The young writers project of Press Service International is one of the ministries of Well-Being Australia which was initiated several years ago to provide a voice for young Australian Christian writers. Christian Today provides that opportunity.
In 2008 I was invited to become a columnist for Christian Today, 18 months later the suggestion was a daily sport article and I found five young writers to each write one article a week on sport.
Soon afterwards this developed into inviting another group of young writers to provide monthly Comment articles and this has grown into a broad base of young people writing Comment, Culture, Music, Science, News and Sport.
Now, it's developed even further into another group of young writers, this time from New Zealand, in order to broaden the scope further afield, albeit, internationally, with three spaces availably each week. This may even provide a spring board for Christian Today to launch into a 'Christian Today New Zealand' at some later date.
Christian Today provides a daily column for Australian young writers, and a separate space for Culture, Sport and the New Zealand young writers.
Monday:
Comment, NZ Comment, Ministry
Tuesday:
Comment, Culture, Ministry
Wednesday:
Comment, Sport, Ministry
Thursday:
Comment, NZ Comment, Ministry
Friday:
Comment, NZ Comment, Ministry
There has been a strategic analysis of this process since 2008 where we're refining the column schedules and with the New Zealand Comment writers, it has bought a whole new dimension to the project.
The New Zealand young writers commenced last week, Monday 13 August (Sam Burrows), Thursday 16 August (Tash McGill) and Friday 17 August (Dillon Thornton). Sam and Tash are based in Auckland (North Island) while Dillon is based in Dunedin (South Island). This week Gemma Margerison wrote on Monday and tomorrow (Thursday) it is Peter Rope and Friday Chloe Pryor.
Melbourne mini-conference next year
Meanwhile, the Melbourne young writers dinner group recommended that next year's mini-conference be held in Melbourne to coincide with the Australasian Religious Press Association's (ARPA) annual conference. Two of the Melbourne based young writers, Belinda Croft and Laura Veloso, are attending this year's ARPA annual conference in Wellington New Zealand 7-9 September .
The inaugural New Zealand young writers mini-conference is planned for Saturday 3 November in Auckland, barely three months away.
There is one vacancy of a young writer in Australia and two in New Zealand. Please contact me at timeout@bushorchestra.com
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 has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html