Candace Minster – Spiritual Journey
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Chicago Sunday Evening Club, Education, Faith Based Production, Nature, Peace and Justice, Spiritual Journey, Tim Frakes Productions, women
This story reminds me of summer. Candace Minster is an Environmental Education Coordinator at the White Violet Eco-Justice Center, a ministry of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-in-the-Woods, Indiana. I recorded this story for 30 Good Minutes, WTTW, Channel 11, PBS, Chicago on a blazing-hot summer day.
Tags: Gardening, Justice, Spiritual Journey, Sustainability, Tim Frakes Productions, Video, women
People of Faith: Christianity in America
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Client Production, Education, History, News, Promo, Tim Frakes Productions
In October, 2010, Larry Eskridge from the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College asked me to help produce People of Faith: Christianity in America, a six episode video series that tells the story of American Christianity in all its diversity from the colonial period to the present. The series is a fast-paced account of the people, ideas, movements, and organizations that influenced the course of America’s Christians down through the years.
People of Faith: Christianity in America is available through Vision Video. Call 1-800-523-0226 or log on to
www.visionvideo.com/peopleoffaith.html to order the 2 DVD set for home or congregational resource library.
The scope of this project is massive. Larry, writer Steve Rabey and producer Paul Butler began the project in 2006, but the sheer weight of the material brought production to a crawl. Larry and Paul asked me to drive the length of the field and move the ball over the goal line (to use a sports metaphor)! My role has been as producer, videographer and editor. Paul did quite a few scholar interviews early on. He also began the editing process on episode 3. Steve Rabey wrote the scripts for all six episodes. After taking over the project I contributed with additional scholar interviews, hours of new worship footage, historical landscape exteriors, hours and hours of editing including narration recording with Tim Lundeen and narrator Maurice England.
Synopsis
Episode 1. Faith in America: From Monarchs to the Marketplace
The people who arrived on the shores of the New World came from many places. They came for many reasons. And most of them brought with them traditions of Christian faith that had been practiced in Europe for centuries. But an interesting thing happened once these new arrivals settled down in this vast and fertile land. The regulation of religious practices that had long been controlled by kings and governments in Europe was now up for grabs.
Over time these people of faith created something in America that had never been seen in the history of the world. They created a nation where this religious freedom gave birth to unprecedented levels of religious diversity, experimentation and competition among churches and religious groups.
These spiritual pioneers laid the foundation for a spiritually diverse New World where faith and practice were no longer controlled by monarchs, but by common, everyday men and women.
Episode 2. Many Mansions
Jesus once told his disciples, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” And many Americans have embodied this diversified vision of heaven in the way they look for churches. But how did American religion become so diverse? The answer has a lot to do with the people who came here, and the policies they established.
Episode 3. Rebels with a Cause
Christians have played an important role in American public and political life from the beginning, but that doesn’t mean people of faith always speak with one voice on social issues. In fact, members of various churches and faith traditions have frequently found themselves on opposing sides of these issues—often pursuing different priorities and outcomes. The one thing they do have in common is that people of faith share a common desire to battle principalities and powers to usher in their vision of a better world and often see themselves as “rebels with a cause”.
Episode 4. Challenges and Change
For generation after generation, Americans worked to create a place for faith at the center of public life. But you know what they say: “The only thing that’s constant is change itself.” As times changed, culture changed. So churches and religious groups responded to cultural change by focusing on new issues and challenges.
While Christians applied their faith in new ways to new problems, other people suggested that faith was irrelevant for modern times. But Christians in America were not about to give up. Instead, they reached down deep, re-examined their faith, and explored ways to apply their values to the changing social landscape.
Once Christians in America felt they had created the ideal church or the good society, new developments and challenges arose which upset the status quo and forced them to rethink their beliefs and find new ways to apply them to current conditions.
Episode 5. Home Grown Saints
More than any other nation, America has given its citizens the freedom to shape their religious lives as they see fit. Centuries ago in Europe, religion was largely controlled by popes and potentates. But America has taken a more open approach that has leveled the playing field, allowing anyone and everyone to play a role in the country’s thriving religious life.
America has been home to so many people of faith that it’s challenging to pick out ten of the most influential Christian leaders of the past two and one-half centuries. Home Grown Saints is a short list of ten men and women of faith who had a great impact on the shape of Christian faith in America.
Episode 6. The Future of Christianity
Christianity spread throughout the world over the past 2,000 years. And it has thrived in America over the past two centuries. But what does the future hold for faith? We asked Catholic, Protestant and evangelical experts eight questions about the future of Christian faith in America.
People of Faith: Christianity in America is designed for use in congregational settings, adult forums and Sunday school classes. Featuring leading authors and scholars of American Church History including:
Martin Marty: University of Chicago
Curtis Evans: University of Chicago
Mark Noll: University of Notre Dame
Scott Appleby: University of Notre Dame
Jean Bethke Elshtain: University of Chicago
Joel Carpenter: Calvin College
Philip Gleason: University of Notre Dame
Thomas Kidd: Baylor University
Darren Dochuk: Purdue University
Kathryn Long: Wheaton College.
Tags: America, Christianity, Church, History, Tim Frakes Productions, Video, Wheaton College
Honoring MLK, KKK Cross Sculpture at Chicago Temple
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Culture, Education, Faith Based Production, Interesting Places, Peace and Justice, Pro Bono, Spiritual Journey, Tim Frakes Productions
If you are in Chicago’s Loop, stop by the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple and check out a sculpture based upon a cross that was burned on the lawn of Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi in the autumn of 1963. The students were being encouraged by Ed King, the campus minister to go into the city and to try and desegregate the churches on Sunday morning.
