New Executive for SIGNIS Caribbean

The General Manager of Catholic Media Services Limited (CAMSEL), Lucille Nathu, has been elected the third President of SIGNIS Caribbean in the recently concluded three-day Annual General Meeting in Barbados, September 3 to 5. The meeting brought together Catholic communicators from 12 dioceses of the Antilles Episcopal Conference (AEC) and four from Catholic organisations. SIGNIS Caribbean celebrated its tenth anniversary.

Other members of the new board are: Lisa Bhajan of Trinity TV, Vice President; Shelly Ann Hee Chung of Barbados, Secretary; Foroz Abdoelrazak of Suriname, Treasurer; and AEC General Secretary Fr John Persaud. Dominica’s Msgr William John-Lewis replaced Bishop Jason Gordon of Bridgetown as the theological adviser.

Nathu said that she was both “excited and honoured” and saw the vast opportunity in the Antilles’ working together to fulfil the mission of SIGNIS to “help transform our cultures in light of the Gospel by promoting human dignity, justice and reconciliation”. Movement forward should be marked by “working as one” and she is intent on continuing the “accomplished works of [predecessor] Nuala Menezes (Grenada) and the first president [deceased] Clive Belgrave (Trinidad)”.

Stating that she had “great teams at both CAMSEL and SIGNIS”, she also saw CAMSEL’s unique positioning as part of the Archdiocese of Port of Spain: “… this gives us more resources than many of the other islands”. To date the Crisis Policy, requested by Archbishop Harris and drafted by CAMSEL, and CAMSEL’s governance policy, implemented under the stewardship of former chairman Richard Young, have been shared with the other islands.

CAMSEL’s strides in the digital department with the mobile app, e-paper and the monthly Archbishop Live on Facebook (to name a few) places CAMSEL in a position “to help and advise other islands in the region”.

Further, “CAMSEL can also develop a network with the other members of SIGNIS and learn from their reporting styles especially that of Latin American advocates for the promotion of human rights, justice and peace in the realm of social communication.”

SIGNIS Caribbean is a sub-region of SIGNIS ALC (Asociacion Catolica Latinoamericana y Caribena) which reports directly to SIGNIS (World Catholic Association for Communication).–SD