WACC Laureates

Gregg Brekke (2023)
A long-time journalist in the faith-based and humanitarian spaces, Gregg Brekke has been Executive Director of the Associated Church Press (U.S.A.) since 2017. He is the former editor of Presbyterian News Service and former News Director and Editor for the United Church of Christ. The ordained United Church of Christ minister serves as WACC North America Vice-President. In 2015, Gregg Brekke was the North American representative from WACC to the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlinale film festival. He has been a member of the WACC Board of Directors since 2019.

Dr Stephen G. Brown (2023)
Dr Stephen G. Brown is the Editor of The Ecumenical Review, a quarterly theological journal published by the World Council of Churches. He was a member of the WACC Global Board of Directors from 2010 to 2023, including two terms as WACC Treasurer, and has helped to shape WACC’s strategic directions, to represent the organization at meetings and conferences worldwide, and to organize the international digital justice symposium in 2021. Stephen Brown has been as a member of the WACC Europe Regional Executive Committee since 2008, serving as the region’s vice-president and president in the past, as well as in leadership roles for the European Festival of Religious Programmes (2017 and 2023) co-organized by WACC Europe and for the region’s Refugees Reporting project.

Magali Cunha (2023)
Magali Cunha’s contact with WACC began in 1983 when she, a young Brazilian Methodist shaped by Protestant liberation theology and ecumenism, became involved in the ecumenical movement. A journalism student at the time, she became acquainted through WACC publications with the value of religious communication for the cause of justice. She became an ecumenical activist in 1985 as democratic currents for justice and peace fuelled hope for change in Brazil. Since then, Magali Cunha’s work as an educator, researcher, and journalist has been inspired by WACC’s ecumenical vocation of ‘communication with all and for all’, a crucial part of her life’s journey marked by participation in a range of WACC initiatives and partnerships, particularly in Latin America.

Maximilian Dueñas Guzmán (2023)
Maximilian Dueñas Guzmán is coordinator of WACC’s Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) for the Spanish-speaking Caribbean region and serves on the WACC Caribbean Regional Executive Committee. A citizen journalist and teacher who promotes communication as a human right, he has contributed and published on popular communication projects on the Haitian–Dominican border and experiences of defiant appropriations of new technologies. He is a professor in the Communication Department of the University of Puerto Rico Humacao, coordinates the Network for Research and Collaboration in Communication of Central America and the Caribbean (Red RCIA of ATLANTEA), and hosts the radio program ‘Culture of conversation’. His Ph.D. is from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Daniel A. Favaro Valle (2023)
Daniel A. Favaro Valle is a Methodist pastor and communicator from Argentina. He has served as President, Treasurer, and member-at-large of the WACC Latin America Regional Executive Committee and participated in various WACC activities in the region, including helping to organize assemblies in Argentina as well as working to ensure a sustainable organization. His time as a regional board member coincided with the move of the WACC Global offices from London to Toronto, a period of leadership change as well.

Sandra López Astudillo (2023)
A long-time activist for women’s rights, ecology, communication, and care for life, Sandra López Astudillo is the coordinator of Fundación GAMMA in Ecuador. She has been a volunteer with WACC’s Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) since 2000 and began serving as GMMP regional coordinator for Latin America in 2010. Producer of the programme ‘Women on Radio’ from 1996 to 2010, she has been the administrative secretary of the Citizen Communication Observatory in Cuenca, Ecuador, since 2004. Sandra López Astudillo studied Philosophy, Arts and Education Sciences, specialising in Language and Literature, and Social Anthropology with a gender and social conflict dimension. She is the author of the methodology ‘We build our own room’ (2021) on self-care and awareness development.

Tuomo Pesonen (2023)
Tuomo Pesonen served as the Director of Communication for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF) from 2008 to his retirement in 2022. He had a long career in journalism and broadcasting, including with BBC World Service, Radio Sweden, and the Finnish Broadcasting Company. A long-time supporter of WACC, he was a member of the WACC Europe Regional Executive Committee from 2014 to 2022, helped to organize the European Festival of Religious Programmes, and led ELCF’s hosting of the WACC Europe Assembly in 2019. Tuomo Pesonen especially values WACC’s advocacy, rooted in Christian values, on behalf of those who have been silenced and the organization’s work to uphold freedom of opinion and freedom of the press.

Ary Régis (2023)
Ary Régis first got involved in WACC in 1998. The organization offered him, a young Christian with a passion for communication and education and a preferential option for the poor, a common foundation for his civic commitment as director of Haiti’s then-only BA program in Social Communications and as head of the only organization in the country accompanying community radio. Since then, in Haiti and beyond, WACC has enabled him to engage through these two areas in the struggle for respect and promotion of the right to communicate. Ary Régis has served as President of WACC Caribbean and as a member of WACC’s Board of Directors. His commitment has evolved from activist for freedom of expression, the communication rights of migrants, cultural diversity, and gender equity in the media, to global citizen for digital literacy, climate justice, and digital citizenship.

Eloy Teckemeier (2023)
Eloy Teckemeier has a degree in Journalism from the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Brazil. From 1989 to 2022 he was General Director of Editora Sinodal, a publisher and distributor of Christian literature. His first contact with WACC was in 1978 at a seminar on print communication. He has since served as Treasurer of the WACC Latin America region and as Treasurer of WACC Global, the latter for two terms beginning in 2000. Eloy Teckemeier participated in and coordinated several events for WACC at the Frankfurt Book Fair in partnership with GEP, the national media company of the Evangelical Church in Germany, an alliance which allowed Christian publishers from developing countries to share experiences, network, and develop professionally.

