News in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa will be travelling much faster in 2024. The monthly print issues of Crosstalk will continue to be delivered to subscribers’ homes, and now an online edition of the newspaper, Perspective, will come to subscribers’ cell phones, tablets or computers. Readers will also be able to read and download the current edition and back issues online at https://ottawa.anglicannews.ca.
Crosstalk is delivered as a supplement to the national newspaper the Anglican Journal, but as our publisher Bishop Shane Parker mentioned in his column (p.2) both of the print editions of Anglican Journal and Crosstalk will be discontinued in the coming years in favour of more timely and cost-effective online versions. For now, however, readers have the best of both worlds and their choice of reading in print or online.
Looking ahead to an online-only future, the Anglican Journal and national church invited editors of diocesan newspapers across Canada into a collaborative effort in 2021 to determine what type of online platform would best serve their needs and help to connect publications and Anglicans across the country. Then they built it. Anglican News Canada or anglicannews.ca is a website that has been hosting the Anglican Journal and eight diocesan newspapers. Perspective is the ninth paper to join this network, and from the site readers can read stories in all of the publications and learn more about what Anglicans from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador are doing and experiencing.
When Archbishop Linda Nicholls attended the diocesan Synod in Ottawa in 2022, I thanked her for the gift of this valuable tool offered to the dioceses from the collective resources of the Canadian church (in much the same way Bishop Shane encourages all to see the collective strength of the diocesan church.) Individually, it would have been very difficult for each diocese to create an online version of their publication, but together, through the national church, it was possible and has been realized.
Many thanks also go to Brian Bukowski, web manager for the Anglican Church of Canada and his team for leading the creation of the network, the creativity and countless hours of work involved, and for making a great resource of how-to videos to remotely train editors scattered across the country.
There were still some bumps and delays along the way to launching the online paper here while the communications team was stretched by staff shortages and work to launch the new diocesan website in 2023.
An executive review of potential new names led to a final shortlist of three titles, with “Perspective” emerging as the leading option after thoughtful deliberation and consultations with archdeacons, other parish leaders, and senior staff at Ascension House. Sandra Hamway, the director of communications and development, then presented Perspective to Diocesan Council last spring as the recommended choice. From there, work began to select the typography for the masthead, while aligning the look and feel to the diocese brand.
Now that Perspective is up and running, we hope it will serve readers as Crosstalk and its predecessor The Ottawa Diocesan News have done since 1948.
An online edition will allow time-sensitive articles to be promptly published online, independent of the schedule of monthly print issues. It will also make it easy for our community to immediately access the newest happenings around the diocese, to share stories via social media and for readers to share articles with their friends. We hope you will share stories you enjoy and share your feedback and suggestions with us.
To subscribe to Perspective visit www.ottawa.anglican.ca/subscribe/
St. Leonard, Rockingham — Deanery of the Northwest