Awards for The Lutheran

The LCA’s national magazine, The Lutheran, won two gold awards and one silver award at the recent annual Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) awards ceremony held in Auckland.

The first gold award for The Lutheran came in the Best Faith Reflection category, for Pastor Stephen Abraham’s piece on living with chronic pain, published in June 2016 as ‘Pain that won’t go away’. The judges were impressed with the way Pastor Abraham describes ‘the struggles and emotions he and those close to him went through’ and his explanation of the help he found in the book of Job to come to terms with his situation, despite his unanswered questions.

Top recognition also came in the hotly contested Best Social Justice Article category for the article ‘Mum, Dad, I’m gay’, published in the November 2016 edition, with the author’s name withheld by The Lutheran editorial team. Award judges described the work as ‘Incredibly and deeply moving and memorable … open, honest, authentic, and willing to embrace the way that God-given experience can inform faith’.

The Lutheran earned a silver award in the Best Profile Story category, for Dr Tick Zweck’s article ‘The Godfather’, about the late Pastor Ern Heyne’s ministry in country South Australia. The judges said: ‘A moving and always engrossing profile of a Lutheran pastor’s 50 years of ministry in Port Pirie … This carefully crafted piece, well-illustrated, does credit to the man and his life-long mission’.

The Gutenberg Award, ARPA’s premier annual accolade which The Lutheran won in 2011, this year was awarded to The Record magazine and eRecord, publications of the Catholic Archdiocese of Perth.

The Melbourne Anglican took out the Publication of the Year trophy.

ARPA is an ecumenical Christian communication network for Australian and New Zealand publications and their editors, journalists, designers and contributors. Established in its current form in 1974, it now has a membership of more than 80 publications, as well as individual members and publication staff members.