On March 4, 2003, The Gleaner began publishing a mid-week religion feature which it dubbed Mind&Spirit.

The feature, which was published most times on two pages with little or no advertisements, has the church-going public as its primary target audience.

For its profiles on: interesting personalities, churches and para-churches, and its outline on the missionary history of the Church - Mind&Spirit has earned high marks from both the churched and unchurched.

When the idea for such a feature was born in the mind of Editor-in-chief, Garfield Grandison, he had only one individual's name on his short list to fulfill the mandate. That person was Mark Dawes.

Mark joined The Gleaner in March 4, 1991. He has covered many beats during his tenure - notably Education. A 1995 Commonwealth Press Union fellow, Mark was also a senior sub-editor and he routinely acts as News Editor for the newspaper.

Mark, 38, is more than qualified to be editor of Mind&Spirit. A born-again Christian since he was 10 years old, he is the holder of a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theology from the Jamaica Theological Seminary. He worships at Grace Missionary Church, West Avenue, St. Andrew, where is a preacher, elder and chairman of the church board.

Within his denomination, the Missionary Church Association in Jamaica, he serves on its Media Commission and is also the National President of its Men's Fellowship.

A voracious reader of biblical and theological works, Mark, an evangelical, holds strong views on the state of the church in Jamaica and its use of media to do evangelism.

Meet with Mark on Thursday March 4, 2004 at 6pm to 7 pm. Tell him what you think about the product and your own views about the religious and spiritual climate of Jamaica and Jamaicans.