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A communication era ended in the U.S. Catholic Church recently; American bishops voted at their Chicago meeting to close down the church's satellite system and to begin a strategic planning effort to discern current telecommunications needs and how to respond to them.

It is probably appropriate for the church to "re-engineer" its communication efforts, similar to the reinvention occurring in corporate and government sectors. Many things have changed since the bishops established the Catholic Telecommunications Network of America (CTNA) in the early eighties. Within the telecommunications field itself many new technologies and players are converging to offer varied options to institutions and consumers. The spread of the personal computer, for example, forces a new configuration in the church's communication planning.

And at the diocesan and local levels, individual American Catholics are more savvy about various communication tools: E-mail; fax machines; Internet; cellular phones; compact discs; direct broadcast satellite, and personal computers, to mention a few. In addition, changing government policies (cutbacks for lower-income programs) should prompt a study of how technologies can service our "option for the poor."

How can the church utilize these dazzling new technologies to respond to human need? I suggest a few principles as guidelines for our telecommunications strategic planning.

I . Although mass media tools like TV and radio will continue to remain vital, we must re-structure our thinking to include interactive and non-broadcast technologies. Two-way cable, telephones, computers, fax systems, and local area networks are emerging as key components of any telecommunications system. Two-way or dialogic tools offer human response as part of the communication process. Too much communication to date has been centrally dominated by networks and fed to somewhat-passive audiences.

2. The growth of Internet reflects a desire among people to interconnect. This concept must be the basis of a communication vision for the American Catholic Church. New technologies can facilitate interconnection among church leadership and can also help an individual bond with others. The Church already has institutional caring systems (parishes, schools, hospitals, charitable bureaus) and communication technologies offer special economies to these struggling programs. People of vision can articulate practical ways to integrate technologies into these already-existing systems of information and interconnection. Many state legislatures, for example, are funding computer networks to link public schools throughout America.

3. The church already has many communication resources throughout the country and these need more support. There are pastoral communication programs (like the one at the University of Dayton) that have trained church leaders well. There are independent audio and video producers turning out good programs, but they struggle to survive. Diocesan communication directors, like other church agencies, have dwindling budgets yet they face challenging communication tasks. Ecumenical efforts like the Faith and Values Cable Channel deserve vigorous support.

4. The interconnection of church communication efforts will be vital, but these networks will probably grow up from the local and regional levels, rather than be administered nationally. For more than two decades up to twenty dioceses have operated microwave video channels in closed circuit or non-broadcast areas of the communication spectrum allocated by the federal government. These communication systems provide programs for diocesan agencies, primarily schools. This network currently reaches over ten million Americans in their homes. They have developed a method of sharing their communication channels with commercial entities, thus earning large amounts of income to support further church communication efforts. This is a successful model of how the church can make the interconnection concept fiscally viable. Indeed, this network is now uniquely capable of becoming a bridge to all other channels of communication for the church: broadcast TV, cable, and computers.

5. It is vital that telecommunications discernment in the American church be a collaborative vision and not be co-opted by one interest group or another. As strategic planning begins, various constituents will be visible to lobby for their interests. However, Washington DC serves as an example of the gridlock that occurs when the lobbyists usurp the voices of American citizens. The new vision for Catholic telecommunications will probably be more decentralized in its design, again reflecting other models like Internet, and the "reinventing government" and communitarian movements.

6. One could fault Catholic communicators and Catholic educators for not articulating a clear vision and plan to date for the American bishops. The Wall Street Journal (3/20/95) predicts the global telecommunications market will expand at double-digit annual rates through the end of this decade to 1. I trillion dollars in the year 2000. We see parental school choice (even vouchers) emerging as real possibilities as Americans see a moral vacuum in public education. Where are the articulate leaders in Catholic communications and Catholic education putting forth a practical and visionary plan that will help the church provide leadership in the public square as our nation staggers toward the millenium? One effort in process is the articulation of a National Pastoral Communication Plan underway among Catholic broadcasters in their professional association known as UNDA.

Many magazines currently feature cover stories of an "information superhighway. Like the canals and railroads of previous eras, the telecommunications infrastructure under development today will be the key to economic (and religious) development for us and for our children. These optical fiber roadways will transmit video, but they will also carry voice (telephone calls) and data (computer information).

In the history of communications media in the U.S. it has been important for churches to have their own communication channels; expecting commercial operators to dole out some of their programming time has resulted in almost total exclusion of religious programming (unless you "buy time" as the evangelicals do).

Even as we prepare to plan, the church needs a national-support office to aid all Catholic communication efforts by monitoring communication action in the corporate and government regulatory arenas. This staff could keep dioceses informed, offer engineering assistance and coordinate appropriate lobbying efforts in Washington.

Churches need to be participants in the policy process to guarantee that the human spirit is not short-circuited in an electronic age. We must insure that we do not become a nation or a global village of information-rich and information-poor. And we can conceptualize how new communication patterns and technologies can help us link with one another and build communities of faith.

On a foggy morning in Berlin a taxi dropped me at the Brandenburg Gate. Tears came to my eyes as I felt communion with people who had struggled to participate, to unite. I had been part of it through the mass media.

For many, the fall of the Berlin Wall remains a symbol of hope and enormous challenge. If this happened so quickly and dramatically -- in Berlin and, later, in Moscow and the Middle East-then barriers can be minimized between local, regional, national, and global communities.

Unity in diversity is a challenge for churches and society in a postmodern world.

In Lumen gentium, the Second Vatican Council referred to a multiplicity of "the abilities, the resources, and customs of peoples," saying "each part contributes its own gifts to other parts and to the whole Church."' At the historical moment of the Council, we were called to communion and community,

The ideas that follow are an attempt to reflect on aspects of communications and the theology of communio. Specific questions guide our study:

It is helpful to make some comments about the analytical perspective employed here. This is clearly an interdisciplinary investigation. Theology, specifically ecclesiology, and communications are involved in this inquiry, and the communication ideas will involve both theoretical reflections and practical guidelines.

Applicable too are insights from social theory and from the field of organizational communication since it is a challenge to coordinate dialogical responses within Church structures. Much study is required concerning the process and interrelatedness of those communicating.

