The Presbyterian Outlook received top honors in several categories at the Associated Church Press 2019 Best of the Church Press award ceremony in March. The Associated Church Press (ACP) awards recognize excellence in faith-based media — including magazines, news services, online media and podcasts. The ACP annual conference, scheduled to be part of the 2020 Religion Communication Congress meeting in Washington, D.C., was canceled this year due to coronavirus.
The Presbyterian Outlook was commended at the ACP “Best of the Christian Press Awards,” receiving:
Best in class blog: Outlook Outpost blog, featuring voices of younger Presbyterian leaders. Here are three of the posts the judges commended:
- “Taking time off” by Alex Becker
- “The Eucharistic Pringle” by Joanna Hipp
- “Field notes from a first call” by Linda Kurtz
Best in class denominational magazine honorable mention: Presbyterian Outlook magazine.
Award of excellence for a book: “Lectionary Reflections: Cycle A” by Jill Duffield.
Award of excellence for in-depth coverage: A tour of Baltimore: What do you see? by Leslie Scanlon.
Award of excellence for a feature article: Slavery and the genealogy of The Presbyterian Outlook feature by Erskine Clarke.
Award of merit for personal experience: Freebox, a theology by Jana Blazek.
Honorable mention for personal experience: Call me by name: A lifetime of race and relationships by Larry Palmer.
Award of merit: Benedictory columns by Cynthia Rigby.
Honorable mention for a news story: Small contributions add up: Idaho church plays big role to reduce state’s medical debt by Leslie Scanlon.
Of Erskine Clark’s feature article, the ACP judge wrote: “A highly readable and quite courageous article about the church’s participation in one of the pillars of civilization built on bondage. … This has been an issue too easy to ignore for a long time, and I hope the article will inspire other church and religious periodicals to make the the same self-examination.”
Other Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) media also received recognition. Presbyterians Today (the official magazine of the denomination), The Presbyterian News Service and Presbyterian Women Horizons Magazine were also recognized with awards.
The ACP is a professional organization of member publications (of which the Outlook is one) “with a commitment to excellence in journalism as a means to describe, reflect and support the life of faith and the Christian community,” according to its mission statement.