Achowah Umenei (2023)
The Rev Achowah Umenei is a retired pastor and journalist of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) and served as the church’s Communication Director for 22 years. The author of seven books, he was a university lecturer for five years. His connection with WACC dates from 1981. He was a WACC scholar at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and at Indiana University School of Journalism (U.S.A.). Achowah Umenei was a member of the WACC Africa Regional Executive Committee, holding the offices of Vice-President and President. He gave leadership in the latter role for ten years and in conjunction was a member of WACC’s Board of Directors.

José Luis Aguirre Alvis (2019)
José Luis Aguirre Alvis is a Bolivian journalist, social communicator and communications researcher. He studied Social Communication Sciences at the “San Pablo” Catholic University of Bolivia (UCB) in La Paz and holds a Master’s in Social Sciences (M.Sc.), specialising in Communication for Development, from Iowa State University (USA). He is a lecturer in Communication and Development Theory in UCB’s Department of Social Communications and director of the Radio and Television for Development Training Service (SECRAD). He also teaches post-graduate programs at UCB’s regional campus in Cochabamba; the “Simón Bolívar” Andean University (La Paz); and at the Universidad Mayor, Real y Pontificia San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca (Sucre). José Luis Aguirre Alvis is former Secretary of the Journalism Ethics Tribunal of Bolivia’s National Council for Journalism Ethics (CNEP), former President of WACC Latin America, and former Vice-President of WACC Global. In 2014, he was awarded the Oscar Zambrano Prize for Communication for Development by the Social Communicators College of Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Monsignor Patrick A. B. Anthony (2019)
Retired director of the Cardinal Kelvin Felix Archdiocesan Pastoral Centre, St. Lucia, Monsignor Patrick A. B. Anthony holds a Master’s degree in theology from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a doctorate from the English Department of the University of the West Indies, Trinidad. Theologian, cultural activist and communications specialist, Msgr. Anthony is the founder of the Folk Research Centre, St. Lucia (recently re-named after him); the St. Lucy’s Home (St. Lucia) for the rehabilitation of street people; the Jubilee Trust Fund (St. Lucia) and the George Odlum Fund for Creative Artists. He is a founding member of the Catholic Conference on Theology in the Caribbean Today and editor of Theology in the Caribbean Today (proceedings of that annual conference), and was President of the Antilles Catholic Press Association (1996-98). Msgr. Anthony edited the Catholic Chronicle (the monthly newspaper of the Catholic Church in St. Lucia from 1980 to 2014, served as Archdiocesan Press Officer (2000-2006), and was a member of the Eastern Caribbean Press Council (ECPC) from 2003. He was the first president of WACC Caribe (1996-2000) and a director on the Central Committee of WACC Global (1996-2000). He has been a visiting lecturer at the Center for Religious Communication, University of Dayton, Ohio (Summer 1993); a research partner and faculty member at the Center for Mission Research and Study, Maryknoll, New York; and a visiting lecturer at the Caribbean School of Catholic Communication (Trinidad & Tobago). In February 2000, he was awarded the St. Lucia Cross (SLC) by the Government of St. Lucia and in 2013 declared a National Cultural Hero by the Folk Research Centre.

Alma D. Montoya Chavarriaga (2019)
Alma Montoya Chavarriaga is a social communicator with a background in development communication and community development management. She has over 45 years’ experience in rural, academic, and edu-communication projects in Colombia and other Latin American countries, especially the Andean region. Specializing in radio stations and communication training centres, and as a university lecturer, Alma Montoya Chavarriaga has worked in local and regional radio networks of all descriptions in conflict and war zones across Colombia. She also works with institutional communication projects on the country’s border that prioritize the most vulnerable groups. An active WACC member since the 1990s, she has also been a member of its Latin American regional committee. Currently she is director of Grupo COMUNICARTE, which is dedicated to promoting participatory, equitable and democratic social development.

Pradip Ninan Thomas (2019)
Pradip Ninan Thomas is at the School of Communication & Arts, University of Queensland. Prior to his move to Australia, he worked with WACC from 1990 to 2004, initially as the Asia Regional Coordinator and then as Director of Research. WACC has played a formative role in his growth and development as an academic and researcher. WACC’s commitment to communication rights and its support for critical research in communications on the world stage provided him with opportunities to research key media issues from intellectual property to issues around identity and culture and the role played by communication in social change. He was involved in widening WACC’s engagement with ‘other faiths’ and is grateful that WACC‘s journey as a faith-based organisation did not preclude its continuing dialogue with other faiths and with people of other persuasions. Pradip Ninan Thomas’s research interests include the media in India, the political economy of communications, communication and social change and religion and media. He has published extensively in these areas most recently in the Journal of Communication, the European Journal of Communication and with Oxford University Press and his works are widely referenced throughout the world. His publications with OUP include The Politics of Digital India and Empire and post-Empire Telecommunications in India.

Gianna Urizio (2019)
Gianna Urizio always tries to link her social and political involvement with her commitment to the Waldensian (Protestant) Church in Italy. In both spheres, she brings a vision of solidarity and social justice. Awarded a university degree in sociology in 1973, she worked for two years as a researcher in the Italian Institute for Social Health and as a teacher of sociology and psychosocial matters in a Specialisation School for Nurses. In 1977, she began working for the Protestant program of Italian Television RAI2 and attended communication and directing courses. As program director, she made many documentaries around the world exploring different approaches to faiths, cultures and lifestyles. From 1993 to 1998, Gianna Urizio was chief editor of the program. At that time, she also became involved in the international ecumenical world, first with the World Council of Churches’ Development Education Programme and then with WACC: first in the European Standing Committee (from 1988); animator for South Europe for media communication; and then as WACC Europe President (2003-2005). In 2003, together with others she founded in Italy a Protestant Association of Cinema and promoted with INTERFILM a Jury at the Venice Film Festival. She still actively promotes human rights and justice, in particular for women and migrants in Rome where she lives.

