After a long trial run as an attempt to serve as a news source for all Presbyterians, Presbyterian Neighbor News (PNNews.org) narrows its focus to serve a "smaller" audience — the 180,000 church members in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

I do hope readers outside those four states will remain on the mailing list as many articles will be of interest to every PC(USA) member. News and photos for everyone will include earthquake and hurricane recovery efforts from Haiti to the Gulf Coast. This summer we will also carry news of the 2010 General Assembly and share word of Presbyterian response to the oil spill in the Gulf.

So those who are interested need only wait for the change in next week's news digest delivered by email and home page of PNNews.org. Anyone who wants to be removed from the list can click "view/change your profile" in the upper left box. or send email to editor@pnnews.

We at the Synod of the Sun give thanks for the valiant effort and the thousands of dollars contributed by several partner synods to launch PNNews.org during the first two full years (2008-2009) of this complicated electronic news delivery system. Synod of the Sun initiated the project and has paid for the 2010 service contract to continue the news connection.

PNNews.org was initially envisioned in 2007 as a future replacement of the Synod of the Sun newspaper. Then, inspired by the growth of the Presbyterian Communicators Network, PNNews.org became an active project among a partnership of synods named below. Now it returns to the original scope.

The project became unwieldy for a primary staff of one person. The online training curve was too steep to make it easy for more than a couple of other editors to post their own news for their own synods. The funding merely supported the expansive hardware and software contract behind the scenes.

So we're back to the drawing board with the long-standing support of the Communications Working Group of Synod of the Sun. A very simple and inexpensive infrastructure is expected to replace this one in 2011.

However, I am also grateful to the company, black white read, inc., for their support and adjustments of their newspixel publishing system we licensed for this big vision to serve the entire PC(USA). It was a network of 16 websites with customized syndication and email list management. It's been a tremendous experience.

Ironically, the demise of The Presbyterian SUN with the December 2009 issue, freed me to do more with the synod partnership, but the partners had reached the end of their efforts. But they hope networking can redevelop in the future for the good of the church. In the meantime, this drawing board is still a very big one: 11 presbyteries of Synod of the Sun and beyond.

Again, you don't need to do anything but read the news when it comes and when you like the effort, please forward it. Encourage others to sign up for the weekly email digest or find our page on Facebook. As the Oklahoma native, Paul Harvey used to say, "Hello, Americans. Stand by... for news!"

Peace,

Shane

Rev. Shane Whisler
Communications Director, Synod of the Sun
Managing Editor, PNNews.org

The contributing partners for this project (2007-2009) were these synods: Living Waters, Lakes and Prairies, Southwest, Lincoln Trails, Alaska-Northwest, Covenant, Northeast, Mid-America, Mid-Atlantic and Pacific with moral support from Rocky Mountains and Trinity.

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