Carmelo Anastasi at the entrance to the office  of the United Church of God-Italy in Bergamo.

In Bergamo Carmelo Anastasi and Paul Kieffer  register UCG-Italy for Google advertizing.

UCOG President Paul Kieffer visited Italy the last week of December 2005 to confer with UCG-Italy National Council chairman Carmelo Anastasi about preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God in the German and Italian languages. Like the German-language region with its National Council, oversight for the Italian region is provided through the UCG-Italy National Council.

During 2005, the circulation of the German and Italian magazines in Europe decreased as a result of an ongoing renewal program. Asking readers to renew their subscription helps to ensure that the limited resources available for sharing the gospel in the German and Italian languages are used to reach interested people. Currently the Italian publication "La Buona Notizia" has about 3000 subscribers, and approximately 3600 readers subscribe to the "Gute Nachrichten" magazine.

UCG-Germany and UCG-Italy face identical challenges in sharing the true gospel of Jesus Christ in their respective regions. The "Gute Nachrichten" and "La Buona Notizia" magazines have to adapt material from their parent magazine, "The Good News", in such a way that does not make them appear merely like an extension of an American magazine. To achieve this goal, graphic layouts and article content have to be modified for the local audience.

Carmelo and Paul also discussed internet usage at length. The UCG-Italy National Council has approved adopting a "two website" approach for reaching the public, similar to the approach used by UCG-Germany. One website will be for the "La Buona Notizia" magazine, and a new website will provide information about the United Church of God-Italy. The adjustments to UCG-Italy's web presence will take effect in the first part of 2006.

A highlight during the two days of meetings was registering UCG-Italy to use internet advertising via Google "Adwords". Print advertising in Europe is very expensive, and internet advertizing is a viable option as an alternative, especially in view of the limited resources available. Since mid-November UCG-Germany has added 172 subscribers to its mailing list at a cost of 1.82 EUR per subscriber. With Paul's help, Carmelo filled out the necessary forms online to enable UCG-Italy to utilize this viable advertising method.

The chairmen of the German and Italian National Councils also discussed the organizational structure of the United Church of God internationally and how to improve cooperation with the Home Office of the United Church of God in Cincinnati, Ohio. Special attention was given to the ongoing discussion about the role of the UCG President in relation to the international areas.