Inside story.

We are an ecumenical publication (with nearly as many denominational and nondenominational affiliations floating around as we have staff people). But we all deeply feel the pain of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. While some of the systemic issues in the Catholic Church may be unique, abuse of power by clergy or lay leaders, sexual and otherwise, occurs in every strand of Christendom. Joan Chittister and Richard Rohr, two of our contributing editors who speak to the whole church from within the Catholic tradition, write in this issue about faithful ways forward.

REPRESENTATIVE of our ecumenical nature, we belong to two different religious press associations: the Associated Church Press (ACP) and the Evangelical Press Association (EPA). This spring we were honored by both groups in their annual awards ceremonies for 2001. From ACP we received five first-place awards, including Best in Class in the general interest magazine category, best redesign (Ed Spivey Jr., art director), and top honors in department ("Between the Lines," by Rose Marie Berger and Jodi Hochstedler), media review section ("Culture Watch," edited by Molly Marsh), and poetry ("Possible Answers to Prayer," by Scott Cairns).

In the EPA competition, we placed first in the categories of general article ("God Is My Palm Pilot," by Bill Wylie-Kellermann and David Batstone) and column ("Macrowave," by David Batstone). In addition, we received seven other awards from ACP and three from EPA.

We mention all of this not to brag, but to thank all of the writers and artists who contribute to our pages and all those who read, subscribe, and support us with your prayer, critical attention, and financial gifts. It is a blessing to have and share good work: Thank you.

--The Editors