A new satellite, in use since August this year, has resulted in improved picture quality, reduced broadcasting costs, and has greater broadcast capabilities, says Adventist Global Communication Network (AGCN) director Brad Thorp.

The new satellite, known as PAS 7, has a broadcast range (known as a “satellite footprint”) that covers most of Africa, England, parts of Europe and Russia, the Middle East and Asia-areas that AGCN could previously only reach by using two satellites. The satellite replaces PAS 4, which had been used by AGCN for the past three years.

“The General Conference Session [in July 2000] was the last event we were able to broadcast using the old satellite,” says Thorp, who explains that growing demands on PAS 4 from Internet users and satellite broadcasters in Africa crowded out more infrequent users, such as AGCN.

With some 850 satellite downlink sites already in place within the new broadcast coverage area, AGCN is working to increase the number of churches able to view AGCN’s programming. “We want to enhance the effectiveness of local churches,” says Thorp. “We aim to broadcast programming that attracts people to Seventh-day Adventist downlink sites and into the fellowship of a local congregation.”

According to Thorp, AGCN exists to empower local church congregations.  He says that satellite is a cost-effective way of delivering everything from information, to training programs, to evangelistic series, directly to local Adventist churches that would otherwise have only limited access to the resources of the world church. 

Thorp says that the mission of AGCN, an international satellite network owned and operated by the Adventist Church since 1997, can be summed up by its slogan-“Uniting our world, sharing His gifts.” Among the many evangelistic meetings AGCN has beamed around the world have been Net `98 and the ACTS 2000 series.  ACGN recently finished live broadcasting of an ACTS 2000 evangelistic series in Korea. Future satellite evangelism plans include a series entitled “Christ for Africa,” presented by Pastor Jere Patzer, which will be broadcast mid-2001.