Two theologians have noted that Vatican 11 should be considered "transitional" -- a work in progress. Pottmeyer called the Council "an act of setting out . . . not as a single, once-and-for all step, but as an example of a passage to be made over and over again, in every moment, the signs of which must be read in the light of the Gospel. (3) In a similar vein, Walter Kasper noted that "today there is not yet any way which leads fundamentally beyond the Council. . . . It is not only that we do not have the presuppositions and the preliminary work. We have not as yet nearly exhausted the potentialities of the last Council. (4)

I will draw substantially here from my own research on collaborative systems theory-reflections on cooperative strategies in a media/information world. These ideas supply a framework for analysis which can aid us in our understanding of emerging realities of communication and Church. Hopefully, such a framework will enable others to offer additional organizing principles, thus encouraging both unity and diversity.

Lonergan reminds us in Method in Theology that "A community ... is an achievement of common meaning." (5) And we must recall the practical advice of Dulles, in 1971, in a prophetic document: "The Church cannot wall itself up in a cultural ghetto at a time when humanity as a whole is passing into the electronic age. (6)

II. Participatory Components of Communio Ecclesiology

There is a distinction, of course, between ecclesiology-the aspect of theology that examines the nature and mission of the Church-and what the Church is in practice. It is clear that historical diversity and the development of ecclesiology permit a richness in the Church's own self-understanding.

In the last century the Church was presented as a full and perfect society, on the same level as the state; at the same time, emphasis was placed on the hierarchical and juridical aspects of the Church as institution. Later the theme of the Mystical Body was stressed, integrating previous concepts of Church.

Various aspects of the Church's nature and mission have been made more understandable by the models of Church proposed by Avery Dulles. (7) The first model mentioned, the Church as institution, places exclusive emphasis on the hierarchical structure. This model notes that the Church descends from God through its hierarchy to others. The faithful are asked to assent to this and subordinate themselves. The hierarchy represent authoritative teachers (ecclesia docens), and the people are learners (ecclesia discens). This was the view of Church emphasized when the Second Vatican Council began.

Dulles identifies and explores other images of Church, including the Church as Herald (to proclaim its message), as Sacrament (Church as sign, personal witness) and the secular-dialogic metaphor.(8) In another work Dulles speaks of Discipleship as an appropriate image of Church. (9)

A clearly distinct model is the Church as communio-a fellowship animated by the Spirit, No one metaphor contains the totality of the Church's nature and each contributes to our understanding. Obviously different individuals will tend toward various aspects of Church. We should note that each model of Church has a different image and seems to have its own style of communication appropriate to it.

In the document Lumen gentium the Council sets forth the Church's revised understanding of her own nature. Dulles notes that Lumen gentium, "because of its central importance and its wealth of doctrine, probably deserves to be called the most imposing achievement of Vatican II." (10) Indeed, the very process of developing Lumen gentium is an example of a participatory forum. As Dulles notes: "The successive drafts of the Constitution, compared with one another, strikingly reveal the tremendous development in self-understanding of the Church which resulted from the dialogue within the Council." (11) (Emphasis added) The institutional and communio models of Church had supporters within the Council. Some tension between these diverse ecclesiologies continues as a result of Council compromises.

Several participatory concepts emerge in this document, including a creative view of laity roles and the principle of bishops' collegiality. Both provide a balance to the earlier heavy emphasis on papal power and authority. The new self-understanding was based upon biblical scholarship and a reconnection with early Church history and practice.

Most consider graced the bold new direction in the Church's self-understanding and participatory vision. On the practical level, however, it did require compromise as the dialogue at the Council proceeded. As a result, several ecclesiologies exist side by side in Council documents; this has made subsequent application of Council teaching somewhat complicated and even contentious.

Pottmeyer notes: "The active reception of the Council's first steps toward a new ecclesial self-understanding is . . . a task that will take decades. . . . Would it not have been inherently contradictory to give a fixed legal formulation to what was in fact the expression of a desire for transition and mobility? (12) Much participatory development has occurred since the Council; understandably, it has not been easy.

Shared Responsibility

The Council challenged all Church members to accept responsibility as a community specifically called-participating actively in the Church's life and mission by virtue of their sacramental entrance into the community. Kasper notes that this marked the end of a pattern of a welfare Church.

It is helpful to look briefly at the issue of "democracy" in the Church. Rahner notes:

Schillebeeckx, in a recent book, gives extensive treatment to this issue in a chapter entitled "Towards Democratic Rule of the Church as a Community of God." (15) This work explores the impact of various historical developments: bishops as feudal princes; the Enlightenment; the French Revolution; bourgeois religion; and the Council's final "break with its feudal past. (16)

Schillebeeckx notes the danger of overemphasizing "our one-sidedly technological consumer society" and urges "the interplay of official teaching authority and the teaching authority of believers and their theologians (always in some tension)." (18)

Obviously, the Church is not free to disregard Scripture and tradition; and it retains divine guidance. Kasper also notes that the term " 'People of God' does not mean a political association of people or 'ordinary, simple people,' as distinct from the establishment. . . . It means the organic and structured whole of the church, the people gathered round their bishop, and attached to their shepherd, as Cyprian put it. (19)

III. An "Open Systems" View of Church

Many would agree on the concept of shared responsibility in the Church. The tensions arise when it is worked out in practice. Much of the difficulty relates to communication patterns and practices.

Another issue is the need to develop and build a theory of subsidiarity; it is not just a question of Rome implementing it. What is required is the institutionalization of subsidiarity. This needs to be developed from the bottom up, not from the top down, or one contradicts the principle of subsidiarity. These are some of the specific tasks when integrating practical applications of authority and co-responsibility in churches today.

Many of these issues are worked out at the local level. Thus, the Church at the parish and diocesan level is the focus of much current ecclesial inquiry and theological reflection. Joseph Komonchak notes reasons for the shift to the local Church. These include ". . . the revalidation of the bishop's role; the importance of regional episcopal collegiality; ecumenical reflection on the differences compatible with unity; challenges of inculturation; . . . (the need for) genuine community in a world of increased anonymity and bureaucracy . . ." (20)

The Church also exists in a society of advancing scientific inquiry. From an organizational or institutional viewpoint, it is helpful to examine the impact of one scientific perspective-systems theory.

