The purpose of this initiative is to provide church staff and leaders in Extension Dioceses with training and tools to create a successful and engaging online presence for their church.
Catholic Extension Society and Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Religion and Spirituality are partnering tooffer a Certificate in Media Arts for Ministry to parish and diocesan staff, priests, and lay ministers from Extension Dioceses. Media arts such as videos, websites, and social media have become the primary platform to tell stories, entertain, educate, and evangelize. ore self-sustainable with higher participation in offertory and fundraising opportunities such as Giving Tuesday. In a 2022 Catholic Extension Society survey of Extension Dioceses, assistance with communications, technology, and social media was identified as one of the top challenges facing Extension Dioceses today.
An active and engaging online presence is an important part of the church’s outreach: Parishes with an active online presence are not only more successful in building their Church community, but have higher levels of attendance at mass and are more self-sustainable with higher participation in offertory and fundraising opportunities such as Giving Tuesday. Despite the widespread availability of this technology, missions, parishes, and sometimes even chanceries in Extension Dioceses commonly have their digital media managed by a volunteer or staff member with little to no training.
This certificate is designed specifically for those with little to no prior media or technology experience. The 9-month Certification provides a foundational learning experience that allows students to “work with what they have”; giving busy priests, parish staff, lay ministers or volunteers, or others involved in parishes in Extension dioceses the ability to be successful in designing publications, producing video, building Web sites and using social media.
Upon successful completion of the program, students will be able to confidently produce and share media and will receive a certificate in Media Arts in Ministry from Loyola Marymount University.
Duration: 9 Months
Value: $1,600 per student
Documents
How to Apply
- Read and review the full Program Guidelines, linked above. Because of limited capacity, each diocese is limited to a maximum of 5 participants per cohort.
- Complete the online application form by the deadline of Wednesday, March 22, 2023
For More Information
Contact Rob Anderson, Assistant Vice President of Mission, at 312.795.6095 or randerson@catholicextension.org.