As Liturgy School comes to a successful close, the annual Caribbean School for Catholic Communications (CSCC) begins today, Sunday, August 12 for one week.

The venue of course is the Emmaus Retreat Centre in Arima. This year the School will host over 50 participants in residence, coming from all over the Caribbean region.  

2007 begins a new three-year cycle under the main heading Communications - New Pathways to God, with sub-themes each year:  2007 - Audio and Interpersonal Communications; 2008 - Film and related media; 2009 - Print and new technologies. 

The rationale of this three-year offering is intended to:
• Train communicators in the art of dialogue for the promotion of Justice and Peace
• Form professional communicators able to engage the new communications technologies as pathways to God.
• Empower the participants to be agents of transformation; revisioning the Caribbean Church for the emerging technological culture.

The various workshops, Audio, Video, Media Education, Journalism and Web Page Design give participants practical experience as well as providing them with an introduction to a theology of communication and the basic understanding of Church teachings on the means of social communication.

The testimonies of the many participants who have passed through the School since its inception in 1995 prove how necessary and worthwhile it has been.

The continued successful running of Trinity Communications Network on Channel 10 makes this even more evident, since the majority of TCN's staff are graduates of CSCC.

Launch of SIGNIS Caribbean

Following on the heels of this year’s CSCC will be the official launch of the Caribbean arm of SIGNIS. In 2001 the two international Catholic electronic media organisations - UNDA and OCIC merged, becoming SIGNIS. 

One of the many objectives of SIGNIS is to engage in activities which motivate and encourage participation in the betterment of the communications environment and to support media education at all levels.

 In this regard Catholic Communicators of the Caribbean have been meeting annually since 2001 to form our own regional organisation to be called - SIGNIS CARIBBEAN. In 2006 an Interim Committee was formed with Clive Belgrave appointed Chairman.

This organisation is intended to provide support and co-ordination for Catholic Media in the Caribbean region but also to develop and maintain linkages with international Catholic communications and media organisations.

In a more concrete sense this will mean providing ongoing training and development for Catholic media practitioners and professionals in the Caribbean region as well as a forum for the exchange of ideas, resources, expertise and programmes.

Membership will be open to both individual Catholic media professionals and also organisations in the Caribbean who will hopefully recognise some of the many advantages of joining this organisation such as

• Enabling the Caribbean Catholic Church to be recognised internationally
•  Allowing greater access to research, resources and expertise in Media Evangelisation

The formal launch of SIGNIS Caribbean will take place on Tuesday, August 21 at the Marriott Hotel and will be attended by committee members and invited guests both local and international including the Vice President of SIGNIS World and Sr Angela Ann Zukowski of the University of Dayton, Ohio. 

Sr Angela Ann has been very involved in Caribbean Catholic Communications for over 12 years and continues to be a key member on the board of CSCC annually.