Precept, was an English-language literary journal begun by Glen Bays in May 1972 under the aegis of CWAMEL (Christian Writers Association of Melanesia). The journal was meant (like its secular cousins New Guinea Writing and Papua New Guinea Writing) to provide practical assistance to new writers, as well as a venue for their first publications. Taken over by the United Church in 1973 when Bays left the colony, Precept addressed an audience of rural teachers. Early issues of the journal contained confessional literature, parables, exempla, and patriotic verse. It encouraged its writers to read widely, especially from the great works of literature and to engage the help of public librarians in obtaining such texts to read. Using canonical literature as a model for their own writing, writers were urged to submit imaginative texts, along with items taken from oral culture. In many ways, Precept was meant to serve the same purpose as (P)NGW, although it suggested that its writers seek publication with the Literature Bureau, as well as from Christian publishers.
Updated October 13 2016 by Library Services