Everett and Rekha Rogers have analyzed organizational communication. One can trace the history of organizational behavior studies from early "scientific management" days through the discovery of "human relations. Rogers notes the emergence of "a more eclectic and encompassing viewpoint" in the 1960's and 1970's-"the systems school." (21) Based on general systems theory, this work "conceptualizes an organization as a system of interrelated components, and stresses the orchestration of these parts as the key to maximizing performance. . . . This intellectual viewpoint has been the single most influential theory in contemporary scientific thought, especially in the social sciences." (22)

These theorists conceive of a system as a set of interdependent parts. Communication is one essential element of any system-linking the parts (subsystems) and facilitating their interdependence. The focus on interaction is very significant; the increasing interactivity of communication technologies, discussed below, parallels the emphasis on interactivity in systems theory. This theme of interdependence is reflected also, of course, in the ecclesiology of communio.

Research within organizations indicates that "the more turbulent environments require a more differentiated and decentralized organizational structure." (24) This may have interesting ramifications for churches today.

I have seen two interesting applications of systems concepts to ecclesiology and church governance. The first is a study of ecclesial cybernetics by Patrick Granfield. (25) This author uses case study analysis (of slavery, birth control, ecumenism, and celibacy) to examine concepts of democratic (interactive) communication, noting implications for ecclesiology.

In citing institutional conditions for improved church communication and responsive decision-making, Granfield lists:

Another study uses a systems approach to analyze shared responsibility in the educational system of the Church. (26) Olin J. Murdick has designed a systems approach "reality grid." In the Murdick dialectic, specific operational components-such as goals, programs, and governance --- move through systematic stages. This significant study provided much of the theoretical foundation for the development of participatory school boards for Catholic schools in the United States.

The challenge is to respect the role of authority while facilitating dialogue. The sensitive leader knows that participation permits both information-sharing and human affirmation. We have reviewed the ecclesiology of communio and the significance of systems theory in the institutional Church. It is important to understand that-in parallel with these dynamic developments have occurred in the field of communications.

IV. The Role of the Message and Stories in Our Lives

When we review human history and communication roles within it, we move back before the time of complex structures when oral cultures were smaller and communal. Linking these groups required communication channels, both oral and written. These patterns were present in both Judaic and early Christian communities or churches. Leaders emerged but much interaction occurred among local people because there were not complex infrastructures above them nor easy access to other groups. The storyteller represented data storage-like computer memory of today.

When the technology of print emerged in medieval Europe an upheaval occurred that eventually fractured the local and regional loyalties of feudal society. Other factors include the Reformation, the ascendancy of the arts, the Enlightenment, and the concept of absolutism-the idea that power could be centralized in a king or a state. Meanwhile, trade routes provided financial and communications infrastructures; later the Industrial Revolution and nation-state concept added complexities making communication channels more difficult to analyze.

This brings us quickly to modern history, but it is here that we must function. And it is in this context that the Church must discern how communication theory and tools can infuse its unique mission and service to others.

Complicating and enriching this modern context is the growth of natural sciences and social sciences. Included are varied specifics such as: economic theory; psychiatry; systems analysis; the growth of bureaucracies; the science of management; the development of the democratic ideal; striving for universal education; personalism (fulfilling the earlier promise of the Enlightenment); the rise and fall of colonialism; and modem liberation movements. No wonder all this seems impossible to control or understand! The fact is that "control"-at least "centralized control" is much more difficult, if not completely impossible, in the light of the above developments and the advances of mass communication systems.

Two additional factors should be mentioned. At least in the United States, pressure groups have focused enormous energies, funds, and communication manipulation into special-interest arenas, causing the noted consultant Peter Drucker and others to speak of "gridlock" when describing it. In addition, communication/information overload is tending to induce fear and anxiety; this breeds conflict.

Where does hope reside? How can one trust in "animating forms of cooperation," as Pottmeyer uses the term above? Advances in communication theories help somewhat. Specialists in communication are more sophisticated in tracking information flows between individuals, among groups, and within organizations and societal structures. New communication theories arise, like the "public sphere" model discussed below. And information technologies can provide enabling infrastructures-electronic highways which parallel the trade routes, railroads, and canals of previous ages.

In a 1989 conference of theologians and communication scholars held in Rome, some efforts were made to link the ecclesial concept of communio with communication sciences. One participant, Ricardo Antoncich, noted that theology, (as reflection about the faith of the Church), should enter into dialogue with other forms of thought that rationally explain the life of the human being in the world. He noted: "Methodologically, the contribution of communication to ecclesiology does not refer exclusively to the analysis of how the Church lives its internal or external communication; rather it refers to the total contribution that communication sciences offer to the understanding of the human person, the world, and history. (27)

A corresponding communication/communio model was offered by Pottmeyer. He spoke of communio as a leitmotif-a norm or criterion-for the Church, her structures and relations. Rather than a concrete single concept, it has a theological and anthropological meaning. Pottmeyer noted that communio has three corresponding communications dimensions:

All Church communication converges within the framework of divine self-communication, thus the Church's role as sign or witness. (28)

V. Communication Forums

In speaking of the emerging models of communication we need to move toward the concept of participative communication forums. Our first guide toward this path is Bernard Haring's thoughtful essay entitled "Ethics of Communication" in his volume on moral theology for priests and laity. Haring speaks in this work about mass media (TV, films, advertising), but we also see here the early traces of a sensitive awareness of communication as interactive and dialogic. He speaks of The Word as "listener;" he says the "Spirit is sharing;" (his emphasis). He notes: "A teaching Church that is not, above all, a learning, listening Church, is not on the wavelength of divine communication." (29)

In this work, written almost two decades ago, Haring says that a new dimension of today's communication is its "public forum" role. "The public forum in which information and opinions are exchanged is not something static ... it is the sum of various 'worlds'," and he reminds us: "Vatican II considers the awareness of this changing world as fundamental for understanding our task." (30)

Haring confronts realistically the pathologies of modem communication, the dark side. He bemoans technology-for-its-own-sake, the lack of access, the manipulation.

In an overview of Church documents on media, Haring concludes that evangelization through mass media should involve a prudent limitation of any media that make dialogue difficult. "Churches have to develop a dialogical style that invites everyone to participate trustfully." (34)

Culture and the Public Sphere

The concept of communication as forum (thereby dialogical) is a bold move in a field that has tended to focus on the model of a message moving from a source to a receiver (with much passivity). Under the influence of studies in cultural anthropology and linguistics, scholars now realize the significant interaction between communication and popular culture. We know that the common currency of any culture is deeply integrated into the communication channels existing within that culture.

A significant analysis of this, applied to developing nations, has been done by Robert White at The Gregorian University. White uses a concept stressed by other scholars -- "the public sphere."

