History of Association of Christian Writers

It all began at a meeting held at the Evangelical Alliance’s headquarters in South Kensington in January 1971, with twelve to fifteen people present.  They called themselves the Fellowship of Christians in the Arts, Media and Entertainment – but would almost immediately change their name to Fellowship of Christian Writers.  Andrew Quicke (of CAME, Christians in the Arts, Media and Entertainment) was the first chairman and Olive Ayres the first secretary.  Olive Ayres recalls this meeting in an article – we have a copy of the first page.  (It is not apparent when the article was written or in which magazine it appeared.)  Also available is a photocopy of the Fellowship of Christians in the Arts, Media and Entertainment’s 1971-72 programme. Typed on a typewriter in a courier font, this included a Christian poetry workshop, a film and a ‘Christian Popular Music Session’ and the ‘First Fellowship Weekend’ at Beatrice Webb House near Dorking in Surrey.  They certainly had a packed programme, some nine events in that first year.  Note that it had to be reorganised due to a postal strike in that year!  How 1970s!

In those earliest days, the Fellowship often met in Andrew and Juliet Quicke’s house in Kensington, informal gatherings of just a few members.  Later meetings were held in various other London locations, including Margaret Street and Euston Road, and membership rose.  Maureen Chapman attended writers’ days at St Peter’s, Vere Street, London and also in the Salvation Army Hall in Oxford Street.  She reports that ‘…those early days were exciting, breaking new ground especially learning to work with other groups of Christians, across denomination divides.’

Simon Baynes, a missionary in Japan in the 1970s, was not able to go to meetings, but he enjoyed reading the magazine. There has always been a newsletter, or something for members.  The first magazine was called Candle and Keyboard.  In Write Well* (our Jubilee compendium) Eleanor Watkins remembers it changing incrementally from a typewritten and stapled newssheet to a ‘proper’ magazine with a more sophisticated layout and a glossy colour cover.  Christopher Idle (also in Write Well) tells us that Candle and Keyboard was generally sixteen pages in length, although occasionally longer, initially A5-sized but later moving up to A4.  Content included competitions, events, congratulations to successful members, writing hints and a ‘noticeboard’.

The FCW became the Association of Christian Writers in early 1998.  The new Association was incorporated as a registered charity on 11 May 1998, with Christine Leonard, Warren Crawford and Juliet Hughes as Directors.  Around that time membership grew from about 400 to 1000 with twenty-two area groups.  Candle and Keyboard was renamed Christian Writer, its title now.  Christine Leonard recalls that James Catford (our patron, in 2022), and also John Truscott, were very helpful in formulating the vision and setting up as a charity.

Christine Leonard was a member of the FCW committee in the 1990s.  “I started in 1995 as Established Writers’ Rep then Development Officer on the Executive Committee. Outsiders thought that title had to do with helping writers in developing countries so we changed it to Vice President, as I was ‘presiding’ over the ‘Raising the Profile’ Team as well as being on the Executive… I was involved in two weekend conferences at Hothorpe Hall [Lutterworth]. One (8-10 November 1996) was [for the] Silver Jubilee and I remember Veronica Heley arranging a cake for that.’

Between 1998 and 2003, first Lance Pierson and then Christine Leonard led several ‘Write for God’ courses for experienced writers, in association with LICC (The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity) at St Peter’s, Vere Street.  She remembers that ‘They were very hard work but very rewarding and drew lots of people in.’  Rachel Snell recalls attending a ‘Write for God’ course in 1998, with speakers including: Lance Pierson; Rachel Lawrence, who spoke about poetry:  Veronica Heley, about writing for children.  James Catford gave an insight into publishing and there was also an additional session on writing for magazines.  Jennifer Rees-Larcombe talked specifically on ‘Why I want to write for God’. ‘We are God’s Secretaries,’ she said.   

Christine also ran a couple of ‘outreach meals’ for other published writers who were Christians and recruited quite a few of them.  She writes that she is ‘grateful to ACW for pushing me in at the deep end and especially to the W4G, the running of which really stretched me but pointed forward to what do after leaving the very hard work of being on the committee.’  She still leads writing holidays and workshops in Christian venues.

In the 2000s the ACW was offering residential events aimed at different levels of experience – Beginners, Intermediates and Established Writers – but these were discontinued in favour of one day topic-focussed events (such as, social media, poetry, the web).  In these years there were usually two (physical) events taking place annually, one of which would be in London and one elsewhere.  In 2015, the number of writers’ days increased to three per year, with greater focus on locations outside London.  More recently, since the pandemic, ACW has held several events on Zoom, typically three or four shorter events on successive Saturdays, but the October 2021 AGM took place ‘in person’ at Mary Sumner House in London.  In the future, a combination of ‘physical’ and Zoom events will be offered.