Take a look here on the index list of items in the right hand margin where you see “Archives by Area”. I see England 368, The Episcopal Church 366, and Lambeth 345. Then I see this: Africa 38, Nigeria 34, Uganda 31, Southeast Asia 23, and South America 20.
I see a clear message sent here, I just wonder if those who are sending it are aware of the clear bell they are ringing.
Canon Harmon, the ACNS/ACO folks are not so subliminally showing their particular view of the AC as (culturally) western-centric? Yeah, right.
This should surprise no one, but it really is blatant.
Kenya, 49;Scotland, 35. South Africa, 139;Spain, 5. Middle East, 148; Europe, 69. Eurocentric/”westerncentric”? Not in the eyes of this beholder. Looks very much like centered on the topics of current interest, which are certainly the Anglian/Episcopal relationship and Lambeth. What, Kendall, would your own archives look like if “scored by quantity”. One often finds the message one seeks.
#3, I’m not sure that your comparisons help your argument.
According to Lious Crew’s website, 1997 statistics put Kenya with 2,500,000 members in 28 dioceses, Scotland with 53,553 members in 7 dioceses. (currently the difference is probably larger, since Kenya is growing and Scotland shrinking). Yet Kenya only has 1.2 times as many news stories. Spain has 5000 members in one Diocese – which corresponds to 5 news stories. South Africa is relatively liberal, so the comparatively large number there demonstrates Kendall’s main point. Granted, one of your comparisons might be valid: Europe (presumably referring to the C of E diocese in Europe and the Episcopal convocation) has 2 Dioceses, compared to the middle East’s 4. The ratio of news stories there is about right.
If you click on the Nigeria link, the most recent reference is dated 2/9/07, and the second dated 9/21/06. For Uganda, the first one is 6/13/07 (Abp. Orombi’s fine essay, [i]What is Anglicanism?[/i]) The second is dated 10/21/05. Surely, there has been Anglican news out of these two provinces more recently than this! Are they not paying attention–or are they deliberately burying news from Africa?
The Presiding Bishop did assert that the Anglican Communion is a “dream.” If the Anglican Communion is only just a dream, then this website is propaganda. And now we know.
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Do you think that ACNS might not be the first choice of these provinces for their breaking news stories?
I can’t think why.
Y’know, I noticed the same thing when I was looking at the new AC/ACNS webpages. But, then, there have been lots of times when I wondered what ACNS deems newsworthy and suitable for their site.
The ACNS does not have its own reporting staff; it basically acts as a distributor for news releases by Anglican provinces and church agencies. Provinces that have a public relations office with paid staff will obviously generate a lot more releases than provinces that do not. Provinces with a free press are also more likely to issue press releases than those located in countries with government-managed media. As a result, there is a lot more material from the West than from the Global South. That quite adequately explains the disparity without recourse to paranoid conspiracy theories. It might help if the Global South provinces sent their releases to the ACNS, rather than to partisan reasserter organizations. If TEC sent all its news to Integrity and The Witness, ACNS wouldn’t have much to say about them either.
So Dale . . . you must know something that we don’t. You’re saying that the Global south does NOT send their releases to the ACNS?
Of course, the reason why all the “partisan reasserter organizations” sprang up anyway was in part because somehow Integrity news always managed to end up on ENS, while, oh, say, most of the news that is on this blog . . . doesn’t. ; > )
Thankfully, thanks in large part to T19, reasserters have managed to bypass ENS entirely, should they wish to . . . to the private gnashing of some.
Thanks Kendall! ; > )