White explains the need to move away from emphasis on mass media to "the way that different groups construct discourses of meaning." The issue of a participatory conception of the public sphere leads communication experts to study group media instead of focusing on mass media only. We note once again the significance of community in public culture and participative media.

My own conviction is that we need to expand our communication horizon beyond group media (generally understood as audio and video "programs") to include what I would term interconnecting or interactive or link communication technologies. This interaction is participatory and connects quite naturally with the theology of communio.

Interactivity: An Epistemological Turning Point

Driving an epistemological revolution is the interactivity of new communication technologies. To date much social science research in communication has focused on either the message content or media effects-linear models. We are now facing a totally new direction in our analytical focus, moving to "communication-as-exchange," to the process of interaction.

This new direction is analyzed by the communications scholar Everett Rogers who has researched how innovation is diffused. His own personal story shows an early anti technology attitude. However, through the influence of Ed Parker, a Stanford colleague, Rogers began to realize the significance of the diffusion and social impacts of new communication technologies. (36)

My own growing commitment to the study of interactive technologies involved a trip to Stanford to talk with Parker; this resulted in an awareness of the emerging impact of communication satellites, telephony, and computer technologies, and the integration of communications and computers. After this "conversion," I moved from work in TV production to doctoral studies in telecommunications at Harvard and MIT

Communication and computer technologies are now so integrated that it is impossible to distinguish between them in many media. I have developed a model to clarify relationships among components of information technologies. (Figure 1) This model disinguishes between design, storage, distribution, and interactive technologies.

Figure I

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

Design--- Storage--------, Distribution

Development of Creative or Film Broadcast Radio (AM, FM)

Informational Concepts Audio Tapes, Cassettes, Broadcast TV (UHF, VHF)

Design of Mediated Materials Compact Discs Cable Systems

by Technology Professionals Videocassettes Microwave Technology

and Content Creators Computor Software Satellites

(Informational and/or Telephone Answering Telephone Technology

Entertainment Materials) Systems (including Mobile

Videodiscs and CD Roms Phones, Paging, Cellular)

Interactive (These modes involve Design, Storage, and Distribution technologies)

Teleferencing Teletext, Videotext

Video Stores Interactive Cable Mechanisms

Computer-Based Interactive Off-Site Audio/Video Feeds

Systems

It has always seemed necessary to me to separate the components or roles of communication/information technologies. Some are obviously storage technologies and some involve distribution. In fact, most of our attention is focused on only a few of the components: film, audio and video tapes/cassettes (storage technologies); and broadcast radio and TV and cable (distribution technologies).

New types of technologies have emerged in each of these areas. Newer storage tools include computer software, telephone answering systems, videodiscs, and CD-ROM, for example. Newer distribution technologies include microwave improvements, satellites, optical fiber, and technologies such as paging and cellular telephony. Facsimile messages also represent an exploding use of a practical too].

Our conceptual analysis and management of the current terrain is enriched, I think, if we pay more attention than we have in the past to both design technologies and interactive technologies. As Figure I indicates, the design and development of content to be stored and distributed is a technology all its own. I suppose most of us call this "writing."

And then there is interactively. This category actually involves or integrates all of the other groups-design, storage, and distribution. As these technologies converge we are reminded of Shakespeare's description of a "brave new world that has such creatures in it": video stores (allowing us to interact with program choice more vigorously), facsimile, conferencing, varied computer-based interactive systems, and off-site audio-video feeds, which permit the aggressive interactivity of world-wide news broadcasts.

Technological tools challenge both individuals and institutions to reach for new ideas, for exploratory skills, for higher-order thinking. A strategic tool needed for this task is collaboration.

VI. Institutionalizing Collaboration

The intellectual marketplace has become more of a challenge due to the increasing amounts of information (data) and the complexity of the technological systems for processing the data. When you add the factor of decreasing resources, it seems as if the only way to respond to the converging pressures is through fierce competition-often resulting in polarization within institutions.

Another way to view the situation, however, is that working smarter, not harder, can often involve working with others. Computer technology itself provides a metaphor for this approach in time sharing, a procedure allowing many people to use computer technology virtually simultaneously.

Other metaphors for this situation include the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the growing peace accord between Israel and her Arab neighbors. It is possible that we are approaching the end of the concept and the reality of the nation-state. Part of the defining nature of the nation-state is that it has been the source, inspirer and container of information. Now, however, media images and computer networks override geographical boundaries. Regulatory mechanisms, like parliaments of the nation-state, no longer rule exclusively.

Today global economic challenges, while making people aware of the need for competitive advantage, also seem to be the direct cause of bold new collaboratives like the European Community-emerging with certainty albeit with difficulty. Even a noted authority like Peter Drucker states that we are in need of new economic models; the old theories are feeling the weight of increasing complexities, most of them technological. It may be that the new theoretical constructs will reflect a more conjoined world.

Technologies seem to be having a decentralizing effect on the bureaucracies of modern culture-the system or "technique" that the French philosopher, Jacques Ellul, critiqued in his writings. Drucker sees a new kind of organization emerging-one with more horizontal operational structures. Replacing most of the mid-level management will be task-force teams that are fluid and comprised of experts from various areas collaborating on tasks.

On the factory floor and in major corporate offices the team is already being institutionalized; Fortune magazine, in a cover story, said "the (team) phenomenon is spreading. It may be the productivity breakthrough of the 1990s. (37) The challenge is to use technological tools that facilitate interactivity and collaboration, thus leading to greater productivity (and community).

Communication forums mean we plug in to tools such as computer based messaging systems. The studies of California analyst Jacques Vallee demonstrate that technological forums are productive. Such forums substitute for many face-to-face meetings and allow quick response when emergency changes are required.

After the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the United States, messages were continually available on computer bulletin boards like "emergency hotline," "emergency planner information," and "operations and maintenance information," and many others. (38)

Mundane messages are integral to our daily planning and often the message provides greater information precision and thus improves decision making. This also keeps us connected as individuals, as community.

Our marketplace of ideas is more complex; information and machinery keep changing. The pace of change is staggering and this requires new tools; many of these enabling technologies involve the telephone and computer, often linked by satellites. More important than the technology is the institutionalization of collaboration in utilizing the tools in effective ways. In an Aspen Institute study, David Bollier notes:

I have undertaken a series of research projects in communication and collaboration, constructing a theory and related case study analysis in the telecommunications sector.

