Ramon Williams citation presentation in 2013
A tribute to Influential Australian Christians posted: "Ramon Williams (1931 - ) Christian publisher - The Australasian Religious Press Association takes great pleasure in honouring Ramon Williams with a “Special Citation for exceptionally meritorious service to the Christian community, and specifically to Chris".
That is only the half of it - this latest wonderful tribute is after The Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) in 2015 honoured one of their Citation holders and greatly revered member, Mr Ramon Williams and an ARPA Guetenmberg Award winner in 1987 - with their new $1500 Youth Scholarship – aptly named: The Ramon Williams ARPA scholarship.
This “youth award” has been a long time in coming and I have been doing the running on this for some time now. At the time New Zealand ARPA board member and Vice President Julie Belding wrote to me saying:
“You’ll be glad to know that the ARPA exec has taken your pleas to heart and we are taking concrete steps to attract younger people to ARPA. Under 35s in fact. We’re offering a $1500 conference scholarship to one young writer, and offering half-price registrations to the others who may be staff members or associate members.”
ARPA member then from Christchurch, New Zealand the former CMS editor Sophia Sinclair and the 2016 chief editor for Press Service International (young writer ministry) wrote:
“Well done for championing the cause of the younger generations. The cost of an ARPA conference is just overwhelming - and when I think of what I would get in return for such a financial outlay it's ridiculous.
“On one hand I see that the older members would have a lot to learn from younger members, but younger members would also have encouragement from older members too - if they reached out a bit more! Personally I think ARPA has a thing or two to learn from your style of mentoring and encouragement of generation y and z!”
Now, in 2017 Sophia Sinclair herself has won this fabulous ARPA award, the Ramon Williams ARPA Scholarship to be presented at the Auckland ARPA conference on 25 August.
Ramon Williams
ARPA Honour
In 2015 the Australasian Religious Press Association, established in 1974, was pleased to announce a youth scholarship package named in honour of Ramon Williams.
Ramon has been involved with ARPA since its foundation, and was awarded the Gutenberg Award in 1987 and an ARPA Citation For Outstanding Service To Christian Media in 2013.
As the founder of Worldwide Photos Ltd, he has contributed in a magnificent variety of ways to the ministry of the Church in Australia, especially through the provision of photographic material, Christian stories and photography.
2016 ARPA conference Sophia Sinclair, Michael Collie and Sarah Richards
Ramon Williams Citation
Meanwhile ARPA four years ago honoured Ramon Williams with the ARPA Citation For Outstanding Service To Christian Media in 2013. There was not a dry eye at the APRA presentation as everyone knew of his astonishing pedigree.
Ramon has been a source of great personal encouragement for many Christians in the media and a source of much encouragement for younger members in their developing ministry. This includes me over 40 years.
A previous article provides the remarkable history of Ramon Williams missionary service and his Christian media phenomena – I would encourage everyone to read it with interest – it takes in an amazing 67 years of front line ministry.
http://christiantoday.com.au/news/ramon-williams-a-hero-of-australian-christian-media.html
2016 APRA conference - Tim Kroenert and Deb Bennett
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