Our Holy Task
CC launches new fellowship and donation appeal
Reader’s Digest is thinner; Macleans went monthly. Change seems to be the only constant in the publishing industry these days. The concept of non-profit media is becoming more common, as more publications (The Guardian, The Atlantic) embrace membership models that ask for monthly or annual donations. But even though mainstream media is now experimenting with fundraising, as faith-based publications have done for years, they’re not covering the same topics. There is still a great need for quality, faith-based journalism in Canada.
“Very few people in the secular media report on religion anymore,” says Patton Dodd, executive director of media and communications for the H.E. Butt Family Foundation. “Covering religion at all is a form of activism.”
That’s why your support for Christian Courier is an act of subversion – a counter-cultural move. You believe, along with CC writers and staff, that sharing our fumbling attempts to follow Jesus makes a difference, that it can change hearts.
Thought-provoking articles and a roster of 14 columnists mean that every issue is jam-packed with content. This year, CC introduced a fresh design of the print newspaper, opened up more content online, welcomed new board and staff members and won three Word Awards and seven Canadian Church Press awards for works published in 2017.
“It is a spectacular publication,” CC reader and supporter Richard Moore of Cochrane, Ont., says. “In my mind, no other church publication can match it for content, provocation, quality, confession, honesty, interest and emotional appeal.”
CC’s 2018 Fall Donation Appeal is now running until November 30, with a $30,000 goal to sustain its independent, Reformed journalism ministry into 2019. Because CC is a registered charity, all donations $10 and more receive a tax-deductible receipt. CC relies on donor support to plan for the year ahead and look towards 2020, which will be CC’s 75th year of publication.
This year’s appeal continues the Rooted & Growing theme from last year’s campaign. The maple tree logo, designed by Naomi Francois, has been updated to focus on a season of harvest.
Rooted & Growing remains a rich image for CC, as it recognizes long-time subscribers with deep roots in the church, new generations spreading across Canada like branches, and maple spinners, released in the fall, which feels a little bit like CC’s stories online – you just never know where they’re going to end up, or what new growth might start as a result.
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| Alice & Bert Witvoet with CC Editor Angela Reitsma Bick (the newspaper is not a prop). |
Witvoet Fellowship
As part of this year’s campaign, we are also pleased to introduce the Bert Witvoet Fellowship. In his 26 years with CC (17 as Editor), Bert Witvoet dedicated his leadership and writing talent to this community. The fellowship celebrates the contributions of Witvoet, who “retired” from the paper for his third time last year and next year will be turning 85!
Bert embodies what Mike Buma, another past Editor, calls the ethos of CC: “unshakably rooted in the Reformed worldview that determines his practical, down-to-earth and hands-on faith.”
All gifts given in celebration of Bert will help develop the gifts of young writers and our ongoing commitment to excellent Reformed journalism.
Bert insisted “that our callings,” Cathy Smith recalls, “though rooted in a cherished Christian heritage, must be worked out in our present context.”
And no matter how swiftly that context is changing, that is the ongoing and holy task of Christian Courier, too.
Three Ways to Donate
- Online visit CC's Canada Helps campaign page
- Mail cheques payable to Christian Courier to: 2 Aiken St, St Catharines ON L2N 1V8
- Phone: 1-800-969-4838
