On June 7th, the Asia-Pacific Region installed Dr. Kwon Dong-Hwan as the new director of the Manila-based World Mission Communications Center (WMC-AP) during a special ceremony. About 50 participants were there to witness and affirm the appointment of Dr. Kwon. Guests attending the installation included Korean ministry partners and their spouses of Presbyterian, Methodist and Nazarene churches from both Korea and the Philippines, Asia-Pacific Regional Director Rev. Verne Ward III, students, faculty and staff of APNTS and WMC-AP.
Regional Communications Coordinator, Doug Flemming, sent video greetings from Singapore, stating that “The timing is right to pass this baton of leadership. Since 2005, Dr. Kwon has given skillful servant leadership to the Fairbanks International School of Communication (FISC) at APNTS, and he has done a great job of teaching communications courses at other schools on the region, and developing fruitful partnerships for the school and region. So it is with great expectation that we also install Professor Kwon as the new Director of the Manila-based WMC-AP facility.”
WMC-AP (formerly the Fairbanks Media Center) was begun in 1993 on the campus of Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary to provide a regional facility for media production and training. As the ministry expanded, the Manila team moved into it’s current multi-media facility in November 2004. Under the leadership of Dr. Kwon, APNTS developed the Fairbanks International School of Communication (FISC) in 2009, to expand the offering of formal and non-formal media education and research services for the global church.
Dr. Kwon will maintain his present duties as Director of the Fairbanks International School of Communication, including teaching communications courses at APNTS. This integrated role is hoped to create more synergy between WMC-AP and FiSC allowing more communications students to be involved in production, especially those coming from diverse areas around the Asia Pacific Region. Working together, WMC-AP and FISC hope to better equip students in media to create their own productions in their native languages so that they will be able to start media ministries in their own contexts.
As Director of both the FISC program and the WMC-AP (Manila) operations, Dr. Kwon is well-situated to lead and expand both ministries into the future.
by Letitia Zhang and Jarrett Davis
