AMECEA: Let Your Communication Have Positive Impact: Bishop Stima to Church Communicators in Malawi
Bishop Montfort Stima Chair of Social Communications- ECM
Stella Zulu
The Bishop Chairman for Social Communications and Research Commission at the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) Right Reverend Montfort Stima has challenged Church Communicators to ensure their work is making positive change on the people and society.
Bishop Stima said this during a Stakeholder Engagement Meeting organized by Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) Social Communications department, for National and Diocesan Communications Coordinators and Directors of Catholic media houses in the Church in the Malawi.
“Your mandate as Church communicators is evangelization. Your communication should impart Christian Values in people and the others should borrow a leaf from it. Always be mindful of the context you are communicating in, the context of COVID 19, high suicide cases, Climate Change and Tropical Cyclones, rotten society and family values where people are advocating for gay rights and young people without respect for the elderly and many human sufferings. Let us all remember that we are evangelisers and your Communication should bring hope to people in these contexts.
He further urged the communicators and all Catholics to analyse and criticise the news they receive on social media before sharing it to avoid spreading fake news and fear.
‘Let us not be quite on the truth even if it means standing alone against the majority.do not kill your conscious for monetary gains but teach people to look at things with an eye of Faith and listen to what God is telling them in every situation’. Urged Bishop Stima
In his remarks, AMECEA’s Social Communications Coordinator, Fr. Andrew Kaufa said the meeting was aimed at helping the ECM’s Communication Department, the Diocesan Communication departments and the Church media houses in Malawi to assess their current situation in view of improving their performance in accordance with their mandate in the mission of the Church.
’It’s now 60 years since the Church gave the decree on the use of social media for evangelisation, the Inter Mirifica, in 1963 during the second Vatican Council. So, we want to do an honest assessment with the Malawi team on how we are using these instruments, to diagnose the challenges faced and strategize on how we can improve and move forward,’ said Fr. Kaufa
He continued that through Communications Sunday, depending on what it happening in society, the Church also gives guidance on how to use media technologies for integral development of the people.
The meeting was held from 21st to 24th of March, 2023 at Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) Lilongwe campus.