Maria Elena Hermosilla (2018)
Maria Elena Hermosilla is a journalist and communications researcher. She specializes in the study of television reception with the goal of revealing the new meanings that different social and cultural groups – especially women and youth – give to messages. She worked on the active television reception program of the Chilean non-governmental organization CENECA, dedicated to the study and elaboration of educational materials and training workshops. She has been a university lecturer in Chile and Brazil, and in Chile worked in state institutions related to childhood and the prevention of drug consumption. Since 1985, she has been linked to WACC, especially its women’s programme. She was elected to the Executive Committee of WACC Latin America in 1991, subsequently serving as its President. In recent years, Maria Elena Hermosilla has worked on public communication policies, with a particular focus on gender. Currently, on the recommendation of Chile’s President and ratified by the Senate, she is a member of Chile’s regulatory body, the National TV Council. She is a journalist, Christian, and feminist.

The Rev. Dave Wanless (2018)
David Wanless is an ordained minister of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa. Apart from full-time service in five local churches, he has been involved in the church’s communication activities for most of his ministry. He worked full-time for four years in national radio presentation and production in South Africa, and was involved in the struggle for justice during the apartheid years with the South African Council of Churches, eventually working as its Director of Communication. He has also worked as Editor of national Congregational and Presbyterian print media and been on media teams for assemblies of the World Council of Churches and World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the 2004 Global Aids Conference. His first involvement with WACC was during his time with the SACC in the late 1970s, particularly the old Radio Voice of the Gospel programme. He served the WACC Africa Region as Treasurer and President for 15 years, and also served a four-year term as WACC Global Treasurer. David Wanless (1940-2021)

Piet Halma (2018)
Piet Halma has a broad experience in communications, (public) broadcasting and peace keeping. He served at the ecumenical broadcaster IKON in the Netherlands and the Council of Churches in the Netherlands. He was vice-president of WACC, and president of WACC Europe (1997-2007). He was also chair of the European television festival of religious programmes in Kristiansand, Norway 2007. He was advisor of the Board and Management of PAX, an NGO in the Netherlands that works for peace, reconciliation and justice in conflict areas around the world. Piet Halma is a member of the board of Interfilm and has been a member of several Ecumenical Juries at the Karlovy Vary, Leipzig, Kiev, Cottbus, Locarno and Berlin film festivals. He retired in 2015 and is now serving as a volunteer on patient advocacy boards.

The Rev. Dr Young-cheol Cheon (2018)
Cheon, Young-cheol is an ordained pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK). He received a PhD in Media, Religion and Culture at the VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands in 2011. He served as a WACC Officer (Treasurer) 2006-11 and as an Asia Region-WACC Officer (Treasurer) 2003-08. He was a director of communication and public relations of the Korean Host Committee for the WCC 10th Assembly from 2011 to 2014. Since 2015 he has been a Visiting Professor of Christian Communication at the Presbyterian University & Theological Seminary in Seoul, South Korea. Currently, he is the General Secretary of Korean Diakonia.

Glory Dharmaraj (2018)
Dr. Glory Dharmaraj has been the national coordinator for the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) for the U.S.A. since its inception in 1995. She has served as Vice-President of WACC-North America and as a Board member of WACC. She is retired director of spiritual formation and mission theology for the United Methodist Women, and former Administrator of the Seminar Program on National & International Affairs at the Church Center for the UN, New York. She is an author and co-author of many books including A Theology of Mutuality: A Paradigm for 21st Century. Glory has addressed several national and international level conferences on the theme of gender and media, Christian mission and post-modernity, interfaith and public theology.  Glory got her Ph.D. from Loyola University, Chicago.  She has done special studies at Harvard University and joint studies on doctor of ministries at San Francisco Theological Seminary, California, and Ecumenical Theological Education at the World Council of Churches, Geneva.

Hilary Nicholson (2018)
Hilary Nicholson has over thirty five years of experience in the Jamaican and Caribbean movement for gender equality and human rights, working in advocacy, training, communications and participatory research. She is a founding member of WMW-Jamaica (formerly Women’s Media Watch) and senior adjunct lecturer in Media, Gender and Development at the Caribbean School for Media and Communications. On behalf of WACC and WMW-Jamaica, Hilary has been coordinating the national and regional Global Media Monitoring Projects since the inception of the GMMP in 1995.  As a video producer she has completed over twenty-five documentaries on the history, heritage and social development of Jamaica, and is also active in theatre, both on and off stage.

Akuila Yabaki (2018)
Reverend Akuila Yabaki was at the helm of Citizens’ Constitutional Forum (CCF) for 16 years (until 2015), first as Director, and then CEO from 2002. In 1999, he was named the Pacific Person of the Year by Islands Business magazine. Under his leadership, CCF grew from small beginnings to become a leading human rights organisation in Fiji. Reverend Yabaki has steered the organisation through the turbulent times of 2000 and the post-2006 years fearlessly advocating for justice. His passion for the rule of law, good governance, and human rights, especially the rights of marginalized people, has led CCF to successfully undertake advocacy and education in many areas and over a multitude of issues. He cultivated endearing friendships across the racial, religious and political divide in the cause of promoting and advocating for human rights, and created strong regional and international networks of individuals and organisations to support human rights, justice and democracy in Fiji. He is a long-time member of WACC Pacific, serving as its President, and a member of WACC’s Board of Directors.

