Nearly fifty Seventh-day Adventist communicators from all over Europe, along with representatives from Israel, Cyprus and North America, gathered for a Communication Conference in Rogaska Slatina, Slovenia, 8-12 September 2006.

Experts from different fields of communication shared their ideas on how to use latest technology to promote the good news of Jesus Christ, in particular via the Internet.

"One of the challenges our church is facing is to use arts and technology faithfully in communicating Christ to a vast audience of over one billion people," says Dr. Miroslav Pujic, Communication Director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European region. "The Internet provides a great opportunity to create cyber faith communities where people can talk about life issues and share their personal experiences. That way, they can connect with those who are trying to find a meaning in life but do not want to attend any public meetings."

Everybody saw tremendous opportunities opening up through latest technology; at the same time it was agreed that the Seventh-day Adventist Church must be able to face competition by professionalism and by establishing a consistent, recognisable presence in the Internet. Other topics that were discussed during the conference included Media and Public Relations. Also the Adventist Press Service (APD) was presenting his activities in Europe for the secular and church-related media.

Ray Dabrowski, who is Director of Communication at the world headquarters of the Adventist Church in the U.S.A., emphasised the necessity to “move into the neighbourhood”: meet people’s needs where they are and as diverse as they are. He advised that the Internet provides possibilities to embrace people all over the world, but the language, designs and topics conveyed must be relevant, open and sensitive to the cultural and individual needs of people.

“Today’s technologies are excellent tools to reach out to people, but it should not be neglected that after all there is no substitute for personal face-to-face relationships,” such was the underlying message of all presenters. [Editor: Bettina Avileis and Christian B. Schaeffler for ANR/APD]