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Gold WebFish goes to Nütschau Priory
EKD 2009 Internet Award Presented
April 6, 2009
The Nütschau Priory, a Benedictine monastery in Travenbrück, Schleswig-Holstein, has been awarded the Gold WebFish for its Internet site. Based on the jury's selection and an ensuing on-line ballot, the Silver WebFish went to Pastor Buddy for his blog, and the Eben Ezer Gemeinschaft, a pietistic fellowship in Berlin, has received the Bronze WebFish for its Web page devoted to planning worship services.
This is the thirteenth edition of the EKD WebFish Internet Awards. The award is jointly sponsored by the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and the Protestant Association for Media Communication (GEP). The jury chairperson, EKD Council member Marlehn Thieme, will officially present the awards on May 23 in Bremen at the Kirchentag. The WebFish for "Innovation," sponsored by the Protestant Credit Society of Kassel, will go to the fundraising project "Himmlische Paten" [heavenly sponsors] of St Anna's Protestant congregation in Augsburg, and the jury has bestowed the Special Prize on the online project "Mensch Jesus."
In the case of this year's winner of the Gold WebFish, which confers a cash prize of 1,500 euros, it was the overall esthetical impression of www.kloster-nuetschau.de that convinced the jury. The screen design with its array of photos made the spiritual fellowship of monastery life palpable even over the Web.
By choosing www.pastorbuddy.de, the jury for the first time honored a blog. The 1,000-euro Silver WebFish distinguishes a project whose team of authors, composed of theologians and lay persons of various Christian traditions. raises provocative issues and invites comments. In this way, successful Christian content is made available to the public via this portion of the Internet known as the "blogosphere."
The Bronze WebFish award (500 euros) honors the presentation of the Eben Ezer Gemeinschaft of Berlin. At www.gottesdienstexperiment.de, this pietistic fellowship proposes, via the Internet, ideas on theme-oriented worship services for discussion and invites persons interested to take part in designing and organizing worship services. The jury considered this Web site a good channel for inviting the involvement of people in the local congregation.
The 500-euro Innovation Prize was awarded to the Himmlische Paten.de fundraising project. The Protestant congregation of St. Anna in Augsburg specifically links the Internet to its fundraising campaign and makes it possible for donors to determine how their renovation contribution will be used.
The WebFish "Special Prize," which is also worth 500 euros, went to Menschjesus.de. The jury felt that the idea of using graphically illustrated Jesus quotations to shed new light on the biblical message to be interesting and expandable.
Over 140 Christian Internet creations from congregations, charities and individual participants applied for the 2009 Internet prize of the Protestant church, and over 3,400 persons took part in the online poll, thus complementing the jury's decision-making procedure.
The jury is confident that the WebFish-competition reveals the diversity and qualitative richness of Christian online content. The Internet sites, both those distinguished and those nominated, give direction to and set standards for Christian presence on the World Wide Web. The fact that more Web sites than last year competed for the WebFish and more people took part online shows the jury that church congregations and individuals wish to see more Christian content on the Internet.
Hanover, April 6, 2009
Press Office of the EKD
Silke Römhild