About the New Spirit
New Spirit is the News and Events website of The Diocese of West Missouri, published online at spirit.diowestmo.org . New Spirit is a showcase of what The Episcopal Church in West Missouri is and does. New Spirit keeps members informed about the activities of the diocesan family, assists with educating and preparing both lay and clergy for ministry and finally, it acts as a resource that churches can share with their visitors.
We accept stories of general interest to West Missouri’s Episcopalians and general news and information about what the churches of the diocese are doing. We are especially interested in sharing your success stories that might help other churches with their ministries.
You can use the following links to send us your text and images
Important Notice on Copyright and Image Licensing
Please do not submit any text or images that you do not own the rights to use. If pictures are taken in a private area that the general public would not be expected to have access to, please ensure you have the permission of those present to take and submit their pictures.
By submitting files for us to use you agree to be responsible for any fees incurred should there be any claims for payment for any licensed material you provide to us for inclusion on our New Spirit website and we subsequently share through social media.
See all our notes about copyright and licensing here.
What we’d like to receive from you
Text
Please provide the following via this link, or by email to communications@diowestmo.org:
- A suggested title for your piece.
- A short (10-20 word) bio of each author. This is included at the end of the article.
- A short (less than 50 words) summary for the synopsis.
- Your article in plain text or MS Word.
Please Note. We are unable to write articles for you. Sorry.
Deadline
There are no deadlines! We’ll publish your article online as soon as practicable after we receive it. It will also appear in the next News Update emailing.
Editing
Please note that if necessary we will edit any supplied text for style, length etc., though we do try to use a very light touch. Pictures also may be edited/cropped to fit on the page.
Review
Unfortunately, due to our very tight and busy schedules, we are unable to provide review copies of articles prior to publication.
Submission Guidelines
…We welcome all and any content. However, if you can submit your work with these guidelines in mind it saves us a lot of editorial effort and heartache…
Firstly, these are guidelines. We welcome all and any content. However, if you can submit your work with these guidelines in mind it saves us a lot of editorial effort and heartache. Many, many, thanks.
Gary Allman, Communications Director
Pictures
Do: provide high-resolution original pictures of people doing things, small groups engaged in activities, bright colors, well lit. Group pictures are good too if they illustrate the event(s). Shoot wide so that images can be cropped. Use natural light whenever possible. A picture of the article author is always very nice as it gives a human face to the text.
Don’t:
- Have date/time stamps showing in the images.
- If possible avoid using flash.
- Send pictures downloaded from Facebook without permission.
- Submit pictures you have not had explicit permission to use.
- Please do not insert pictures into documents. Upload the picture files separately.
Please let us have:
- Clear and concise captions for any submitted pictures.
- Please specify who should be credited for taking the pictures.
Note. Children can appear in pictures, but, will not be identified without explicit parental permission. And in that case only in special circumstances, such as when receiving awards.
Writing style & length
- Language: Friendly and engaging, open and inclusive. Not colloquial, but conversational and not formal.
- Avoid jargon and technical terms. If you do use them explain what they are for people who might be unfamiliar with ‘Episcopalese’.
- Length: Anything above around 300 words is welcome.
Writing guidelines
When we edit text we try to ensure the following guidelines are adhered to. If you can write your material with this in mind it saves us a lot of time editing.
Please get the name of the diocese and The Episcopal Church right
We are The Diocese of West Missouri and we are part of The Episcopal Church. Note the capitalization of ‘the’ in both cases.
Diocesan style guide
There’s comprehensive help available on general writing style in the diocesan Style Guide, and more specifically there’s detailed assistance in the diocesan Writing style guide. Don’t worry if you don’t have time for all this. Just know that if and when we edit your text, we will do so to ensure it is in line with the guidance set out in the diocesan writing style guide, and AP style guide.
Layout
Please do not attempt to layout your text, use 1 line spacing between paragraphs, do not use tabs and avoid using double spacing after a period. If you want to use bullet points please use your Word Processor’s bullet point feature. Please do not use plain text characters such as ‘*’ ‘o’ or ‘+’ and tabs for bullet points as it takes ages to edit them out…
When in doubt we consult the Associated Press style guide.
Publication
Articles received are published online and shared to social media as soon as practicable after we receive them.
Additional Use
Please note that images/text supplied may also appear on the diocesan website, Facebook page, website and photo galleries (Flickr).
Inclusion
While we try our utmost to include content in a timely manner, this cannot always be guaranteed. Finally, submission is not a guarantee of inclusion – though it is very unlikely that we will not use supplied material.
Submission
- Please submit your articles in plain text or MS Word.
- Photographs as image Raw files or high quality (fine quality, large file size) original jpegs. (Please use the link below to send us larger files)
- With the exception of larger documents and images which can be submitted via the link below, all content should be emailed to communications@ediowestmo.org
Thank you!
Thanks for reading and following the above. We have limited time and resources. Every little bit helps us to produce a high-quality news website.
Page Updates
- 02-5-2021 – Sections on church, dates and times added. Headings added to help with clarity.
- 09-17-2020 – page moved to spirit.diowestmo.org and brought up-to-date.
- 09-5-2019 – updated to take into account continuous publishing and the New Spirit website.
- 05-21-2018 – Corrected errors and clarified requirements.
- 12-1-2016 – change to publication schedule.
- 07-16-2016 – email address corrections and minor changes to the style guide text to bring it in line with the Style Guide of The Episcopal Church.