Local church hoping to create syndicated live show

A local church is asking guests to attend a live taping of a new program it hopes to syndicated nationally. WCAN-TV will present "The Jubilee Hour" at 4 p.m. Saturday at New Life Full Gospel Ministries, 221 Gulf Road, Elyria. The church is the home of WCAN broadcasting, said Wayne Fitzpatrick, executive producer and president of WCAN-TV. Fitzpatrick founded the church about a dozen years ago, he said, and in recent years started broadcasting a radio program online at WCAN.com, transmitting a political program to discuss Elyria municipal government every third Thursday. The idea of eventually broadcasting live television programs was always "on the back burner," he said. We wanted to work out the bugs first and with technology changing so rapidly, we wanted to wait before we started buying equipment." "The Jubilee Hour" will be presented in four segments: a talent portion, with musical guests performing a few gospel songs; a highlight on ministry piece to discuss with church leaders the particular challenges of various ministries; a segment to discuss with a pastor their visions, dreams and aspirations for the future of their ministries; and then the bulk of the program will be a sermon. Fitzpatrick says the idea is to tape the segment to then pitch to national networks like TBN, Impact and The WORD Network. The first one will be hosted by Samuel L. Hampton II of The Faith Place In Akron, and will feature Tony Williams of River of Life Ministries of Cleveland; Janice Roberts of Divine Destiny Christian Fellowship in Elyria; Lillie Hurts of Christ Redeemed Worship Center in Painesville; and Shelle M. Harris of Shelle M. Mathis Counseling Services of Lorain. Fitzpatrick said the program is a good opportunity for the city to be showcased around the globe, if it is picked up for a regularly scheduled program. Another goal of the church is to eventually livestream WCAN-TV on YouTube with a scheduled block of programming, including a Friday night live radio program allowing a pastor to take incoming calls from around the world and a Saturday schedule of various types of shows. "We're going to deal with that really slow. Once you shoot your bullet and you put it out there on YouTube, if it's crappy you can't take it back. So we're going to be very selective with this," he said. There are four "soundstages" the church uses to tape its program with a film crew and movable panels to set up for taping, he said. The broadcasting plans grew out of the Ecclesial Pastor Affiliation, an auxiliary of the Abrahamic Temple Archdiocese, which counts about 20 churches in Ohio. Fitzpatrick is the presiding bishop. The organization has about 350 churches in Africa, he said. The EPA is a synod of organization-affiliated pastors and aims to be a Christian media service to "advance the Kingdom of God through media technology, television and radio." For anyone interested in attending or being a guest on the shows, call Fitzpatrick at (440) 284-3924. Contact Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com.