Regent College is delighted to announce that two members of our community have recently received Word Awards. Sangwoo Youtong Chee Professor of Theology Ross Hastings was awarded the Leslie K. Tarr award, while alumna and Summer faculty member Julie Lane Gay won an award in the category of Christian Living – Personal Growth for her book The Riches of Your Grace: Living in the Book of Common Prayer.
Named in honour of its first recipient, Leslie K. Tarr, Ross’s award recognizes major contributions to Christian writing published in Canada, and is effectively a lifetime achievement award. Other members of the Regent community who have received this honour include Maxine Hancock (1990), J. I. Packer (2011), and James Houston (2016). In response to having won, Ross said, “I was taken by surprise and am deeply honoured by this award. I simply hope that the church will be edified and that the triune God will be glorified by the things I have written.”
Julie served as the Senior Editor of Regent's CRUX journal for many years, and has published articles across a wide range of topics in publications as diverse as Fine Gardening, Faith Today, and Reader’s Digest. Her recent book, which prompted the award, offers a rich exploration of, and meditation on, the Book of Common Prayer. In her own words, she strives to show “how its prayers and patterns can shape an ordinary Christian life [...], how the Book of Common Prayer can anchor us—our prayers, our daily lives, our hearts—in Christ.”
Both awards are bestowed by the Word Guild, a professional organization dedicated to Christian writers across Canada, which encourages “the pursuit of excellence in the art, craft, practice and ministry of writing, and help[s] raise the profile of Canadian writers who are Christian.” Their annual Word Award ceremony celebrates the best of Canadian Christian writing across a broad range of categories. A full list of this year's winners is available for download as a PDF document.