Randy L. Naylor (2018)
Randy L. Naylor attended the University of Alberta and St. Stephen’s Theological College, Canada, and was ordained by Alberta Conference in 1971. He served two congregations in Alberta before moving with his wife Loreen and their two children to work as missionaries in Sierra Leone, West Africa, (1976-1979). Returning to Canada, Randy served as staff person for Alberta Conference, with responsibilities for Evangelism, Stewardship and Communication. In 1983 he was invited to become head of communication for the United Church and appointed acting General Secretary for a year while the Church sought a new General Secretary. After serving as head of communication for the National Council of Churches of the USA in New York City, he was appointed as WACC General Secretary (2001-10). In 2010, he was called to Parkwoods United Church, Toronto, where he continues to relish his work as a congregational minister.

Julienne Munyaneza (2018)
Julienne Nyirankusi Munyaneza was born in Rwanda. Her professional background lies in communications and international development. From August 2016, she worked as a consultant for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) based in Geneva, and from 2012 to 2013 for the Government of Rwanda as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion. But her long-term employer was WACC as Regional Coordinator for Africa and the Middle East 1992-2006, and Programme Manager for three programmes – HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Ecumenical Relations & Networking 2006-08. In this capacity, she also served as liaison person for the North America and Pacific regions of WACC. Julienne studied communication at Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya. She also specialised in foreign languages and international development at the European School of Languages, Mainz, Germany. She holds a Masters Degree in Communication/Media Policy from City University, London, UK. She is the author of her own story, published in 2017 as  ‘Grace in the Midst of Genocide’.

Musimbi Kanyoro (2018)
Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro is globally recognized for her leadership of organizations and initiatives that advance health, development, human rights, and philanthropy for communities, specifically for women and girls. She is currently President and CEO of Global Fund for Women, one of the worldís leading publicly-supported foundations for gender equality. Dr. Kanyoro has written and published extensively on matters affecting the lives of women and children. She received her bachelor’s degree from Nairobi University, Kenya, a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin, and a doctorate in Feminist Theology from San Francisco Theological Seminary. She was a visiting scholar at Harvard University, and has received several recognition awards, including a leadership award from the Kenya Government and recognition as one of the 21 women leaders for the 21st century by Womenís E-News. In 2015, Forbes magazine named her one of 10 women ‘power brands’. Dr. Kanyoro was President of WACC 2002-08 and currently serves on the CARE Board, the UN Women Civil Society Advisory Board, Landesa and the World Bank Group’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development.

Dennis A. Smith (2018)
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Dennis was an honor graduate in speech communications at Wheaton College in Illinois, and subsequently completed a one-year graduate fellowship at the National College of Education in Evanston, Illinois. In 1977, he accepted an assignment with the United Presbyterian Church (USA) continuing his communication work with Guatemalan Presbyterians. In 1984, Dennis received a new appointment at the request of the Latin American Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies (CELEP), based in San José, Costa Rica. From Guatemala, he coordinated CELEP’s Education for Communication program. In 1996, Dennis’ work came under the umbrella of the Central American Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies (CEDEPCA) where he served until 2010. In 2011, he was appointed as Regional Liaison for South America and the family moved to Buenos Aires. He was WACC President 2008-16 and is a former president of WACC Latin America.

The Rev. Dr. Andrea Zaki (2018)
Andrea Zaki Stephanous studied at Cairo Evangelical Seminary, Egypt (BTh, 1983), at Coady International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia (Diploma in Social Development, 1988), at Eastern University, West Chester, U.S.A. (MA in Theological Studies, 1994), and at the University of Manchester, UK (PhD, 2003). He is President of the Protestant Churches of Egypt (2015 – present); President of the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS); President of the Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches (FEMEC); Professor at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC) giving courses on Political Religions and Theological Foundation for Social Change. He is the author of three books titled: Jesus and Historical Criticism: The Story of the Conflict between Salvation and Social Change (1996); Political Islam, Citizenship and Minorities: The Future of Arab Christians in the Middle East (2006); and Copts & Revolution (2015). He is a former member of WACC’s Board of Directors and of the WACC Middle East regional executive committee. He is currently General Director of the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS).

Pfr. Hans Hodel (2013)
Hans Hodel, Swiss theologian and President of INTERFILM 2004 to 2013, began his career in a teacher training school for religion, ethics and media in Bern and, from 1987 to 2003, was film commissioner of the Swiss Protestant Churches. As Jury coordinator of INTERFILM from 1989, and later as its President, he inspired and oversaw an ecumenical presence at many film festivals including Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, and Montreal. Founded in 1955, INTERFILM became an international network for dialogue between church and film, promoting appreciation of cinema’s artistic, spiritual and social significance and calling attention to the relevance of theology and religion for cinema. Hans Hodel continued that tradition, establishing and guiding a series of annual seminars on the theme “Faces of Europe – Europe’s Face” exploring social and theological dimensions of film. He also worked hard to encourage a rapprochement with the Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe. Over many years WACC has maintained close ties with INTERFILM, which for many people is personified in Hans Hodel as a communicator of enormous integrity and dedication.

The Rev. Carlos A. Valle (2010)
Carlos Valle, a Methodist minister from Argentina, was WACC General Secretary 1986-2001. Previously he served on the Executive Committee of WACC’s Latin America Region, on WACC’s Board of Directors and as a pastor in Methodist congregations in Argentina. A former President of INTERFILM, the Protestant film organization, Valle was a staff member of the ecumenical theological school, ISIDET, in Buenos Aires, where he taught various courses on communication, especially film and theology. As WACC General Secretary, Carlos Valle worked to strengthen cooperation and commitment between the World Council of Churches and WACC and convened the first meeting of senior communication leaders in European churches and ecumenical organizations. Upon retiring, Carlos returned to Argentina to serve as a chaplain to students at ISIDET in Buenos Aries, where he continues to write on issues related to communication, to work for his church, and to take an active part in promoting communication rights and social justice. Carlos Valle has written several books, published in both Spanish and English. They include Comunicación es evento (1988), Comunicación: modelo para armar (1990), and Communication and Mission: In the Labyrinth of Globalisation (2002).

