Beginnings
In the fall of 1947, a handful of editors met at the convention of the National Sunday School Association and began to talk about an association of evangelical editors. Dr. James DeForest Murch, editor of United Evangelical Action, took the lead and called together a pro tem committee in Chicago on May 6, 1948. Thirty-five editors met at the Congress Hotel in Chicago. They officially organized the Evangelical Press Association, adopted the doctrinal statement of the National Association of Evangelicals and wrote the statement of purpose printed above. On April 4–6, 1949, the first annual convention of the EPA met in Chicago with 103 publications represented.
In September, 1951, the association mailed the first copies of a news service to its members. It was produced by volunteers who sent out ten releases in the first five months. In 1952 it became a weekly service with a subscription rate of $10 a year. That year also the association began its newsletter, Liaison. In 1954 the association adopted a code of ethics and began an awards program.
EPA has held an annual convention each year since 1949. The conventions were held in Chicago until 1957, then moved to a different city each year after that. The conventions were held in January until 1963 when the date was changed to April or May.
As the association grew, it demanded an executive secretary to carry on the administrative work and edit the news service. This became a half-time paid position. In 1978, the job of executive secretary was changed to executive director, and the director was charged with giving vision and leadership to the organization. The news service was licensed to an independent news organization, and in 1994 the news service was sold.
Read more about this topic: Evangelical Press Association
Famous quotes containing the word beginnings:
“When the beginnings of self-destruction enter the heart it seems no bigger than a grain of sand.”
—John Cheever (1912–1982)
“These beginnings of commerce on a lake in the wilderness are very interesting,—these larger white birds that come to keep company with the gulls.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Those newspapers of the nation which most loudly cried dictatorship against me would have been the first to justify the beginnings of dictatorship by somebody else.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)