For the second year in a row Anglican Journal has won the Award of Excellence for Best in Class for national or international newspapers at the Associated Church Press annual convention held near Hendersonville, North Carolina, and attended by editor David Harris.
Commenting on this general excellence award judges said: “Rich strong opinion pages; simple, easy-to-read fronts; good coverage of arts and culture. Good, solid, newsy section. I liked the hard news coverage – the Arctic sexual-abuse story on November’s front. The op-ed page is especially rich. Lots to read and ponder.”
The Journal also won top awards for feature article and letters to the editor.
Freelance writer Lois Sweet of Ottawa took the feature writing category with her September contribution, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Priest, which takes a close look at chaplains in Canada’s military. Judges commented, “… remarkably compelling piece of writing. The storytelling is smooth, the quotes and vignettes real. The research is complete and gives the piece an analytical bent.” The June 1997 letters page edited by Leanne Larmondin was described as “lovely, vivid correspondence; large number of letters; varied content; terse; intriguing; strong headlines.”
The Journal took three Awards of Merit. Editor David Harris’ March editorial, Do Clergy Still have a Role in the Church? was recognized among 50 entries in this category. Judges said: “Engrossing discussion of the nature and gifts of ministry in the church. It questions some shibboleths rarely examined. Moderate in character but searching in its inquiry … Unafraid to ask questions that could lead to embarrassing responses.” The second award of merit was given for the December 1997 front page showing original artwork entitled An Arctic Christmas done by Anna Payne Krzyzanowski and other news elements laid out by art director Saskia Rowley. Photos by David Eijsenck illustrating the December Anglican Houses story also won the third Award of Merit in the photography: with article or cutline category.
Honorable Mentions were awarded in two other categories: department (Music Notes by Wilfred Langmaid, April, November, December) and newspaper graphics (again, Anna Payne Krzyzanowski’s artistic rendering of An Arctic Christmas on the front page of the December issue.)
The Associated Church Press is a North American organization encompassing more than 200 religious publications and reporting a combined circulation of 28.4 million.
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