The Rev. Dr. William F. Fore (2010)
A minister of the United Methodist Church, Bill Fore was President of WACC (1982-90), and oversaw the difficult transition from the old WACC to current model, which was formally adopted in 1986. For many years he served as the Executive Director of the Communication Commission of the National Council of Churches, USA, where he became recognized as a leader in the field of communication policy and regulation. He is often remembered as saying, if you want to know where the real communication issues are to be found in regulatory matters “follow the money”! Bill Fore taught at Yale Theological Seminary and, after his retirement, he also taught communication at the United Theological College in Bangalore, India. Not content to reflect on past achievements, he launched a website that published articles, papers, and research documents related to communication and theology. Two of his best known books are Television and Religion: the Shaping of Faith, Values and Culture and Mythmakers: Gospel, Culture and Media. William F. Fore (1928-2020)

Mrs. Shirley Whipple Struchen (2010)
A lay person within the United Methodist Church, Shirley Struchen has worked as an ecumenical Christian communicator all her career. An employee of United Methodist Communications, Shirley was instrumental in introducing the use of satellite downlinks for sharing information important to improving church and community life. Her greatest success was to hold a satellite seminar on youth and gun violence with two weeks of the infamous Columbine High School shooting massacre in 1999; hundreds of hospitals, police stations, community centers and churches throughout the United States joined the seminar to learn from experts on kids and guns, violence in the schools. Shirley is equally well known in the ecumenical world for her pioneering work as a co-creator of the Television Awareness Training programme. She was also an active committee member of the Communication Commission of the National Council of Churches USA and in 2002 took on the task of becoming a television producer for the NCC’s quarterly television programming, co-ordinating at the same time access to religious broadcasting on the major US television networks by the Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist, and Jewish faith community of the USA. Shirley played a pivotal role in the Religion Communicators Council’s interfaith communication congresses in 2000 and 2010, serving as coordinator for both events. Along the way Shirley Struchen found time to serve on the WACC North America Executive Committee and the WACC Board, and to be an active participant in WACC Congresses.

The Rev Edward B. Willingham (2010)
A Baptist minister, Ed Willingham worked for three decades with the Council of Churches of Detroit and Windsor (a USA/Canadian border city alliance), first as communication officer and eventually as executive director. During his years at the Council, Ed became well know on both sides of the border and to this day takes some pride in celebrating religious, civic and cultural events in both Canada and the USA. Ed Willingham served as one of the North American representatives on the WACC Central Committee from 1973 through 1978. In 1974 Central Committee met in Switzerland and discussed a merger with the WCC’s Literature Group, and in 1975 they met in London to create the ‘new’ WACC – the WACC we know today. Ed Willingham deserves to be honoured especially for his work with the North America Broadcast Section of WACC. Present in Toronto at the founding meeting of a group of North American ecumenical communicators which decided to form NABS-WACC, as it was to be known, Ed was the executive director of NABS for nearly 30 years. During that time NABS held yearly conventions of one-week duration in which ecumenically minded communicators from the faith communities of Canada and the USA gathered for inspiration, information, renewal and most importantly fellowship. This annual gathering was recognized as the largest annual ecumenical event held in the world. For many broadcasters it also became a source of personal support and discernment. Edward B. Willingham (1934-2018).

Dr Cees J. Hamelink (2008)
Cees Hamelink is an internationally recognized expert on mass communications and communication rights who for many years advised WACC on matters of policy. Director of the Communication Research Unit of the Department of Studies of the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva, Switzerland (1971-76), he was responsible for initiating research projects in developing countries, supervising and assessing ongoing projects and organizing scholarly meetings for policy formulation. In 1977 he became consultant to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and supervised research projects carried out by the Latin American Institute for Transnational Studies (ILET) and was Research Fellow of the Latin American Institute for Transnational Studies, Mexico (1978-1990). He was Associate Professor for International Communication at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands (1980-93), Extraordinary Professor of communication and international relations at the University of Amsterdam (1984-93) and from 1995 professor of communication science, chair of international communication in the Faculty of Social Sciences (Department of Communication Science), University of Amsterdam. His numerous books include Cultural Autonomy in Global Communications (1983), The Technology Gamble (1988), Trends in World Communication (1994),The Politics of World Communication (1994), Preserving media independence: regulatory frameworks (2000), The Ethics of Cyberspace (London, 2000), Global Communication (London, 2014), and Communication and Human Rights (Cambridge, 2023).

Ms Margaret Gallagher (2008)
Margaret Gallagher (Ireland) is an independent researcher and writer specialising in gender and media. She started her career at the BBC (London), before moving to the Open University where she was Deputy Head of the Audiovisual Media Research Group. For the past thirty years she has been a free-lance consultant, and has carried out research, training and evaluation projects for the United Nations and its agencies, the European Commission, international development agencies and broadcasting organisations. Widely published on women, media and development, she has authored works including Gender Setting: New Agendas for Media Monitoring and Advocacy (Zed Books, 2001) and Who Makes the News? Global Media Monitoring Project 2005 (WACC, 2006). She serves on the editorial boards of International Communication Gazette, Feminist Media Studies, Media Development, Communication for Development and Social Change, and Communication, Culture and Critique. She is a member of the Governing Board of the Panos Institute, London.

