Norfolk Christian digital award winners named 

The winners of the first-ever Norfolk Christian Digital Communications Awards were named last night (November 11) by the Bishop of Norwich at a ceremony held at Norwich Central Baptist Church.

They included Norwich Foodbank, the Magdalene Group, St Thomas Norwich, Lighthouse Community Church and blogger Joy Lenton.
 
The awards were presented by the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham James, in front of a 90-strong audience. Bishop Graham, who is the Church of England lead spokesman on media issues, said: “We are not here to praise digital media for its own sake. We are here to give thanks for this new medium in which the timeless message of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection can be communicated in our own day. We have new opportunities and it is wonderful that in Norfolk these are being seized. We have much to celebrate tonight.”
 
St Thomas Norwich was a double winner with its website taking the Best Large Church Website title with highly commended entries from Proclaimers and Holy Trinity Norwich.
 
The St Thomas’ team also won the Most Innovative Use of Digital Media class with its John Lewis parody Christmas video Tommy the Tiger which has been viewed online more than 50,000 times. Runners-up were We Are the Chorus and Soul Circus.
 
The Best Small Church Website category was won by Lighthouse Community Church, Sheringham with Highly Commended entries from Norwich Vineyard and Eternity Churches
 
Best Use of Social Media winner was  Norwich Foodbank with its very active Twitter and Facebook accounts. Runners-up were Aylsham Parish Church and the Twitter account of the Matthew Project.
 
The Best Christian Organisation Website accolade went to The Magdalene Group. Highly commended in this category were Fountain Network and Letton Hall.
 
Last, but not least, the Best Blog winner was Words of Joy from Joy Lenton. Highly Commended were Nigel Tuffnell, Kung Fu Preacher Man: and Andrew Bryant, With the Collar off.
 
Network Norfolk publisher, Keith Morris, said: “We staged the awards to help recognize, reward and encourage good Christian digital communications across Norfolk. The event also helped us to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Network Norwich & Norfolk website.
 
“We had 108 entries, from which our judges selected the best 36 as finalists. We then put them out to a public vote and the response was overwhelming, with more than 1,200 different people contributing over 2,400 votes.
 
“Our finalists all demonstrated innovation, creativity and inspiration in their digital offerings and are often created by people working away behind the scenes. The winners had something extra special that stood out to the public who voted for them.”

Photographs by Kevin Gotts GotPix.co.uk
 
Click here to see a the full list of finalists, roll of honour and judges comments.