Australian writer and editor Bruce Manners was this year’s recipient of the Bridge Award for communication, an award that recognizes high professional standards among Seventh-day Adventist communicators.

Ray Dabrowski, communication director for the Adventist world church, presented Manners with the award March 20 at a gathering in Sydney, Australia, of Adventist communicators from around the South Pacific.

The Bridge Award was established by the communication department of the Adventist world church in order “to acknowledge and foster professional excellence among Adventist communicators who work both within church institutions and in the mainstream media,” says Dabrowski.

“The award also acknowledges that Adventist communicators need more than technical skills and professional expertise,” adds Dabrowski. “They must also have a commitment to finding new, more creative ways of sharing the Adventist message of hope. Bruce, throughout his long career in communication, has exemplified both of these characteristics.”

Manners, the sixth recipient of a Bridge Award, is chief editor at Signs Publishing Company in Warburton, Victoria. He is best known as editor of the Record, a news and inspiration periodical published weekly by the church in the South Pacific. Manners received the Bridge Award for “outstanding contribution to Adventist communication in the South Pacific Division through reporting church news, maintaining high editorial standards, and upholding journalistic ethics.”