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Archdiocesan Communications Centre (A.C.C.)
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During the two years the Archdiocesan Communications Centre (A.C.C.) has been in existence, it has tackled the job of spreading an awareness of the social means of Communication with enthusiasm and verve. The activities of the A.C.C. apart from Bangalore and its environs, encompass the different parts of Karnataka.
It would certainly not be any overstatement to say that the A.C.C. has achieved in fullsome measure the expectations of many with the assistance of a small nucleus team and an impressive array of modern mass media communications infrastructure. The Archdiocese of Bangalore in many modest ways is now aware of the potential of a modern Communication Centre to guide. and channelise the spread of the Word of God by making full use of modern media and technology. In its first two years, the A.C.C. can therefore be said to have embarked on many trail-blazing and path-breaking activities that can and need to be developed over the coming years.
It would be moot to place on record some of the major achievements and activities of the A.C.C. during the two years - that have elapsed since its inception. These have covered the areas such as media education, consultancy, production and service. Event-wise, these have been as follows
1. Seminars and Discussions
1.1. School Teachers
The A.C.C. has been conducting a number of seminars and discussions. These have covered college lecturers, school teachers and students. The aim of these exercises has been to have a new outlook on education, to create a new classroom atmosphere, to promote better communication between the Management - Staff - Parents Children, to integrate media in teaching-learning process, to become a good Teacher or Educator, to prepare the teaching assignments without any strain! The venues have been the Workers' Centre, Bangalore and in-situ at various Institutions. The programs were found to be very useful and interesting and conducted with an innovative and imaginative approach.
1.2. College Lecturers
A four-day Seminar-cum-Conference on Self-discovery and Communication Skills was conducted by us at Maria Bhavan in May 1996 for the Xavier Board of Education. The program highlighted topics such as Self-perception, Self-discovery, Inter-personal relationship and Integrating media in teaching - learning process and Communication Skills with the help of suitable audio-visual presentation. 42 Christian professors and lecturers benefited much from the programs which would go a long way to help them improve their teaching skills. Besides the Director, A.C.C., Gp. Capt. Austin Menezes (Retd.) and Mr. Benedict Jaykumar were the resource persons for the Seminar-cum Conference.
Similar programs were conducted for lecturers of Sophia’s College of Education, tutors of St. Martha's School of Nursing and St. Anne's College, Ramamurthynagar, Bangalore.
1.3. SEM - CON for Executives & Managers
Seminar-cum-Conference at Hotel Taj Residency. In a foray beyond its usual area of operations, the A.C.C. conducted a very successful two days Seminar-cum-Conference at the Hotel Taj Residency for commercial and industrial enterprises. Participants came from a varied background.
The resource persons were Director, A.C.C. and Gp. Capt. Austin Menezes (Retd.), and topics covered were Self-perception, Self-discovery, Inter-personal relationship, Communication Skills, Tips to better Marketing and Time Management. The Seminar-cum-Conference aimed to send each participant away as a better person personally and for the sponsoring organisation. With the full use of audio-visual aids, T.V. and imaginative posters and slides, participants opined that this was a programe that was quite extra to the ordinary.
There has been a happy sequel to this effort. Many organisations have approached us to conduct for them in-house programs. We look forward to the challenge, involved.
1.4. Seminary Professors 1 Seminarians 1 Pastors
Th Archdiocesan Communications Centre organized three special workshops on Academic approaches to Christian Communication, Theology of Communication, Communication and Pastoral Ministry for Seminary Professors, Seminarians and Pastors respectively. These workshops were conducted by Rev. Dr. Robert A. White, S.J., Dean, Department of Social Communications, Gregorian University, Rome. The highlights of his sessions were: To discuss the ways and means of approaching the study of Christian Communication in the Seminaries,. To help draw up some guidelines for designing the curriculum in seminaries, some practical suggestions to promote Media Education in Seminary / Formation Houses, Theology of Communication and Integrating Media in Pastoral Planning and Ministry.
We are grateful to Fr. Robert White, S.J., for his availability and erudite talks.
1.5. Catechists
This program covered catechists from - both the rural and urban parishes.
The purpose of this course for Catechists is : To help them review their lives, To appraise them of the latest thinking in the Church, To equip them with better understanding of their ministry, To orient them to different Apostolates in the Parish, To teach them to communicate more effectively, To initiate them to become more dynamic in their work. The catechists liked our practical sessions.
1.6. Religious
Many Programs were conducted for religious congregations in and around Bangalore. Religious at different levels were exposed to how to be a more effective member of the order, what makes for better interaction with the laity, how one's individual role in the order could build up the community and how to revitalise the Evangelization activities with renewed orientation and motivation.
Besides, our programs for religious in the three districts of the Archdiocese, we were invited to conduct programs in Mysore, Mangalore, Bellary and Calcutta. Just to remind you that religious are all over the country and the A.C.C. is with them!
