The Kiwi young writers at the 2018 young writer conference held at the Christchurch Salvation Army Centre in September determined to go alone after being part of Australia’s Press Service International for 7 years.
2019 will be a whole new ball game, (as it were) for the Kiwi young writers. Last September the New Zealand young writers came together in Christchurch and discussed becoming independent as from next year.
Press Service International in conjunction with Christian Today established the young writer ministry in 2009 whereby each young writer is published in their own column 10 times a year, once every 5 weeks. The Kiwi young writers were incorporated into the program in 2012.
Kiwi young writers met on the Saturday afternoon
The afternoon session of the conference the Kiwi young writers met together to discuss and work through what it might mean to develop their own ministry separate from Australia.
Tim Newman a plenary speaker and a former young writer, the chair of the Kiwi young writer gathering explained that this required ‘ownership’ by the New Zealanders for the New Zealanders.
Previous attempts fell over as there was no one available to run and develop it and Dr Mark Tronson explained, later this year he will be 67 and he would need to let go of the Kiwi component at the end of the year.
The outcome of the discussion, was that Wellington young writer Esther Koh an English tertiary lecturer was willing to be the editor, Jessica McPherson the one to send out the reminders, and Tim was willing to oversee at the beginning until they got on their feet.
David Chang editor of Christian Today had placed a banner on the Christian Today Australia site he has re-established CTNZ with its own separate URL.
Bishop Brian Carrell
In Bishop Carrell’s address to the young writers conference including the Australians and the Internationals, a founding panellist for the NZ Basil Sellers Awards, he explained a number of salient points – first he’d noticed a change over these past 8 years in the young writer’s pieces - from personalised stories to that of more mature reflections.
Bishop Carrell also made the point that in his many years of ministry, with a keen interest with CMS – Church Missionary Society – that this young writer engagement was remarkable as it pointed to the future – the Christian young people today are the leaders of tomorrow.
Welcome for Kiwi young people
Welcome to New Zealand young people 18-30 years interested in writing for Christian Today New Zealand - your own international column - please connect with Dr Mark Tronson timeout@bushorchestra.com or Esther Koh in Wellington koh_esther22@yahoo.com
The designated Bible Society of NZ article arranged by Sarah Richards scheduled for today will now be published next week - the hold-up was final approval ‘administrative’ delay. Dad joke coming up – that’s code for it’s in the “IN” pile somewhere.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html