Top awards for the Century from the Associated Church Press
The first gathering of the Associated Church Press was held in St. Louis in 1916. Last week the ACP returned there to celebrate its 100th anniversary, gather a fine bunch of religion journalists, and hand out awards for work published in 2015.
I accepted two first-place awards of behalf of the Century staff: best in class for national and international magazines and best in class for blogs.
We also won seven additional awards honoring specific work from last year. If you missed these pieces when they came out and you’re not a subscriber, you can read a few of them online for free—we’ve returned them temporarily to “metered” status, which means you get a few freebies (whether from this list or from our current content) before being blocked from further access.
Better yet, subscribe and read them all.
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Award of Excellence (first place)
Theological reflection. Ready for communion: Living in holy space, by Jan Schnell Rippentrop. Sacramentality is the breath of Christian life—life that springs from the sacraments and life that yearns to return to them.
Audio. Preachers on Preaching, a podcast hosted by Matt Fitzgerald. Each weekly episode features a single extended interview.
Award of Merit (second place)
Critical review. Transparent need, by Kathryn Reklis. A TV show can present a minority group as "respectable" or as people who are as screwed up as anyone else. Transparent goes with option two.
Honorable Mention (third place)
Feature article. Credible Fears: Central American women seek asylum, by Amy Frykholm. Last year, the U.S. took thousands of "family units" into custody at the southern border. Nearly every woman cites violence as the reason she fled.
Bible reference. Dementia and resurrection, by Samuel Wells. Perhaps it's only when we let go of who and what our loved one was that we can receive who they are now.
Poetry. What shall we say, by Thomas Lynch
Poetry. What it is you would like the stone to say, by Brian Doyle
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This post was updated on May 2, 2016.