2. Liturgical Animation
The A.C.C. team went to a couple of parishes to train the animators for liturgy, to help lectors to read distinctly during the liturgy, and also to give tips to the choir-masters and musicians to make church music more prayerful and appropriate. The choir-masters were instructed to select appropriate hymns for different parts of the liturgy. Presently in many parishes hymns are selected and sung without proper preparation and practice.
The choir-masters were satisfied and they proposed that A.C.C. conduct a separate training program for them.
3. Jeeva Vakya
A.C.C. is indeed proud to say that daily reflections on the liturgical readings are being published for the first time in Kannada with help of members of the Kannada Academy of St. Peter's Pontifical Seminary, Bangalore. So far, two volumes have been released and the remaining three volumes will be published for year B (two volumes) and year C (one volume) as required later for use. The book is very essential for Personal Prayer, Group Prayer, Daily Sermons, Assembly Gatherings and the Church-tower Broadcasts.
4. Slides in Cinema Theatres
The A.C.C. has ventured to break into new fields by screening valued-based slides in ten cinema theatres in Bangalore, a month in each theatre. The messages have been received by thousands of viewers and the feed-back has been very encouraging and rewarding. We have since been circulating the slides to other places for screening. Messages through visuals are indeed more communicative and effective!
5. Dance Camp for Rural Children
The Archdiocesan Communication Centre conducted a ten-day dance camp exclusively for rural children at the Workers' Centre from May 17-27. About 20 villages representing ten parishes participated in the camp, which is perhaps the first venture of its kind in the country.
The dance classes were conducted by the two qualified dance teachers, Ms. Reena Raj and Mr. Das. Intensive training was imparted to twenty participants beginning with the rudiments of Bharatanatyam. Later it moved on to a couple of choreographic presentations based on the Bible, which were performed in public. Our Archbishop presided over the concluding function and exhorted the children to use their talents to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ through this traditional art, while at the same time not to neglect their studies, but to strive hard to come up in life.
6. Atma vikas
In collaboration with St. Anne's Communications, Bangalore, the A.C.C. has been organizing Monthly Talks for the General Public with a view to promoting social, ethical and religious values. The specialists in different fields are our resource persons for these meetings.
7. Classes and Workshops
The A.C.C. team has been going around conducting classes and delivering lectures on Mass Media and other related topics which are very essential for personal and community development. We have conducted lectures/classes at St. John's Medical College, St. Martha's School of Nursing, Dharmaram College, Boscom Communication Centre, Sophia College of Education, St. Peter's Pontifical Seminary, United Theological College and Ecumenical Christian Centre. Our innovative methods make our programs unique from the run-of-the-mill ones. Our identity is always in the difference!
8. Church -Tower Broadcasts
This has been the A.C.C.'s special ministry for evangelization. Earlier we gave complete P.A. systems with tape-recorders to five parishes to proclaim everyday the Word of God from their Church towers. This year we gave two sets to Marianapet & Sira Parishes.
The Jeeva Vakya published from our Centre comes in handy for this apostolate! Our mission is to literally facilitate the Word of God being proclaimed from the roof tops!
9. Audio Studio
We are pleased to inform you that our Audio-studio is being used by many others for their cassette productions. Now, A.C.C. has upgraded the system to eight tracks which certainly makes our work a lot more professional! We've also procured good quality microphones. Professional musicians and singers have certified that our studio is accoustically designed and the equipments are state of the art.
10. Air-Conditioning
Recently, our A.C.C. studio has met a long felt need and been air-conditioned. This was primarily to maintain precision and quality in our recording to ensure dust free conditions for sensitive equipment and secondly to make the artists comfortable. Mr. Anto who installed the air-conditioning at the A.C.C. studio very competently is unfortunately no more. He met with a fatal road accident.
11. Audio-Library
The newly procured prerecorded audio cassettes facilitate our music-mixing, but also are very useful for our production of spiritual and liturgical animation programs.
The cassettes on spiritual talks will be of a great help to you. Why not borrow them from our Library for your Parish/Community or even personal use?
12. Audio-Production
Besides our regular recording, this year we extended help to produce audio-cassettes for otherorganizations.Welistsomeofthembelow:
And a couple of other productions were made for two or three Congregations and Organizations in our Audio-studio. A.C.C. also undertook audio-duplication for other agencies.
13. C.D. Library
Today, in production, more than quantity it is quality that matters a lot. Keeping this objective in mind, we are gradually building up our Compact Disc Library for our own ministry and to help others.
14. Phone And Pager Facility
Earlier the A.C.C. did not have a telephone line of its own. But now it has its own telephone No. 3339199 with four extensions. For urgent contact, the A.C.C. also has a pager facility and the number is 9624 - 223762.
15. Video Section
1.0. Video Library
Our Video Library is growing slowly but steadily. A number of new video cassettes have been included in the list. These video-cassettes are meant mainly for children, youth and religious who can now know more about various topics through visuals. Our cassettes on the Bible are worth a mention here. Please visit the Library and check-out on the video-cassettes.
2.0. Video-Production
Prakruti Nandana. This is a beautiful video-cassette in Kannada for meditation. The natural scenery helps inspire the seeker to get nearer the Almighty.