I have formulated a theoretical perspective which emphasizes the role of collaboration or cooperative efforts in meeting telecommunications needs and pressures. I call this concept Interactive Strategic Planning (ISP). Case studies under analysis from this theoretical perspective include: direct broadcast satellite development; teleconferencing for meetings; international negotiations for satellite use by many nations; the cooperative communications efforts among European Community nations; and others.

One dramatic forum has emerged in the increasing demand for liberation politically throughout the world. Viewers connected by mass media globally have watched "people power" emerge in Manila, in Poland, and on the streets of Moscow. Behind the television coverage, however, large numbers of people on the street are nodes in a communication network, using telephones, computers, and fax machines, where messages cannot be controlled. This communication pattern empowers individuals and groups; authority, whether legitimate or not, seems to move from "the top" to "the grass roots." Pyramid organizational and authority structures are under seige (both in Moscow and in centralized church structures in Rome); this happens, to a large degree, because people communicate easily in new and interactive ways. There are many aspects of interactive communications and collaborative structures that require more analysis and more fieldwork, both in political societies and in churches.

One interesting question concerns gender differences. Are women socialized to be more collaborative than men? (40) Is there a connection between the competitive nature of society and the fact that women have limited leadership roles to date within that society? We may begin to see the collaborative model employed more by males, thus enabling joint ownership, with increased societal effectiveness because of a greater commitment to this mutuality by both the female and the male.

We need to study patterns of collaborative activity within groups and institutions and the regional economic collaboratives emerging throughout the world. We must identify the barriers to collaboration that will be troublesome in this decade when large empires will have disappeared but regional and ethnic strife will have probably continued.

More information is needed on economies of scale within collaboratives. We need current analysis of the uses of power and its impact on cooperatives (the concept of power-with instead of power-over). We must ask how we can design incentives for cooperative action, but we must also learn how to communicate through adversarial positions honestly arrived at. Mary Parker Follett, an organizational specialist involved in establishing the Harvard Business School early in this century, noted: "We should never allow ourselves to be bullied by an 'either-or.' There is often the possibility of something better than either of two given altematives." (41)

A Collaborative and Mediated Church

It is a challenge that our struggle to clarify models of Church is occurring at a time of enormous technological change. It is a challenge, but it is perhaps also a grace. A sign of this grace for me is the fact that a leading theologian like Avery Dulles began saying several decades ago that "the Church is communication." (42) As more members of the Church community throughout the world use and understand the varied technologies of information-sharing and interconnecting we may well empower new cornmunities -- i.e., new forms of conununio.

A major theme of this document has been that interactively inevitably and effectively removes passivity-in communications, in society, in churches. One-way structures are crumbling. Hopefully, the participatory communio ecclesiology of Vatican II documents will become more evident, instead of a pyramidal structure; otherwise, the Church will have difficulty communicating credibly in a collaborative, mediated world.

Our metaphor for this communion has been the reality that, even at great cost, people have taken down a Wall in Berlin. Perhaps it is appropriate, therefore, to conclude with reflections by two German theologians.

To understand the church in a new way as a communion, to live it better, and to realize it more profoundly is . . . more than a programme for church reform. The church as a communion is a message and a promise for the people and the world of today. (43)

And Hermann Pottmeyer adds:

NOTES

1. Lumen gentium 13.

2. Hermann J. Pottmeyer, "The Church: Its Self-Understanding and Structures." Unpublished manuscript.

3. Hermann J. Pottmeyer, "A New Phase in the Reception of Vatican II: Twenty Years of Interpretation of the Council," in G. Alberigo, J. P. Jossua, and J. A. Komonchak, eds., The Reception of Vatican H (Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1987), p. 29.

4. Walter Kasper, Theology and Church (New York: Crossroad, 1989), p. 165.

5. Bernard J. F. Lonergan, Method in Theology (New York: Herder and Herder, 1972), p. 79.

6. Avery Dulles, "The Church Is Communications," Catholic Mind 69 (1971): p. 13

7. Avery Dulles, Models ofthe Church (Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books, 1987).

8. Ibid.

9. Avery Dulles, A Church to Believe In (New York: Crossroad, 1982).

10. Avery Dulles, "Introduction" in W. M. Abbott and J. Gallagher, The Documents of Vatican II (New York: America Press, 1966), p. 13.

11. Ibid., p. I0.

12. Pottmeyer, "A New Phase," p. 29.

13. Kasper, Theology and Church, p. 162.

14. Karl Rahner, "Basic Observations on the Subject of Changeable and Unchangeable Factors in the Church," in Theological Investigations (New York: Seabury Press, 1976), XIV: p. 19.

15. Edward Schillebeeckx, Church: The Human Story of God (New York: Crossroad, 1990).

16. Ibid., p. 206.

17. Ibid., p. 209.

18. Ibid., p. 233.

19. Kasper, Theology and Church, p. 162.

20. Joseph A. Komonchak, "The Local Church," Chicago Studies 28 (1989): p. 320.

21. Everett M. Rogers and Rekha Agarwala-Rogers, Communication in Organizations (New York: Free Press, 1976).

22. Ibid., p. 48.

23. Ibid., pp. 50-51.

24. Ibid., p. 63.

25. Patrick Granfield, Ecclesial Cybernetics: A Study of Democracy in the Church (New York: Macmillan, 1973).

26. Olin J. Murdick, "A Study of the Policy Process as it Relates to the Catholic Educational Mission at the Local Level." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation from The Catholic University of America, Washington, 1975.

27. Ricardo Antoncich. From unpublished paper given at the Cavalletti Seminar in 1989.

28. Hermann J. Pottmeyer. From unpublished paper given at the Cavalletti Seminar in 1989.

29. Bernard Haring, Free and Faithful in Christ (New York: Seabury Press, 1979), 11: p. 155.

30. Ibid., p. 158.

31. Ibid., pp. 161-62.

32. Ibid., p. 163.

33. Ibid., p. 181.

34. Ibid., p. 196.

35. Robert A. White, "Cultural Analysis in Communication for Development." Unpublished manuscript.

36. Everett M. Rogers, Communication Technology (New York: Free Press, 1986).

37. Fortune, May 7, 1990.

38. Jacques Vallee, Computer Message Systems (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984).

39. David Bollier, The Social Impact of Widespread Computer Use (Aspen, Colorado: Aspen Institute), p. 7.

40. Mary Field Belenky et al., Women's Ways of Knowing (New York: Basic Books, 1986).

41. Mary Parker Follett, Dynamic Administration, edited by Elliot M. Fox (London:Pitman, 1973), p. 20.

42. Avery Dulles, "The Church Is Communication," p. 6.

43. Kasper, Theology and Church, p. 164.

44. Pottmeyer, "A New Phase," p. 34.

An essential component of human organization, from religious communities to constitutional democracies, public opinion depends on public expression and public assembly. Today we speak and assemble in ways unknown to past generations of theologians, political leaders, and social theorists. Our forums have changed: Some have disappeared; others have arisen. Our small Town Hall debates and even our faith communities have given way to TV and radio talk shows, world-wide news analysis, satellite and telephone hookups, and the Internet.