That not only led to the arrests of the students, but also led to the KKK burning a cross on the college lawn. Ed King kept the cross and gave it to the United Methodist Church who were in the process of trying to desegregate the denomination nationally. So, this cross became the symbol for the desegregation of the United Methodist Church in the 1960′s.
Eventually, the cross was taken to Pittsburgh at the general conference and walked around the conference hall. It became a rallying point. Later, the cross was given to Gerald Forshe, a pastor in Chicago, who brought home. He took it to Jack Kearney who was a very well regarded sculptor in town.
Kearney took that charred wooden cross, encased it in a kind of skin of metal, so that it wouldnt disintegrate. On it, he placed the obviously African American, distressed, truncated Christ. And so Jerry has had this sculpture for over 40 years in his own possession.
But when Jerry was very ill last spring he wanted to make sure that First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple received it and put on public display. The cross is a gift to the church that we can make available to people who visit and want to know the story. This cross not only referrers back to 1963, but it, holds a great deal of power for us today.
This summer, First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple had a guest who came to worship. He was a retired university administrator from Mississippi. He saw the figure on the cross and immediately said, “That is James Chaney.” James Chaney was one of the three young men who were murdered as they tried to register voters in Mississippi in 1963. Chaney was the only African American among the three. And so at least for that person, he saw in this figure, that historical moment.
Tags: Art, Chicago Temple, Cross, James Chaney, James Cheney, KKK, United Methodist
Edongo Band, Kitgum, Northern Uganda
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Africa, Education, Interesting Places, Music, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
Jim Quattrocki and I were in Kitgum, Northern Uganda, recording a story at the Anglican Cathedral. I can’t remember if this is out of his camera or mine. Either way, it was a great day and beautiful music.
Tags: Africa, Church, Faith, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel, Uganda, Video
Introducing Jesus of Nazareth
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Award winning video, Education, Faith Based Production, History, Interesting Places, Middle East, Travel
It is Advent and a good time to reflect on the life of Jesus. This production aired on ABC Television in December 2006. I produced it for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with my good friend Peter Marty as host. Jim Quattrocki directed the on-camera sequences. Jim Parks did the editing.
www.frakesproductions.com
Tags: Bible, Gospel, Holyland, Jerusalem, Jesus, New Testament, Peter Marty
Ascension Catholic School Fundraiser
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Education, Pro Bono, Tim Frakes Productions
This is a pro bono project I shot for Ascension Catholic School in Oak Park, Illinois. Big Shoulders, a Chicago production company did the editing. The video was used at an auction that raised approximately $60,000.
Tags: Church, Education, Tim Frakes Productions
Tour a Cold War Era Atlas Missile Silo
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Education, Interesting Places, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
Along a lonely stretch of blacktop in rural, Central Texas, my friend Larry Sanders takes me on a tour of a partially restored Atlas missile site.
At the height of the Cold War, Curtis Lamay and the Strategic Air Command, built and deployed the first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile System.
Tags: Abilene, Atlas Missile, Cold War, Silo, Texas, Tim Frakes Productions, Video
Understanding Waste Water Treatment
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Education, Non-Profit, Stewardship, Tim Frakes Productions
Waste water. We all make it. We all need it taken care of. Where our waste water goes and how it is treated is something most of us take for granted. Ok, so waste water might not be the sexiest topic to make a video about, but the wise management of our planets water resources is the most important economic and environmental issue facing life on earth. Plus, the treatment of waste water is actually quite fascinating.
This is a series of 9 videos I produced for the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) about the waste water treatment process. I worked with my friend and former ELCA colleague, Stephen Padre. RCAP works with small, rural communities to assist them in improving environmental and community health, developing sustainable water and waste-disposal facilities, increasing the capability of local leaders to address current and future needs and being in compliance with federal and state regulations for utilities. Watch the videos and learn!
Here are links to each of the videos
- Waste water Introduction
- Waste water Collection
- Solids Handling
- Preliminary Treatment
- Primary Treatment
- Secondary Treatment
- Effluent Disinfection
- Effluent Disposal
- What does it take to be an operator?
Tags: Education, Environment, Tim Frakes Productions
Anna Hauge, Gifts of Grace
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Disaster, Education, Faith Based Production, History, Interesting People, Tim Frakes Productions, women
Here is a story I produced for Lutheran Life Communities Foundation. Anna Hauge was a Navy nurse on board the USS Tranquility, the hospital ship that rescued the survivors of the USS Indianapolis disaster in August, 1945. Anna is one of those unsung heroes who lived through an epic chapter in American history.
Tags: Education, History, Tim Frakes Productions, women
HAPI: Madame Gabriel
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Carribean, Education, Faith Based Production, Interesting People, Interesting Places, Tim Frakes Productions, women
My second visit to Haiti in 2011 was with Haitian Artisans for Peace International (HAPI). One of the many projects HAPI has going is Nouvel Etwal (New Stars). The New Stars help young Haitian girls develop self esteem and share their stories through dance. One afternoon we packed the girls in a van and drove to a nearby village to meet with a group of older adult women. One of these women, is a former professional carnival dancer. Many years have passed since Madame Gabriel danced on the big stage, but its clear from this video that she has moves and grace.
Tags: Art, Haiti, Tim Frakes Productions, Video, women