Posts Tagged ‘Grace Church’

The church online

In honor of Good Friday, one of the holiest days on the Christian church calendar, I wanted to do a quick review of how churches in Erie County leverage old and new media to share the Good News.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, appeared weekly on radio and television from the 1930's through the 1960's

Of course, religious messages have utilized media since the dawn of communication. The newspaper usually publishes the Easter and Christmas letters of the local bishops to their faithful. Fiery preachers and novenas were heard daily on local radio, and the word “televangelist” was created for TV messengers.

We’ve written before about the sheer volume of full-time religious radio signals in the Erie market, however religion still plays a small yet important part of the broadcast day on secular stations.

Easily the most viewed local church program on TV is Fully Alive, Sunday mornings at 8:00 on WICU, produced by Erie First Assembly of God. For over two decades, the church has presented the message of their lead pastor, Rev. Jack Risner, and his predecessors with a high-quality, multi-camera production, including music, and sometimes drama and dance. Fully Alive usually wins its time-slot in the Nielsen’s.

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Happy Thanksgiving, Erie Media!

At some times in the past 12 months, these pixels have fraught with negativity. I for one am tired of the gloom and doom, so for a least a moment, lets turn our thoughts to what we can be thankful for from the local media that we produce and consume.

So follow me as I count my blessings in my Erie media Thanksgiving list:

  • I’m thankful for the late John Kanzius, who even as his body deteriorated in his final months, engaged his spirit and drive to ensure that the important work of research surrounding his amazing RF machine to fight cancer would continue on.
  • I’m thankful for Dwight Miller and WQLN, who in the face of devastating budget cuts has continued to maintain a strong programming schedule on the public broadcasting stations, including keeping my radio favorite, Marketplace.
  • I’m thankful for the Dave and Jimmy show, and the mighty Dave Kaelin himself, who is the first direct advertiser on Press and Tower. Wanna join him?
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Sights and sounds from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Erie reveal

It has been an amazing week for Erie, and that inherently includes its media.

If a 15-year flood, the appearance of the vice-president, and fatal fires were not enough, local TV, radio, newspaper and new media reporters provided non-stop coverage of the story of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s build of a brand-new home in Erie for Clara Ward. Her story is well-documented, and the entire community is celebrating with her and her neighbors as they have seen their east Erie neighborhood tremendously impacted by 1,000 volunteers decending to not only build the Ward home, but to do beautification throughout.

I want to share photos, video, and audio of the moments surrounding when the Wards arrived at their home. I spoke with a few of the reporters on the scene, and without a doubt there was a tremendous feeling of excitement and awe at how the community came together this week. As Mike Gallegher said earlier, the story is not the house but the people.

Here’s some pictures, with video and audio to follow:

The “Move That Bus!” moment:

Extreme Makeover Erie door knock this morning

UPDATE (from a press release): On June 25, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” travels to Erie, Pa., to meet the indomitable Clara Ward, who has cast the adversity of her health and surroundings aside to run a nonprofit youth development and family center from her home. Team leader Ty Pennington, his designers and hundreds of volunteers will rebuild Clara’s home in seven days, enabling her to continue her big-hearted work in support of the neighborhood’s underprivileged children.” The design team for this episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” will feature team leader Ty Pennington and designers Paul DiMeo, Paige Hemmis and Grammy-Award-winning, R&B recording artist, Mary J. Blige.

The location address is: The Ward Family, 650 East 21st Street and will be opened to the public starting on Saturday Sunday. Warning: the streets are closed around the construction site and traffic is snarling in the area.

Helpful Links:

Sometime Thursday morning, Ty Pennington will grab the noticeably low-tech bullhorn to rouse an Erie family and tell them that their lives would be changed forever. The deserving family will be sent on a amazing vacation while Ty and his crew build the family a new home in seven days.

Here are the latest details:

  • The family will be revealed to the public about noon Thursday, and interviews with the family will appear on the Thursday evening news. Sometime after 4 PM the family will embark on their vacation
  • Friday will be a construction setup day
  • Saturday demo occurs
  • Sunday the house framing and construction begins
  • All slots for volunteers are long taken, however Grace Church in McKean is looking for help for the accompanying neighborhood side projects that will be happening. Some $20,000 in cash will be needed and you can donate by clicking here
  • Donations for the build, as well as for the Maleno Family-to-Family fund are also needed

You can follow the project’s progress at www.malenoextremehome.com. We will update you later Thursday on this post as the family’s name is released.