New Years in September

September is more of a New Year than the beginning of January-at least where I live, work and worship. My church community sees September as time of new beginnings. It’s when we launch new programs, start a new Sunday school year and set our resolve for opportunities ahead.

The same thing happens at home. This year my wife, Margaret, and I enjoyed three days at a beautiful, serene and comfortable bed and breakfast in Kenora, Ontario. As we enjoyed gentle breezes blowing off lovely Lake of the Woods, we talked through a number of personal and home issues: what level of commitment to give to our church; how to manage our budget; what changes to make in our lifestyle. It turned out to be a lengthy list.

And it isn’t much different at work. As a matter of fact, our fiscal year actually does begin in September, so budgets and priorities must be established. On the editorial side, we also use the summer to think about new ideas and new writers-changes that are usually introduced in September.

This year the changes are being implemented less abruptly. As it happens, a couple of new columnists already began back in July (Patricia Paddey and Geoff Ryan) and another slipped away (Culture Potato Gerry Bowler). This issue does mark the debut of music critic Don Martin, an experienced poet and writer who, as he puts it, has been a fan of contemporary Christian music since before there was such a thing.

The music column is slated for every third issue of CW, and watch for more music reviews from other contributors to begin appearing as well. Music will alternate with books (Nancy Lindquist on Canadian authors plus book reviews) and Christian television (Lorna Dueck), whose work will show up alongside our regular roster of movie reviewers (Paul Boge, Peter Chattaway, Ken Ristau).

The goal of these particular changes is to expand the breadth of our arts coverage. One result is more regular space devoted to news and views about books and music. Please let us know how this suits your needs.