Rt. Rev Horace Etemesi Shitandi (2008)
Horace Etemesi is the Bishop Emeritus of Butere Diocese of the Church of Kenya (Anglican Communion). He trained at St. Paul’s United Theological College, Limuru, before becoming manager of Uzima Press, Nairobi (1975-88) and served as chairman of the Kenya Publishers’ Association (1978-88) and of the Bible Society of Kenya 1987-89). He was a member of WACC’s Central Committee (1979-88) before joining its staff as regional coordinator for Africa and Latin America (1989-94). In 1994 he was appointed diocesan bishop. Now retired, he lives in Shikoti (a village in Western Kenya) on his farm where, with his wife Fran, he has built an interdenominational chapel for a congregation of 60 members. He is the author of The Birth of Christ (Let’s talk about it).

Fr Michael Traber (2006)
Michael Traber was born and educated in Switzerland. In 1956 he was ordained into the Bethlehem Mission Society from where he went to the USA to study sociology and mass communication at Fordham University and New York University (1956-60). He gained his PhD in mass communication. The Bethlehem Fathers’ close ties with Southern Africa led Mike to work in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as director of Mambo Press and editor of the critical weekly newspaper Moto (1962-70). Mike joined the WACC staff in 1976 as director of its fledgling Periodicals Development Programme and editor of its quarterly journal Media Development.Mike worked for the democratization of communications and to validate the concept of communication rights for all. Similarly, he put his intellectual weight behind the systematic study of the connections between theology and communication. Mike also worked closely with Dr Robert A. White, director of research at the Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture (London) to edit a series of monographs on ‘Communication and Human Values’. He was also President of IDOC, Rome, working closely with its executive director, Heinz Hunke. In 1984 at the suggestion of Hans W. Florin, then WACC’s General Secretary, Mike drafted eight propositions about communication which, after discussion by its Central Committee, became the Christian Principles of Communication. In 1995, on his retirement from WACC a book on The Democratization of Communication was published in his honour, containing contributions from colleagues working in the global field of mass communications. Fr Michael Traber (1929-2006)

Rev. Dr Albert D. Manuel (2005)
It would be unusual to visit a well-established communication house in Africa, Asia or Latin America that would not at some point in its development have come under the influence of Bertie Manuel. A WACC employee from 1973 through 1992, Bertie came to the organisation via the Agency for Christian Literature Development (ACLD) – the successor agency of the Christian Literature Fund. After the ‘new’ WACC was formed at the Skyway Hotel (London) in 1975, Bertie served WACC as director of the newly formed Print Media Development Unit (PMDU). In later years Bertie became Regional Coordinator (Asia) and Director of Project Evaluation, notably promoting his love of print media by initiating a series of workshops and seminars in different regions on content analysis, production techniques, creative editing, financial management and marketing. Some quotes from correspondence from Bertie to his supervisors reveal the nature and style of his work-related travel: ‘…a few appointments in Africa. One had to do with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Addis Ababa, then a workshop/seminar for African children’s literature at Nairobi, Feb 1-7 and the third, immediately following the seminar in Nairobi, in Kampala, Uganda, a Chairpersons’ Seminar on Management.’ Bertie was also known in Latin America. Former WACC General Secretary Carlos Valle recalled that Bertie, while visiting Latin America, had coined the phrase ‘mañana theology’ which could mean putting aside responsibilities for another time, but which could also mean working for a better tomorrow. Bertie’s foundational work for WACC included its long-term involvement in the Frankfurt Book Fair. Albert D. Manuel (1925-2007)

Dr Beverly J. Chain (2005)
Beverly Chain fought tirelessly for gender awareness in WACC. Her leadership within WACC was based on years of experience in communication and a firm belief that WACC would only model its values fully when WACC fully supported women in communication. The governing documents that guide WACC’s work today were written when Beverly was on Central Committee and reflect that tenacious determination. What else would you expect from someone whose biblical vision is drawn from Micah 6:8, ‘…what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?’ Beverly’s career began with a degree in journalism, followed by a Master of Arts degree in film and TV writing, leading eventually to a Doctorate in communication and education from Columbia University, New York. Her studies included some courses in theology and her career has always been with the church. She served as a United Methodist missionary in Brazil (CAVE) both using and further developing her journalist skills. As an author Beverly wrote a book for teens, 12 short stories focussed on Latin America, and has contributed many articles to magazines and newspapers including the New York Times and USA Today. Her gift to the world of communication has been the gift of time, energy and creativity as Director of the Office of Communication for the United Church of Christ, USA, as well as the numerous activities related to ecumenical communication. She has served on the NARA WACC executive, on the WACC Central Committee and within the USA has served on the National Council of Churches Communication Commission which she chaired for two terms, and numerous ecumenical communication groups. Beverly’s career association with WACC spans over four decades.

