11 November 2009

Adventist World Church Papers Editors meet Philippine Writers

A real writer does not translate a flash of inspiration from pen to paper in an instant. Hard work plus discipline plus persistence equals a writer’s product. These were among the many lessons gleaned from the Adventist World (AW) and Adventist Review (AR)-sponsored writing seminar. The AW and AR are two official papers of the Seventh-day Adventist World Church.

Held at the Cucueco Hall of the Central Luzon Conference (CLC) headquarters in Malabon City, Philippines, November 11-12, 121 participants, many of whom are experienced writers and editors along with professors and students, and communication directors, learned additional skills to enhance their writing careers.

They represented the three regional headquarters of the Adventist Church in the Philippines, Philippine Publishing House, Manila Adventist Medical Center, Adventist University of the Philippines, and Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies.

Dr Roy Adams, associate editor; and Pastor Stephen Chavez, managing editor, of the two official papers, led out in the seminar. They were assisted by five others led by Dr Bill Knott, AW/AR chief editor. Their presentations were done through DVDs and were facilitated by Adams and Chavez.

The topics presented were writing for news, feature, academic, Internet, children’s publications, and sermons.

Many participants contributed ideas to issues of importance that there was hardly time for breaks. These discussions, according to other participants, added positively to the outcome of the seminar.

This event was conceived by Dr Jonathan Catolico, communication director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the southern Asia-Pacific region (SSD), and Dr Bill Knott more than a year ago. This came into reality with the help of the communication department of CLC under the leadership of Pastor Petronio Genebago, director. He was assisted by his media crew that worked on the audio and video set up for the seminar. The CLC’s leadership was also on full support of the event.

Dr Prema Gaikwad, professor at AIIAS, expressed the participants’ gratitude for the new insights they got from the seminar. [Gay Deles/AND]