It’s been 10 days since the prestigious Christian Web & New Media Awards (see the winners here) – the ceremony was held at the beautiful church in the city of London, St. Stephen’s Walbrook, put on by Premier Christian Radio, the awards were introduced by the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, and hosted by the ever lovely Maria Toth.
The good, and for me surprising news was that I won the award for best young blog, also my good friend Xander Coomber came runner up in the newcomer award. In other news I met the Church Mouse, less hairy than expected, also saw Adrian Warnock, surely next year due a ‘life-time achievement’ award.
Now… a little bit of contraversy… why not eh…? I was presented my award this year by a Bishop from Coptic Orthodox Church – what do you do with that? I just shook his hand, seemed appropriate… seemed like a nice guy.
Well… I understand that Premier needs to cover a wide range of Christian traditions, but looking at the beliefs of the Coptic Orthodox church I fear this may be a step too far as some of their beliefs seem profoundly un-christian… see what you think about these:
- We believe in the intercession of the Virgin St. Mary, the Angels, and the Saints.
- That Tradition is a source of our teaching.
- We believe that in the Eucharist we receive the Holy Body and the Holy Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Baptismal Regeneration
Well… there you go… good awards, I enjoyed the food… the mix of Christians there was particularly eclectic… and as ever a little bit of controversy from me… why not… it’s not about winning awards, it’s about being honest… and a little bit inappropriate sometimes 
How come you’ve won it twice? Is nobody else blogging or is yours the only blog that people read? I think it’s all a bit old school now anyway?
Hugh – once you’ve won a few awards, you’re entitled to be as controversial as you like!
The Coptics clearly agree about the importance of blogging, so can’t we just put those other secondary issues to one side?
And I noticed that the award says “Best Christian Blog for under 25′s”, so I guess I’d better move on a find an old people’s blog to read…
For “a” read “and” … clearly I’m long past it …
Several people have asked this Roj…
I think the reason is two-fold:
1) There aren’t that many young Christians who blog regularly
2) The awards are judged by external judges under set criteria, therefore it doesn’t matter if you have won it before or not