Jen Mason and Danny Schweers joined the Diocesean communications team in May, 2007. Jen edits The Delaware Communion newspaper and Danny is our new website editor. They join Pat Hall, editor of the weekly e-newsletter for clergy and lay leaders, and Mary Ann Brillhart, the liaison for the bishop’s office to the website, to form the communications team for the diocese.

“This is a new model,” says Gary Rowe, Canon to the Ordinary, who worked with the Bishop to hire Mason and Schweers. “We want to approach our print and web publications in a more integrated, collaborative way, and Jen and Danny will work together with Pat and Mary Ann to lead that effort.”

Jen Mason
Delaware Communion Editor

The diocese enticed Jen Mason out of “retirement,” as she left corporate life over four years ago to be a stay-at-home mom. Jen has extensive leadership and communications experience for such organizations as AT&T, Yale University, and most recently R.R. Donnelley, where she lead an international, virtual team in designing and implementing organizational development and training programs for the world’s largest printing company. She moved to Rehoboth Beach in 2004 and has become an active, happy member of St. Peter’s, Lewes.

Beyond her professional experience, what attracted the diocese to Jen was her ability to see and articulate the role of editor in terms of mission and ministry. “While I feel that this is a personal ministry for me, it’s not just my ministry – it can’t be. The stories that we tell and the connections that we make through our diocesan communications must be driven by more than just my perspectives and preferences,” says Jen. “Once Danny and I settle in a bit and get our bearings, the team is excited to draw in a diverse group of folks to be part of this ministry.”

Jen is particularly interested in how our communications serve to knit together the whole diocese – the various regions and congregations, clergy and lay, youth and elders alike; and, in so doing, how our communications can be vehicles for inspiration and collaboration among God’s people in addition to connecting us to our bishop and the important news from our diocese.

To achieve this, Jen believes that she must ideally gather the broadest possible range of stories – stories from all corners of the diocese that represent differing perspectives on our work together as Episcopalians and Christians here in Delaware and beyond. She also wants there to be some means to convey the myriad of “little” stories that fill our parish lives from month to month, and that there should be a way to highlight congregations or regions in some kind of cycle, so that “every part of the body is known and honored.”

Finally, Jen is passionate that the needs of our children and youth must be considered in our diocesan communications. “Kids and youth must be more than just as subjects of heart-warming stories for adults to read; they need to be recognized as equal recipients of the gifts of the communion,” Jen said. To achieve this, she wants to work with Christian education leaders to conceive and implement child-oriented components for the paper and to add diocesan youth to the list of regular contributors.

Danny Schweers
Website Editor and Delaware Communion Designer: (302) 475-0998

Danny Schweers has worked in church communications for many years, starting at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, a large downtown parish where he was responsible for publications and their first website. In the year 2000, following his wife in her career move to Delaware, he soon found work as managing editor for Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion. Before he became editor of this website, he was Communications Coordinator for Westminster Presbyterian Church in Wilmington while at the same time designing websites on a freelance basis for non-profits, artists and churches, including several local Episcopal churches.

A long-time photographer, four of Danny’s images are on display at the Delaware Museum of Art as part of their exhibit of Brandywine Valley photographers through October of 2007. Click here to see his website. He and his wife, Barbara Henry, live in the utopian village of Arden, Delaware, and are currently members of the Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew and Matthew (SsAM) in downtown Wilmington.

Danny is delighted to be working for the Diocese in the newly-created position of Website Editor. "The creation of this new position reflects the increased significance of electronic communication in our lives," says Danny. "Many, if not most, Episcopalians regularly use the Internet to talk with one another, to share pictures and even videos and recordings – sometimes with success!

My hope is to use this medium effectively to inform and inspire, working closely with the new Communion Editor, Jen Mason, and also with Pat Hall and Mary Ann Brillhart. I hope to make information about the Diocese easily accessible, accurate, and up-to-date. My primary goal, however, will be to witness to God's work in the Diocese. With so many loving hands at work, there is every reason for joy. In particular, I hope to focus on individuals, both clerical and lay, whose ministries and concerns reach beyond their local parish into the Diocese and throughout the world. There are many such individuals in our Diocese, and their stories testify to God's goodness and grace."