Thirty-four Jesuit communicators from nineteen countries around Europe and further afield held their annual meeting in Brussels last week.

The JesWeb group was started in 2005 by a group of Jesuits and co-workers responsible for maintaining province websites.  Philip Debruyne SJ, Communications Officer for the Jesuit European Conference, is the longest standing member of JesWeb, this year attending his 12th meeting.  What changes has he noticed over the years?

“At the beginning it was more charismatic and less professional. Webmasters were often scholastics who had built the province website in html and wanted to exchange technical information and solve problems.  Now almost all provinces have employed professional communicators. Our meetings are now more about strategy, creativity and collaboration.”

By contrast Pia Dyckmans was attending her first JesWeb, having joined the comms team for the German province just last year. Pia commented “I have found it creative, constructive and inspiring. I hope to be back next year.”

The meeting was launched with a personal video message of encouragement from Fr General Arturo Sosa SJ, who reminded delegates that “for Saint Ignatius communications was almost an obsession. It is in our DNA…. Our mission is to “go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News”.  JesWeb was preceded by a meeting in Rome of communications representatives of each of the six Jesuit conferences worldwide (Jesuit conferences roughly equate to continents).  Patrick Mulemi SJ, Head of Communications at the Jesuit Curia in Rome, observed, “At last week’s meeting  in Rome of the six conferences’ comms managers, four were lay women.  I say a special prayer of gratitude for our female collaborators.”

The Jesuits in Britain were represented by Jane Hellings, Director of Development and Communications, Frances Murphy, Editor of Thinking Faith and Emma Holland, Producer of Prayasyougo daily prayer podcast.

Martin Stark SJ, Socius of the German Province, has been the Chair of JesWeb for the last three years. “The digital communications world has changed so much since 2005,” he observed “and to reflect the new professionalism of integrated comms the committee proposed to change the name of the group to JesWebCom.  So 2018 was the last JesWeb, but welcome to JesWebCom next year!”

As well as sessions on reaching young audiences and compliance with new data protection laws, delegates took part in practical training  to improve their skills in video making and photography.

Patrick Mulemi SJ concluded “It is such a good idea to have opportunities like this to share best practice and ideas. This year is important because of the message from Father General missioning the group.  Comms is in the DNA of the Society and using all tools available to us is what St Ignatius would have wanted.”