Beliefnet has won the prestigious General Excellence Online award from the American Society of Magazine Editors!

It's the top award of its kind, so we're delirious here at Beliefnet HQ. In presenting the award, Mark Whitaker, head of new ventures at Washingtonpost.Newsweek.Interactive, said: "Beliefnet.com is remarkable in both its focus on spirituality, inspiration and faith, and its ability to unite a diverse audience under one digital roof. Its strong content and web-friendly presentation feel rich and satisfying. Packed with provocative commentary, unique blogs, user-generated material, original videos and inspirational talks, the site soothes and amuses in features as far-ranging as Preachers & Teachers, coverage of the DaVinci Code, the Jovialities and The Virtual Talmud. The site is one of a kind."

Part of what makes Beliefnet successful, in the eyes of the judges, is the contributions from you, our members and readers. So thank you for coming to our website, reading our newsletters, and contributing your thoughts and creativity. We appreciate your presence every day. Click the arrows to see features and sample pages we submitted to the judges.

--Steven Waldman, Editor-in-Chief

This home page, from October 26, 2006, demonstrates our breadth of offerings: an original video by Rosanne Cash on dealing with grief in the aftermath of Johnny Cash's death; a self-help meditation from mind-body expert Joan Borysenko; and our multifaith joke-telling puppets, the Jovialites. It also showcases our most popular regular features: interviews with celebrities about their spiritual lives, spiritually-focused blogs, prayer circles, quizzes, and eCards.

This page showcases our digital media channel, featuring "Preachers & Teachers,"where we present original intimate talks from the nation's top spiritual leaders. This area also features our popular guided meditations area and many other examples of Beliefnet's commitment to using the full range of media to help people meet their spiritual needs.

Here we highlight our annual feature, Most Inspiring Person of the Year, awarded in 2006 to the Amish of Nickel Mines, Pa., for their forgiveness of the man who killed five Amish children. This feature was a unique collaboration between editors and readers, with an initial roster of 12 nominees drawn from your submissions and ours. Those nominees were winnowed by our readers, who voted to a final three, with the ultimate winner selected by Beliefnet editors. The feature included video about the winners, a slideshow of our 12 nominees, polls, a segment about the people who inspire us on a daily basis, and Belief on the Street video of people's responses to the question: Would you forgive?

This features shows our coverage of "The Da Vinci Code," a book and movie whose subject matter resonated strongly with our audience. We were committed to helping you understand the Da Vinci phenomenon--as a piece of entertainment and as a source of theological debate. Our most popular offering was a six-part video, "Demystifying Da Vinci," featuring Robin Griffith-Jones, master of the Temple Church in London. Beliefnet went on location to the Temple Church looking for answers to the spiritual questions raised in the story. Our Da Vinci coverage also includes an audio slideshow of art depicting Mary Magdalene, quizzes, and a text "smackdown" between scholars of religious history about the movie's claims.

Our Prayer of the Day page is a showcase for our extensive prayer resources, designed to meet the devotional and comfort needs of people of all faiths. Each day we offer a unique prayer, drawn from different faiths and targeting different needs (i.e. stress, comfort, healing, addiction). The resources also include a Prayer Finder, cross-referenced by faith and need; invitations for users to create their own prayer circles for loved ones, and to contribute their own prayers to the Prayer Finder; and the opportunity to sign up for a Prayer of the Day newsletter, which provides inspiration and hope delivered daily to their inboxes.

Our News & Blogs channel highlights our commitment to informing and challenging readers. Bloggers Jim Wallis, Rod Dreher, and David Kuo ignite a daily debate about the modern meaning of Christianity's role in the public square. In Chattering Mind, Amy Cunningham writes about the spiritual aspects of motherhood, aging, health and healing, yoga, and the struggle to manage time and clutter. Other unique blogs include Virtual Talmud, a three-rabbi debate about modern Judaism; Beyond Blue, about spirituality and depression; and Idol Chatter, a raucous group blog on faith in pop culture.

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