“Book of Daniel” as PR challenge; Gospel musicians remember Pilgrim Baptist Church

In Wednesday’s RNS report Kevin Eckstrom looks at another angle of NBC’s “Book of Daniel”-that the program presents Episcopalians with an interesting public relations challenge: The Episcopal Church, in a bid to double its Sunday attendance by 2020, has revamped its Web site, updated its logo and tried to bill itself as open to anyone […]

In Wednesday’s RNS report Kevin Eckstrom looks at another angle of NBC’s “Book of Daniel”-that the program presents Episcopalians with an interesting public relations challenge: The Episcopal Church, in a bid to double its Sunday attendance by 2020, has revamped its Web site, updated its logo and tried to bill itself as open to anyone at any point in his or her spiritual journey. So you’d think that a prime-time drama about an Episcopal priest-with vestments and bishops and sermons and stained glass-would be a welcome gift worth millions in free advertising. Except the Vicodin-popping Rev. Daniel Webster (played by Aidan Quinn) and his deliciously dysfunctional family in NBC’s saucy new “The Book of Daniel” isn’t exactly what they had in mind. Some Episcopalians, embarrassed by Hollywood’s image of a church where the theology is lukewarm and a philandering bishop rummages through Webster’s desk in search of drugs, wish the show would simply go away. But others, sensing that the only thing worse than bad publicity is no publicity at all, want to embrace the show and use it as a vehicle to introduce people to the church, warts and all.

Adelle M. Banks reports on gospel musicians remembering the historic Pilgrim Baptist Church that burned down on Friday: From her 16th-floor apartment more than a dozen blocks away, gospel singer Albertina Walker watched the Chicago church, long known as the foundation of traditional gospel music, burn. When Pilgrim Baptist Church literally went down in flames Friday (Jan. 6), so went the historic structure where the late Thomas Dorsey created the music now known as gospel. Recent and distant memories flowed from music experts and archivists saddened to learn of the loss of the Chicago landmark. While some of Dorsey’s most famous documents may have been housed elsewhere, the place where artists performed to standing-room-only crowds is gone. Even as church leaders vow to rebuild for the future, Chicagoans and people across the country remember the past.

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