious Life will take place online from 27 November to 4 December.”
The event on 4th December will be both online and in person and will take place at the headquarters of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) in Rome.
According to the statement, “The meeting is a week of events animated by three key words: Training – Networking – Change.”
Communication for religious life
The meeting seeks to offer professional training for women religious and even laity that are involved in the field of communication, particularly in digital media.
“We hope for the strengthening of the network that connects all those who carry out this mission at the service of religious life and we wish to generate a change towards more effective and efficient communication,” according to the statement.
Key communication discussions
The week-long programme will include three fundamental moments:
The first day will centre on 13 training workshops, with around 1,000 people who already registered.
The second day of the event will be “totally dedicated to communicators, who would draw up a joint declaration that projects us towards a more effective and evangelical communicative future.”
A declaration representing the outcome of the deliberations is expected to be presented on 4 December at the final event.
“Over 600 people already registered for the round tables on key communication topics that would take place on the third day,” the statement confirmed.
The Delibera platform, a collaborative intelligence tool, is used to select themes for workshops, round tables, and multimedia materials for the "Communicating Religious Life" digital platform.
According to the statement, “The choice of themes for all the workshops and round tables, as well as the multimedia materials available through the digital platform “Communicating Religious Life” (https://www.uisg.org/it/communicating-religious-life/).”
On 4 December, the UISG Communication Office will present “Sisters Communicate”, a publication containing research results on communication reality among over 300 female congregations.
Data from the conducted research
The press statement also presented various facts and figures that emerged from the research conducted among various congregations that members of UISG.
The data stated that:
- 86.4% of communication is managed by sisters belonging to the institute; 13.6% of the institutes rely on a lay person, and therefore external to the institute;
- 29.2% of the institutions that responded to our survey do not have a communications team, while 70.8% declare they have one;
- 54.1% have no relations with the press, 45.9% have relations with the press;
- 58% of congregations do not have a strategic communication plan compared to 42% who say they have one;
- 65% do not have a part dedicated to institutional and digital communication in the ratio formation and this means that digital subjects are not included in initial training.
According to the statement, “These data present us with quite a few questions which, during the international meeting, we will address with the various protagonists of these challenges.”
It further highlighted the central role played by superior and general councillors, lay people and experts who work in the field of Church communication, universities, associations and business communications, and press bodies.
The UISG communications office, established in 2015, aims to train and empower sisters who believe communication is a mission. They hope to have each congregation have a digital missionary for communion and virtual community.
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