I offer the ideas proposed here -- about the value of form is for dialogue-with the hope that new, interactive, technological modes of speech and assembly will enrich public discourse. Such forums, I believe, increase in importance as churches, nations, and communities of all kinds, attempt to move beyond serious divisions toward collaborative solutions. We have seen, in Bosnia for example, the cost of such division.

Here I examine one specific kind of technological forum-the teleconference-reflecting on its history and its future potential as a mode of "assembly" within the Catholic Church. These concepts have new meaning as use of the Internet and the World Wide Web explodes.

For more than a decade we heard predictions of an imminent burst of growth in teleconferencing but it didn't happen. In spite of this track record, I begin here with a prediction that the boom is beginning to happen now and teleconferencing will see remarkable growth in this decade.

This chapter treats three aspects of teleconferencing: (1) its current status, along with examples; (2) the special fit with church goals and needs; and (3) the deeper contextual issues raised by such dialogue.

Essentials of the Technological Forum

The three main types of technical conferences differ according to their links: computer links, audio links, and audiovisual links, i.e., videoconferencing. Each one constitutes a forum --a technical bridge by satellite or telephone lines-which enables people in different places to "be" together. Teleconferences are meetings. Although people tend to think of videoconferences as TV programs, they are essentially meetings. The key factor differentiating teleconferencing from television is its interactive nature: People can "talk back."

In computer conferencing people interact with others through their computers. Much of the time this occurs not in "real" time but in a delayed manner. In other words, people can sign on to the conference whenever they like, retrieve existing messages or text, and then leave a response for the other conference participants to pick up at their convenience. Most electronic mail (e-mail) works like this. Of course, one can also link up to ongoing conversations.

Audio conferences "bridge" or connect people from varied sites so they can talk together. Such meetings have a feel about them that "the meter is ticking" so organizers plan them well ahead of time, with materials distributed in advance. This format requires a certain amount of courtesy and verbal name-tags throughout the meeting so people can identify correctly among themselves the individual speaking; this helps because one has only audio cues to sort out individual input.

In both of the above conferences, interaction obviously occurs. When we turn to videoconferences, we will similarly assume a forum with feedback. (A conference isn't really a conference without interaction.) Conferences differ from satellite-connected video programs hooking various sites together simply for information distribution, such as a corporate show to unveil a new product. Instead, here we speak only of video meetings with two-way interaction. Up to now feedback to the distribution site usually takes place from the field via telephone calls because of the expense of two-way video. However, one can now predict the long-expected growth in videoconferencing because prices have dropped dramatically due to technological breakthroughs. A recent invention allows people at computers to be seen at other sites, using a small video camera the size of a golf ball.

In the past all three conferencing modes utilized analog (electromagnetic wave form) message transmission but now digital (computer bit pattern) transmission has replaced much of it. Once this change occurred it became possible to speed up the transmissions through time-sharing, compression, and other techniques. A concomitant technological change, the switch from copper wires to optical fibers, has allowed "space" for more messages. More and more information travels over these fiber highways, with satellites helping to make global distances irrelevant.

Since the demand exists for so much information transfer, developed nations are racing to construct the global interconnected networks to carry the data load. The European Union (EU) nations have made this a key priority and predict that 12% of the gross national product of the EU will be in this telecom sector. Similarly, Congress has proposed the development of an "information highway" as part of the plan to update America's infrastructure. Even without government help, telephone and cable companies are major players in this growth. And in an unregulated market, major corporate and institutional groups have built their own local area networks (LANs), providing even more highways for messages.

Vidcoconferences will become more economical because of several specific changes:

This decade thus offers mobile (or desktop) videoconferencing units which can be wheeled from room to room, making video forums possible-an easy technical "freedom of assembly" at much less cost. These may become as common as fax machines for interaction.

Teleconferencing and Church Goals and Needs

Pioneers in Catholic Church teleconferencing

Much creative conferencing already occurs within the American Catholic Church. Historically, the San Francisco Archdiocese pioneered teleconferencing techniques for the entire nation, using a NASA satellite in their early experiments. For this overview, though, I have selected three types of current teleconferences as examples: one forming a university-family community (Notre Dame); one linking a prayerful community (Contemplative Outreach); and one building a pastoral community (the National Pastoral Life Center). All three types utilized the facilities of the Catholic Telecommunications Network of America (CTNA). For many years this satellite network provided the infrastructure for helpful forums within the American Catholic community.

When its planners first conceptualized CTNA, they saw it as a significant intra-institutional communications system; the satellite system could facilitate internal communications through lower-cost telephone transmission, fax transmission, and intra-messaging of all kinds-internal meetings/briefings and training conferences, for example.

About a decade ago, having recently completed doctoral studies at Harvard and MIT, I accepted a consultancy to travel to many Catholic universities throughout America and confer with them about how a satellite system could service their needs. Monsignor Michael J. Dempsey, a telecommunications pioneer, coordinated this research phase for CTNA. I remember arriving in South Bend to suggest that Notre Dame might find it helpful to interconnect with their Alumni Clubs through CTNA satellite facilities. I suggested to then President, Father Ted Hesburgh, that he could speak to Notre Dame graduates throughout America with a satellite hookup.

And Notre Dame had the vision to do both. When Father Hesburgh retired as President of Notre Dame he gave a farewell address to graduates throughout America on a satellite teleconference. Dr. Kathleen M. Sullivan, Director of Alumni Continuing Education at the university, told me recently that with 200 Alumni Clubs in this country, they have a university community just waiting to be linked.

After consulting their alumni, Notre Dame decided to focus their teleconferences on family life-a continuing challenge to their graduates and to the nation-at-large. One live-interactive teleconference, for example, helped parents (and grandparents!) understand preschooler needs. A panel of experts from Notre Dame and St. Mary's College offered ideas and answered questions.