Our Lady of Lourdes Cassette : Mr. A.V. Rego took the initiative of dubbing the video cassette of our Lady of Lourdes into Kannada. The 80 minutes cassette gives viewers a personal experience of Lourdes. The script was written by the Director, A.C.C. and the narration by Ms. Sabiha Banu, Doordarshan News Reader. Audiorecording, mixing and dubbing was done in our studios.
Presently, two or three religious congregations are busy in our studios producing video-cassettes on the history, development and apostolate of their Congregations in India, particularly in Karnataka.
16. Conscientization Of Voters
The A.C.C., in order to motivate the voters during the last General Election, had published thousands of hand-bills and have them distributed all over Bangalore. In its guidelines it appealed to the voters to exercise their franchise by considering it as a Christian responsibility and a sacred duty. As votes are precious, the'voters were asked not to be deceived by the false promises of any party nor to sell their votes for money or any other immediate gain.
17. Spiritual Animation Programs
The main objective of our work through the means of Social Communication is to renew the faith of the people, especially youth and therefore the A.C.C. conducted a number of spiritual animation programs in Schools, Colleges and Parishes for the youth. We used Audio-visual materials during the sessions. The youth recall with joy our audio-visual Mass which involves them very much in the sacred liturgy.
18. Poster Competition
In collaboration with the Archdiocesan Catechetical Committee, we conducted a Poster Competition for Middle and High School students. The participation was very encouraging and the kids brought out their innate talents through painting. Surprisingly, the Hindu children did their paintings extremely well. If kids are motivated properly, they inspire the elders!
19. Publications
Earlier, the A.C.C. published books relating to Church Documents and Evangelization. (iv) Punches A pocket sized Inspirational Words for Meditation and Prayer was published recently. People seem to like our punches!
20. Radio Programs
The A.C.C. is contributing regularly to All India Radio, Bangalore to Chintana, Sannuthi Geethe (Devotional Songs) and Talks for Christmas, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. A number of parishes and educational institutions are participating in programs for children, youth and women through the recommendations of the A.C.C.
The thrust of the A.C.C. has been to pioneer disseminating the Gospel and social and ethical values through Vividh Bharathi, i.e.Commercial Broadcasting System (CBS). Listeners have sent in their appreciation to the Program Director of CBS.
21. Christian Message Through Calendars
There is joy in any pioneering effort. 'Mallige' calendars published both in Kannada and English by the Bangalore Press have the teachings of Christianity on the reverse of the calendar and we have also explained in detail the meaning of Christian feasts and celebrations.
Our new venture has been applauded by the Bangalore Press who request us to contribute regularly. The main purpose of our innovative approach is to reach out with the Message of Christ and the teachings of the Church to one and all!
22. Collaboration With Other Centres
"One must not work either by domination or by subordination but by coordination!". We abide by this axiom! And, the A.C.C. is trying its best to collaborate with other communication, publication and production Centres to pool in human resources and other facilities. In unity lies strength. We welcome suggestions.
23. Distribution Centre
The A.C.C. apart from generating its own audio-visual material in the form of cassettes, books, tracts etc., also functions as a Centre for disseminating such production of other Centres. It welcomes the role of being a part of a larger network of other Communication Centres-p d agencies.
24. Miedia Consultancy Service
The A.C.C. has been involved in providing consultancy services to various interested agencies and individuals. These have covered the areas of audio-visual productions, effective communication techniques including mass media and selection and use of suitable mass media communication equipment.
25. Out-Reach Programs
Our activities are not confined only to the urban areas, but we also conducted programs in K.G.F., Kolar, Malur, Gokunte, Tumkur and Sira.
In K.G.F., the Deans convened a meeting of the animators from all the Parishes of the K.G.F. deanery and conducted a training session. The office-bearers of the Family Welfare Centre went for two weekends to conduct training sessions for those who were involved in the Pre-cana instructions in the Parishes!
An important point worthy of note is that a News-bulletin was started in the K.G.F. Deanery.
A T.V. and V.C.R. have been donated to the K.G.F. Deanery to conduct Evangelization programs in Parishes and Schools. A Television has been donated to Siluvepura for an effective apostolate.
We are also planning to implement similar project in Tumkur District.
The main purpose of decentralising our human and material resources is to reach out to all the Parishes of our Archdiocese.
26. Our Future Plans
27. Visitors To The A.C.C.
The reputation of our budding organization and its activities is spreading far, and wide. We have thus been privileged to receive and welcome the following distinguished visitors:
28. We place on record!
Our most sincere thanks to our Patron His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Alphonsus Mathias, Archbishop of Bangalore. It is a true statement that without his vision and support there would literally be no A.C.C. We also thank our Vicar General, Finance Officer, Donors, Well-wishers, our Collaborators, Resource Team Members and Staff of A.C.C..
It is not possible to mention individuals as their number is legion. However, we must particularly mention Fr. Vazhapilly, Members of the Kannada Sahitya Academy, St. Peter's Pontifical Seminary and Mr. A.V. Rego.
Retun to HomeDirector, A.C.C.
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