Sydneyanglicans.net has taken out the award for Australia’s best Christian website for the third year in a row.

Mrs Nicky Downer, former journalist and wife of Alexander Downer, Minister for Foreign Affairs, presented the award to Allan Dowthwaite, CEO of Anglican Media Sydney, at the Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) Awards in Adelaide on Saturday night.

Anglican Media Sydney, publishers of Sydneyanglicans.net, won the most awards taking out three categories.

Madeleine Collins won best news item for her reports on the Asian tsunami.

Jeremy Halcrow won the best feature category for ‘Rights of Passage’ an investigation of the changing way Christians understand funerals.

Anglican Media Sydney was also highly commended in two categories - Mark Hadley in the best photograph category and Peter Downey in the most humorous item category.

Other noteworthy winners included Salvation Army magazine Pipeline, The Lutheran and WA’s Anglican Messenger who won two categories each.

The Gutenberg Award for overall excellence in Christian newspaper publishing was presented to the Melbourne Anglican.