One of the most significant decisions made by the university was to link up with diocesan family life offices throughout the country in the teleconference planning and marketing. Notre Dame also distributes special guidebooks for local facilitators and provides information packets for all audience participants. The packets contain promotional ideas and locales participating, materials well planned to aid local networking.

For example, a teleconference on elementary education had links to Catholic school personnel; through the use of area zip codes tags, the Catholic school principals in every locale with an alumni club received notification of the broadcast. This local networking is vital to interactive televised meetings.

Part of the on-going celebration of Notre Dame's Sesquicentennial year involved a satellite teleconference. Alumni clubs were urged to participate in community service outreach in their areas-giving back to society what the university gave to them. The celebratory satellite teleconference highlighted some of the local community service projects and allowed a forum for the university to share its past history and its future mission.

I don't believe any other university in America has the systematic educational outreach to its alumni that Notre Dame has. The fact that a significant part of this community-building and service occurs through satellite teleconference forums provides a rich model of dialogic enrichment for churches and other institutions in America.

The support offered to modern contemplatives by satellite interconnection exemplifies another valuable forum. Trappist monk Thomas Keating founded Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. as a national service organization to facilitate the growth of centering prayer. The many works of Basil Pennington, a member of the same religious order, have popularized this contemplative approach to prayer. Hundreds of prayer groups meet regularly throughout the country and many participants attend centering prayer retreats or conduct workshops in how to pray in a contemplative manner.

The organization linked these scattered groups through a teleconference with two goals: (1) to facilitate a sense of national support among the communities, and (2) to permit various local groups to hear a talk by Abbot Keating and enter a dialogue with him. Most locates either began or concluded the satellite meeting with a 20-minute period of centering prayer-thus providing a technologically-linked prayer group throughout the country. 'ne organization conducted an extensive evaluation process, with participants giving reactions; these suggestions were distributed widely so the organizers could make improvements in subsequent televised meetings. This studied evaluative procedure is a significant aspect of successful teleconferences.

In addition to interactive prayer gatherings, other pastoral practice benefits from special interactive training in televised meetings. The expert in this field is Father Phil Murnion, Director of the National Pastoral Life Center in New York City. When I asked him whether this forum represents a participatory church he said: "Absolutely! When I was first asked to do TV programs, I said no because that's not what we do. But when I was told it would be a forum, with dialogue, a meeting-on-the-air, then I said sure, we will do that."

These teleconferences have focused on a range of topics: the drug crisis; the Church as seen through media; teaching sexual morality; what's really working in adult religious education; the Church and rural communities; dwindling priests and church finances; and many other topics. Some people may say this panders to the trendy. However, Murnion senses from his feedback in the field that the topics are "timely."

Assembling a live audience in many locales represents a major challenge for these meetings. Father Murnion and his staff distribute press releases and fliers to local affiliates and specific constituencies for each teleconference topic. The sessionis were videotaped and many requested taped copies; for example the teleconference discussion on the parish council continues to be requested. The number of telephone calls received by the teleconference can sometimes act as a barometer of how many people are out there. Sometimes no calls come in.

The fact that many folks prefer to view programs later (on tape) indicates that we still tend to think of these conferences as video programs instead of meetings. Teleconferencing best occurs as an extension of the telephone, however, rather than a form of television show; it is a dialogic forum.

The Church in the modern (telecommunications) world

During the Second Vatican Council the Church re-cycled its view of interaction with the world. In the Church in the Modern World document we see the recognition of the value of dialogue with the world (while retaining the obligation to critique it in terms of higher-gospel-values).

If the theology of Church now endorses dialogue (with other churches, with laity, with women, with modern society), then systematic forums to facilitate this dialogue will aid the work of the Spirit in a postmodern world. We use automobiles in this work; we use modern medical science in this work; we can also use communication technologies in this same work. One of the first things required is that we stop thinking of all media as programs. Many media are simply tools, connecting links-just like letters, like telephone calls, like mediated meetings.

Many factors should assure a comfortable fit between teleconferencing and the Church. In fact, an institutional infrastructure in the American Catholic Church already, exists in its system of schools, diocesan structures, parish communities-all awaiting linkages or networking that communication systems provide.

The American Catholic Church first developed a communications network in connection with its system of schools. The Catholic Television Network consists of more than a dozen dioceses with closed circuit microwave broadcast systems to service their schools. This network still exists, and many affiliates now lease some channel space, thus earning income to support their work. In one of these dioceses, San Francisco, they have recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the establishment of their closed circuit system. Here the earliest satellite teleconferencing experiments began, under the direction of the man who is now Bishop of the San Jose (Silicon Valley) diocese: Bishop Pierre DuMaine.

In their educational television studios located in St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, a user-controlled teleconference studio was constructed before 1980. Marika Ruumet, the creative woman who directed that studio operation, later convinced the heads of the Hewlett Packard Corporation to develop one of the corporate world's most innovative satellite teleconferencing operations.

Another early staff member in this teleconferencing history was a Sister of Notre Dame, Jeanette Braun. Jeanette later organized many international teleconferences for corporate clients.

Jeanette served a staff role in an historic early satellite project in San Francisco called "Project Interchange." This teleconference permitted teachers in public and private schools in northern and southern California to ..meet" regularly to discuss their individualized instruction curricular work.

The project utilized the Canadian/American Communications Technology Satellite (CTS), under the direction of NASA engineers.

Over 20 years ago, Bishop Pierre DuMaine wrote in an unpublished document entitled "Notes on an Electronic Information/Communications System to Support Individualized Instruction":

The "economy" of computer - supported information systems depends, of course, upon a sufficiently large number of users to optimize the capacity of the computer and to achieve economy of scale necessary .... This is possible if remote users can be linked to the information source by telephone line, cable, or communications system. (1972, p. 1)

Conceptual Communications Issues

As I struggle to delineate the larger contextual issues emerging in a tele-connected Church (and world), many, many things come to mind. In these remaining paragraphs I can only point readers and practitioners toward some of the basic questions and hint at ways to seek answers to these questions. I will reflect here on (a) broad context questions, (b) selected concepts in relation to the Church, and (c) emerging needs.

