Mark Hadley has received an "unexpected' farewell gift at the 2009 Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) Awards winning the culture review category.
Mr Hadley won for the Southern Cross version of his review of the ABC TV show The Gruen Transfer.
Unfortunately, the financial crisis is forcing Anglican Media Sydney to let Mr Hadley go from his full-time position at the end of this month.
So, as part of a new freelance business, Mr Hadley will now be making his review writing available to Christian publishers across the country.
“It’s great to see that people can appreciate Christian reviews that go beyond ‘That’s bad - he swore!’” Mr Hadley says.
Connect09 wins
Southern Cross also won the most original publication category for its "Special Connect 09 program guide' released last Christmas.
The official Sydney Diocese magazine also received a bronze award for layout and Jeremy Halcrow was highly commended in the Best Feature category for "the Game is Up' an investigation of gambling in NSW.
Other multiple category winners included The Lutheran magazine and TEAR’s Target magazine.
Meanwhile, Sydneyanglicans.net, last year's winners in the best website category, were pushed into second place by Insights from the NSW Uniting Church.
The 2009 Gutenberg Prize for overall excellence in religious journalism went to Catholic Weekly.
ARPA President Peter McGuigan says the small team who produce this weekly newspaper "set the standard in religious journalism'.
He said this was especially evident during the Pope's visit to Sydney for World Youth Day last year.
Importance of culture reviews
Earlier, as part of the Anglican section of the ARPA conference, Graham Stanton, principal of Youthworks College told delegates that a major way emerging adults now build their identity is by discussing film and TV characters as well as celebrities.
Mr Hadley agrees with this analysis and adds that "people turn on their TV and go to the cinemas looking to engage with ideas that are bigger than themselves."
"This is a conversation Christians need to be part of,” Mark Hadley says. “If you believe CS Lewis, we should expect to find fragments of our lost relationship with God emerging in all sorts of stories. I hope to be the sort of reviewer that can point them out to my yet-to-be Christian friends.”
CAPTION: Jeremy Halcrow, Managing Editor of Southern Cross, receives the bronze for layout from David Harris, NSW Regional Manager of awards sponsor ANSVAR Insurance.
PHOTO CREDIT: Ramon Williams
