CHICAGO, IL (May 3, 2011) – The Covenant Companion has been honored with seven top awards for outstanding content in competition sponsored by the Associated Church Press (ACP).

The awards for content published during 2010 were announced during the ACP’s annual convention in Chicago this past weekend. ACP is the oldest religious press association in North America representing a broad spectrum of Christian print and online publications. Click on the linked title to read the award-winning article.

Leading the list of awards was first-place recognition in the Personal Experience/First-Person Account category for “The Healing Wisdom of Those Who Came Before” by Darrell Griffin, appearing in the February issue.

Three second-place awards were received, including the following categories:

Biblical Interpretation – “Thankless Tasks” by Matthew Kennedy, appearing in November

Theological Reflection – “We Don’t Mean Much to Each Other Anymore” by C. John Weborg, appearing in June

Theme Issue, Section or Series – “Civility and the Road Less Traveled,” a series of articles spanning eight issues – the individual articles and writers are listed below:

• “Civility and the Road Less Traveled” by Daniel de Roulet, appearing in May
• “A Crisis of Civility” by Kurt Peterson, appearing in June
• “A Bad Day at the Office” by Sonia C. Solomonson, appearing in July
• “Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?” by Cathy Norman Peterson, appearing in August
• “Seeking Wisdom at the Public Café” by Scot McKnight, appearing in September
• “Rules of Engagement” by Carl Hawkinson, appearing in October
• “Rude Reality” by Quentin J. Schultze, appearing in November
• “By Our Words” by C. John Weborg, appearing in December

Third-place awards went to the following, listed by category:

Editorial or Opinion Piece – “For Neighbors’ Good” by Sharon Rich Peterson, appearing in September

Feature Article – “The Handmaiden’s Lowly Estate” by Jenny Rae Armstrong, appearing in December

Professional Resource – “A Prayer for Those in Ministry” by John E. Phelan, Jr., appearing in April

A more complete description of the winning entries will appear in a future issue of The Covenant Companion.

“It is an honor to be recognized for the work we do, especially from an association that includes so many wonderful publications,” says managing editor Jane Swanson-Nystrom, who has been active in the ACP organization for many years. “The awards the Companion receives are a recognition of the depth of excellence and thoughtfulness within the Covenant Church. We work with great writers.”

The recognition the Companion receives year after year is even more remarkable when one considers the size and the stature of the other publications competing for those same awards, notes Don Meyer, executive minister of Covenant Communications. “The Companion competes with magazines like Sojourners, U.S. Catholic, The Lutheran and Christian Century – magazines with larger budgets, larger staffs and parent organizations that are much larger than the Evangelical Covenant Church. Our Companion staff deserves enormous credit for producing a publication that is held in such high esteem.”

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