As background, we should reflect upon certain facts. For one thing, we regularly see, even hear, teleconferencing in our evening news. Satellite linkages regularly interconnect various geographic sites into a program like the evening network news or Ted Koppel's Nightline. So, in a sense, our news/analysis TV programs are already forums. The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour on PBS developed into one of the most substantive and in-depth news forums in America. This is a model for the dialogic approach to problem solving; sometimes it works better than others.

Another background factor for our reflection is that infrastructures in America (the "information superhighway") require planning and development if we are to keep pace with telecommunications growth in Japan and Europe. A $2.9 billion High-Performance Computing Act, passed in Congress, will provide funding for systems to link government, university, and library computers in a National Research and Education Network (NREN). Such networks will provide the infrastructure supplied by roads, railroads, and canals of previous eras. Moreover, the news media document almost daily that Internet use is spreading to citizens everywhere; it is no longer just for researchers.

Broad context questions

We have already become aware that interactive communications technologies have altered the process of decision-making. In Computer Message Systems, Jacques Vallee states, "In conferencing, the messages themselves are not as important as the group process which they support" (1984, p. 70). Vallee adds that interactive message systems have many benefits in strategic planning, in group dynamics for better tactical decisions, and in the faster resolution of routine issues. We have consultants like Peter Drucker warning us that the intra-group interactive tools will drive structural changes within organizations. Major effects include decentralization and a flattening out of hierarchical structures, with fewer mid-management staff.

In an essay entitled "The Churchification of Christianity," German theologian Hermann J. Pottmeyer examines the Church in the light of modern societal change and reflects on the "structural differentiation" of society identified by the theorist Talcott Parsons.

[This] consists of the disintegration of the old multifunctional forms of life in[tol "social partial systems" which then take on functional specialization and tend toward autonomy. Examples of such partial systems are the economy, transportation systems, politics, the state, the nuclear family, and the Church. (1990)

I would add the partial system of telecommunicationss to this list. Pottmeyer cites the difficulty:

The tendency of these partial systems toward autonomy creates many problems. Since each individual is seen only as a participant in the operation of those partial systems, it becomes more difficult for the individual to find his own identity .... The connecting horizon of a consensus of values which links all members of the society continues to disappear. (1990)

This sociological phenomenon contributes to our discord; it calls for new modes of linking and overlapping partial systems if we are to dialogue and collaborate effectively on today's (and tomorrow's) challenging issues. Interactive forums will serve such challenges if we thoughtfully create the forums in our strategic planning and include telecom-infrastructure planning and use.

Two final broad dynamics: technologies are converging while communities are dispersing. Communication and computer technologies have become so integrated that one cannot see boundaries any longer. Telephones are computers; and computers communicate with each other. However, as these technologies integrate, communal groups disintegrate. Individuals seek hookups with each other through phones, computers, electronic churches, and want ad personals. We must conceptualize and implement new forms of forums for a postmodern world where traditional borders have disappeared.

Selected concepts in relation to the Church

Obviously churches have an interest in communal groups. Christian churches are supposed to be communities of faith linked to one other. Today we see examples of walls coming down throughout the world-between nations, occasionally between religious groups, sometimes among ethnic enclaves. Dialogic tools and forums can facilitate these unions if we learn how

to use them; they require new kinds of interactive communication habits with a lot of listening to one another. When we are used to thinking that we have the right answers, it requires communication re-learning to listen more and to work through legitimate differences.

The Church, along with the rest of society, faces enormous training and retraining needs. According to Via Satellite magazine (November, 1991, p. 32), business teleconferencing to reach and train members was a $195 million business by 1990. The training task is a major focus of teleconferencing in American corporations. The American Catholic Church already uses teleconferencing for training, but needs to plan and coordinate much, much more in this area. Part of the goal, ultimately, is to provide means for people to have on-demand access to the information they need to develop themselves.

The question of access is another major church-related issue. As communication/information technologies become the coin of commerce in the decades ahead, those who do not have access to the tools and the content (software) will find themselves closed out. Access has clearly become a justice policy issue for today's Church. The accompanying training question learning to use modern communication technologies connects to the access question. This involves encouraging local initiative, creating incentives, and fostering other human development strategies.

Distribution of resources will also continue to play a vital role in modern society. As emergency-aid needs arise throughout the world, people see that systems of distribution often hold the key to getting help through to the right people quickly. Communication systems will help to meet this need more and more. And within the institutional Church, the allocation of resources (people, funds, etc.) will continue to be a challenge. We need to become expert in using technologies to achieve economies.

For the American Catholic Church, the focus for most families remains the local parish community. Our infrastructures should serve and support this local community, not dislodge it. One of the most interesting new communication tools in this arena-the parish video library (PVL)-benefitled from research by the Center for Religious Telecommunications at the University of Dayton. The Center also studies models of collaborative planning among church organizations, so such collaborative models can be duplicated elsewhere.

Emerging needs

No one doubts that modern telecommunications present challenges to churches. We have long realized the need for media literacy. We know, without being told by experts, that our communication habits are changing us. Similarly, we are learning more about the impact of mass media. We are now aware that people identify with the stories they see on TV-fictional stories, news stories, and human interest (witness) stories, as well as advertising stories. This bonding with oral and visual narrative creates a whole new hearth for humanity to gather around and to evaluate.

Now we need to focus more on the intra-group communication mechanisms and the role of telecommunications tools in these interactive forums.

We need a long-term and systematic strategy over this decade so we can approach the millennium with confidence. I propose a two-lane highway approach.

On the one hand we need to bring theologians and communication scholars together for continue] "think-tank" interaction-doing tile communications research and development work for the Church. Existing professional organizations should have structures (special sections) to accommodate this thinking-together at their organizational conventions. The Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) does this annually in a forum on communication theology. The national offices in Washington (for schools, the bishops' conference) should all facilitate such forums.. Many, many week-long conferences need to be scheduled over the decade, so these thinkers can spend time together sharing ideas, stimulating the development of new conceptual models. Universities should link their theology and communication faculty in systematic planning forums.

Alongside of this work, however, in the second lane, should be much, much collaborative strategic planning among practitioners, the communications personnel in tile trenches, who meet the daily, continual challenges (and crises) where Church and society interface and "reach out and touch" each other. This on-going practical planning needs to utilize teleconferencing arid other tools to get the day-by-day jobs done. There needs to be much interconnection and collaboration. And both groups -- the think tank types and the daily practitioners -- need to sustain and enrich each other as the decade progresses.

It is right there on the horizon. Karl Rahner called it our "global epoch."