Canon Kevin J. Engel (2004)
The Rev Canon Kevin Engel left high school at a young age due to World War II, but eventually studied at night school to gain matriculation as well as accountancy studies. Eventually he earned a first class honours postgraduate Diploma from Moore Theological College, later Certified Practicing Accountant, and became a Fellow, C.P.A. in 1990. Ordained in the Anglican Church, Sydney Diocese, Kevin, with Dorothy Engel, served two parishes in Australia before travelling in 1954 to Tanganyika (now Tanzania) with the Church Missionary Society. He served as the English-language Pastor in the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Dodoma. Founder and manager of Central Tanganyika Press for 16 years, Kevin also organized literary campaigns, managed bookshops, and served as Education Secretary and in many other ecclesiastical diocesan appointments, concluding with serving as Chancellor of the Diocese (1965-71). His contribution to the African Church was recognized in 1965 when he was made a Canon of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Dodoma. Ever a ‘founder’, Kevin joined Bishop Alfred Stanway in starting the Australian Christian Literature Society (ACLS) in 1972. Through various such agencies Kevin provided training and consultations over the next 27 years in more than 40 countries. Kevin attended the Malta meeting of WACC’s Central Committee in 1976 and continued to have an association with WACC Regional and Central Committees until 1999, at which point his decade of service as the WACC Treasurer came to an end. Throughout his considerable volunteer service to WACC, Kevin found time to serve as General Manager of 14 Christian bookshops in Australia. Many other committees and boards at home and around the world, especially in the field of Christian publishing, have benefited from his skills, insights, experiences and faith.

Ms Murri Selle (2003)
Murri Selle was born and educated in Bavaria, Southern Germany, and studied languages in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1958-61). Further formation included journalism and political science studies in Munich (1962-67). Upon completing these studies, Murri became Director and Editor of International Information Service ‘Vereinigung für christliche Publizistik’ (Association for Christian Communication) and her career in Christian communication was launched. Radio programmes and newsletters were sent to 350 radio stations, newspapers and universities worldwide. During this time, Murri was also an Assistant to Robert Geisendörfer, Commissioner for Radio and Television of the Protestant Churches of the Federal Republic of Germany, and WACC-Treasurer. The association with WACC continued ever after, and saw Murri travel worldwide as a member of Central Committee and a strong voice for broadcasting and for women in communication. She worked closely with the Lutheran World Federation, the European Group for Television Programmes, and many other secular and religious media institutions. Murri was Secretary of the WACC-Europe Region for nearly three decades, organizing and promoting its International Christian Television Festivals, and she also served as Secretary of WACC Global (1990-93). Until her retirement in 2001, she helped create the prestigious ‘Robert Geisendorfer Prize’ for radio and television given by the Protestant Churches in Germany. Murri Selle (1936-2017).

Dr Ezekiel Charles Makunike (2002)
Ezekiel Charles Makunike has managed to pack more into his years than many could achieve given two lifetimes. The story of his creative and exemplary service in the field of communication begins in 1957 when, as a Headmaster, his winning essay ‘Why I want to Study Journalism and How I Would Use it to Help Africa’ led to a scholarship to study for a B.A. in political history and a Diploma in journalism at Nagpur University, India. This was followed by an M.A. Degree in Journalism at Syracuse University, New York in 1969. Zeke served as a working journalist and editor with a number of Methodist publications in the United States, and was then appointed the first African Director of the Africa Literature Centre’s Journalism School at the Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation in Kitwe, Zambia. Serving an ecumenical and international community, Zeke taught and influenced a great many African journalists who today regard him as their journalistic father. Zeke’s skills were highly regarded outside the Church as well, and in 1981 he was named by the Government of Zimbabwe to be the Founding Director of the Zimbabwe Institute for Mass Communication. His professional career and personal commitment to justice and human rights, together with his studies in political science and journalism, prepared him for service to his country as he developed that new Institute. His national role also returned him to the international community where he related to UNESCO, the International Press Institute, and the EEC. His mission in life has been to transform an idea into reality. Ezekiel Makunike (1929-2012)

Edwin H. Robertson (2007)
Edwin Robertson was one of the founders of WACC and served as an Associate Director in its early years. After the 1939-45 War, Robertson was a senior officer in the British Control Commission for Occupied Germany. He realized that the broadcasting industry was highly developed technically, but that production had been subordinated to the State. He vividly remembered that experience when he joined the staff of the BBC in 1949 as Assistant Head of Religious Broadcasting. A few years later, in consultation with a senior colleague, he planned a conference of European broadcasters to work out objectives and methods for religious broadcasting in the context of the latest technical developments. It was held in Chichester, England, 9-13 October 1950 and the Rt. Revd. George Bell was the host. That conference created an informal group of professionals in religious broadcasting that led to the eventual birth of WACC. From 1956 he spent six years in Geneva as study secretary of the United Bible Societies (whose history he wrote and published in 1996) and consultant to the World Council of Churches and the International Missionary Council. From 1964, as executive director of the World Association for Christian Broadcasting (WACB), he was responsible for the mass media training of students from around the world and, together with the Evangelical Alliance and the Roman Catholic Church, he set up the churches’ advisory committee for local broadcasting. Robertson wrote several biographies including, when he discovered that the only serious account of the life of Bishop Bell neglected his involvement with Germany and Bonhoeffer, Unshakeable Friend: George Bell and the German Churches (1995). Edwin H. Robertson (1912-2007)

Dr Wim Koole (1999)
Wim Koole, a theologian from the Netherlands, has known WACC since the early years. Like Edwin Robertson, Koole was involved when WACC was called the World Association for Christian Broadcasting (WACB). As executive director of IKON (the Dutch ecumenical broadcasting organisation), he took part in a WACB-organised meeting of television professionals in 1962. Prior to working at IKON, Koole had been the General Secretary of the YMCA in Amsterdam for eight years. When he entered the world of television, it was love at first sight. In his own words, ‘I was invited to become a member of the preparatory committee of the first UNDA/WACC Christian Television Week in May 1969 in Monte Carlo. For many years I was involved in the organisation of those weeks. Thanks to the half yearly exchange of programmes and information between programme makers, an international network of like-minded people developed. In the meantime IKON was offering young talents a chance to develop their ideas. We enjoyed trying out all kinds of television formats rarely used in religious broadcasting; comedy, pop music, cabaret, musicals, and stories for younger and older children. The Dutch churches were not always so happy with the results, but the prizes we won at festivals were a real solace and help. In 1989 I retired from IKON after 28 years, with the ambition to show the Churches that Christian communication can be present on television in a most intimate way, basing my case on my thesis “Television: the consoler”. We also created an information network called the Co-production Connection, which I ran for seven years. It grew into an intercontinental newsletter to inform about new programmes related to religion and society. I wrote two more books about religious television, and now run my one-man company – Video Ergo Sum, the ironical expression of my love for television, to which I still contribute as a senior adviser.’ Wim Koole (1929-2009)

