Robin E. Gurney Honorary Life Member of INTERFILM

hh/13.02.10 – By decision of its Presidium and action of its Steering Committee during a meeting in Berlin February 13, 2010, Robin E. Gurney, former communication and information officer of CEC, has been appointed Honorary Life Member of the International Inter Church Film Organization INTERFILM.

From English Methodist background, Robin Gurney served as a Salvation Army Officer and missionary in Argentina, as a trades union official, as a public relations officer with the United Nations Association, and as Press Officer for the Methodist Church in London. He first came to Geneva in 1977 as a Press Officer for the World Council of Churches (WCC) and later created the communications coordinators network in the Commission on Inter-Church Aid, Refugee and World Service (CICARWS), before a period with the Commission of the Churches on International affairs. It was that time he produced for WCC the well done fiction film “Sanctuary” on the problem of refugees (written and directed by James Becket).

This was followed by four years in London as Media Secretary of the Church Mission Society. When Robin returned to Geneva  to join the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in 1990 he therefore brought a diverse wealth of experience and expertise from which CEC has benefited immensely. At a time when communication and public relations are of ever-increasing importance – the more so for a relatively small organization like CEC – Robin has been the vital link between the CEC staff and governing bodies on the one hand, and the CEC member churches and the wider world on the other. “Monitor”, which Robin launched in 1992, is but one example on what the CEC owe him. Further, in collaboration with WCC, LWF and RWF he has played in 1994 a major role in creating the Ecumenical News International (ENI). One year before, in 1993 he brought CEC and INTERFIM together and became a member of its Steering Committee.

He then initiated the Templeton Award for religious journalism and in 1997 the European Templeton Film Award as he reported in Monitor No 22 from March 1998 on the first award for “De Verstekeling” (The Stowaway) by Ben Van Lieshout. Also after his retiring in 2001 he has served as a mentor and member of the jury for the Templeton Film Award till 2006, and he did the same at the Documentary Film Festival “Visions du Réel” in Nyon, where a new established interreligious jury from 2005-2007 awarded a Templeton Special Prize. Both projects developed more and more and received highly recognition. Nevertheless, in 2007 the Templeton Foundation unfortunately decide to close the two projects, But Robin (living with his wife Ruth in Buckinghamshire/England  as well as keeping their very congenial apartment in Argelès-sur-Mer) is still going in cinema, visiting festivals and supporting INTERFILM generously.