Friars' Student Writing Award contest leads youth to Scriptures

Sarah Robinson of Port Dover, Ont., has taken first prize in the eighth annual Friars’ Student Writing Award contest for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The Grade 11 student from Holy Trinity Catholic School was awarded an iPod touch for her essay that focused on the biblical passage “You are witnesses to these things.”

“For those who participated, it does send them back to the Scripture which is an important experience for the youth of today, and it’s one of the goals the archbishop has cited for Catholic education,” said Fr. Damian MacPherson, SA, director for ecumenical and interfaith affairs for the archdiocese of Toronto.”

MacPherson was one of the judges in the annual contest, co-sponsored by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement and The Catholic Register.

MacPherson said the contest serves as a way to awaken awareness for the need for prayer for Christian unity and allows students to reflect on calls for unity based in Scripture.

“As I look back on the last eight years, there’s a real accumulation of interest evident in the variety of essays we receive,” he said.

This year’s second-place winner was Katie Gillis of Whitby, Ont., a Grade 12 student at Father Leo J. Austin Catholic Secondary School. Gillis won an iPod nano.

The runner up was Thien-An Nguyen, a Grade 12 student at Loretto Abbey Catholic Secondary School in Toronto.

MacPherson judged the contest with The Catholic Register’s Publisher and Editor Jim O’Leary, Associate Editor Michael Swan and Youth Editor Carolyn Girard.

The winning essays will be published in the following weeks starting with Robinson’s in this issue of The Register.

 

 

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SEE:

 

Witnesses joyfully spread the love of God's truth (The winning entry)

Being a witness for Christ means loving others   (Second place entry)

You are witnesses to these things (Third place entry)