Rev. David W. Briddell (1998)
‘David has tremendous appreciation for all kinds of people, cultures, religious expressions. He has a gift for friendship that transcends political and class barriers, colour and custom,’ Betty Thompson once said of David Briddell. Such a glowing tribute from a friend and former colleague says a great deal about what Briddell achieved as director of Intermedia, the National Council of Churches’ agency for international communications (1978-93). During this time he travelled extensively, assisting churches and other agencies in their Christian communications and adult education ministries. Briddell, who retired in 1993, was a United Methodist Minister for 40 years. One of his main passions is film. It was Briddell, perhaps more than any other person, who paved the way for black filmmakers and producers in the United Methodist Church. He believed in letting people tell their own stories: ‘If you’re going to do some resources about the black community, a black filmmaker could perhaps enter that community differently and have insights that a white filmmaker could not have.’ To this end, Briddell was one of the major forces behind WACC’s work in indigenous communications, and he continues to provide both WACC and the Board of Global Ministries with consultative services. David W. Briddell (1932-2022)

Dr Pauline Webb (1998)
When Dr Pauline Webb was a teenager she felt her career prospects were hindered by being a woman. ‘Even as a journalist, the only two avenues as a woman were cookery and fashion,’ she recently commented. Now Webb, with a long list of achievements next to her name (including four doctorates), must feel she has overcome many of the barriers in her path, helping to pave the way for women worldwide. ‘It’s always worth working for your dream,’ she said. ‘Things can happen.’ Many things have happened, and continue to do so. Even now, in retirement, Webb has just been appointed president of WACC-member Feed the Minds. In 1979 she proved herself wrong by becoming the Organiser of Religious Broadcasting at BBC World Service, with no cooking utensils or sewing machines in sight! ‘It was here that I found my heart was in broadcasting,’ she says. Prior to that Webb spent 27 years working for the Methodist Church. During this time Webb campaigned strongly for the rights of women, saying: ‘I just could not see that being a woman had anything to do with not being fit for the ministry.’ She was also active in bringing an end to apartheid in South Africa, and received an invitation to the home of Nelson Mandela in 1991. Webb was vice-moderator of the World Council of Church’s Central Committee (1968-75) and a member of the WCC’s Communications Committee (1983-91). In 1989 she was a keynote speaker at WACC’s Congress in Manila. Pauline Webb (1927-2017)

Ms Betty Thompson (1998)
‘Betty Thompson has been a prophetic force in religious journalism for more than four decades.’ So wrote Alma Graham in 1995 in the New World Outlook, which Thompson used to publish. Before her retirement in 1994, Thompson worked for 39 years as a journalist, editor, author, and administrator; a communicator with international and ecumenical concerns. ‘I knew Mother Teresa before she was a star and Desmond Tutu before he was a bishop,’ she once confessed. After a decade with the WCC in Geneva, she spent the next 30 years at the Methodist Board of Missions in New York where she excelled in a number of positions within the Communications Dept. Thompson also served on WACC’s Central Committee and North American Executive Committee. In her retirement year, Thompson was acknowledged by the United Methodist Association of Communicators as their Communicator of the Year. That same year also saw her receive the coveted Lipphard award for distinguished service to religious journalism. In her acceptance speech Thompson stated: ‘As the traces of religion disappear from the mass media and culture, the task of church communicators becomes more challenging.’ In all her work Betty Thompson has set high standards for meeting these challenges, and these remain a source of inspiration today. Betty Thompson (1926-2023)

Dr Doris E. Hess (1995)
Doris Hess is one of the pioneers of WACC. Before it existed, she worked to establish links among communicators and to build institutions to serve them. She served on the organizing committee that brought the Agency for Christian Literature Development (ACLD), an affiliate with the World Council of Churches, and the World Association of Christian Broadcasting into a single agency. During her decade as a missionary of the United Methodist Church in the Philippines (1951-61), she was a champion for church involvement in communications and adult basic education. Her perspective has always been to consider issues from the perspective of local people. Convinced that communication is crucial to mission, she returned to the United States to study, receiving her master’s and doctoral degrees in communications from Syracuse University. As a member of the staff of the World Division of the United Methodist mission agency, Doris traveled constantly developing communications and adult basic education work across the world for nearly thirty years. Her last assignment was as assistant general secretary for functional ministries linking communications, education, global justice, evangelism, women’s work, and youth work. Doris left her imprint on the communications curricula of three universities in the People’s Republic of China and in 1977 she sponsored special training at the Africa Literature Center at Mindolo for 30 young women. They now hold a variety of senior media positions across Africa. In 1983 she was chairperson of the First International Women in Media Consultation held in Beirut, Lebanon. She served on the board of the International Women’s Tribune Centre and her leadership in the ecumenical arena included the Education Unit of the World Council of Churches and Intermedia of the National Council of Churches, USA. Following her retirement she volunteered in 1990 to work to prepare the Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Canberra, Australia. That assignment was cut short by illness. She also assisted WACC prepare for its international conference on Women Empowering Media held in Thailand in 1993. Doris E. Hess (1925-2009)