Anglican Journal receives top honours for reporting, design

The Anglican Journal received 22 awards last night, including 11 awards of excellence, at the joint annual conference of the Associated Church Press (ACP) and the Canadian Church Press (CCP) in Chicago.

Founded in 1916, the ACP is the oldest interdenominational religious press association in North America; the CCP began in 1950 as a fellowship of editors.

Art Director Saskia Rowley Fielder received a total of seven awards, including five first-place awards for outstanding art direction and design in categories that took into consideration the overall appearance of the publication as well as specific sections.

Fielder received top honours from both the ACP and CCP for feature layout of the article Pop goes the art (May 2010), as well as for design of an entire issue (CCP: April 2010; ACP: April, June and November 2010). CCP judges commented: “Excellent overall appearance, clean, well-executed, solid, consistent typography and spacing. Good use of colour. Sophisticated in presentation. Consistent in style throughout. Very attractive and a pleasure to look at.” In addition, Fielder received a first place award as well as an award of merit for the design of the front page of the April issue. She also received an award of merit for the redesign of the newspaper.

Editor Kristin Jenkins received a total of five awards, including three first-place awards: for the biographical profile, Goodbye, dear June (April 2010); for the interview, A friend to everybody (Nov. 2010); and for her editing of the Letters to the Editor page (January, June and December 2010). Her editorial, Survival in the Age of Uncertainty (October 2010), received a second place award and the editorial Let’s focus on the positive (Feb. 2010), received an award of merit.

Staff writers Marites N. Sison and Leigh Anne Williams also received a number of awards. Sison’s coverage of the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission conference in Winnipeg last June (We’ve only just begun; Walk a mile in a survivor’s shoes, September 2010) earned her an award of merit as did her front page photo “Looking to the Future.” Sison also received a third place award for her in-depth reporting on Haiti (March, May 2010), and an honorable mention on Paying it forward: Ministry of Inclusion grows young church, as part of the theme issue category. 

Williams received an honourable mention for a series of interviews she conducted with Anglican military chaplains, some serving in Afghanistan. Her reports appeared in a special section on the Military Ordinariate last November.

A number of contributors to the Journal also received accolades. The Rev. Canon Harold Munn, rector of The Church of St. John the Divine in Victoria, B.C., won first, second and third place awards for his column Re-thinking how we do church. He and Sison shared an honorable mention for a series on articles on Fresh Expressions of church, as part of the theme issue category. 

Lee Lambert, a Canadian Forces chaplain and rector of St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Russell, Ont., also received an award of excellence for his personal experience article entitled The dreaded knock.

Graphic artist David Anderson received an award of excellence for his cartoon that accompanied an article entitled Requiem for a biker, written by The Rev. Patrick Tomalin, a retired priest living in Port Alberni, B.C.