The Baptist Courier garnered seven prizes recently from the South Carolina Press Association.

The awards, which recognized work published in 2017, were announced March 17 in Columbia.

Competing in the SCPA’s Associate and Individual Division, The Courier won the following awards:

• Editorial Writing (first place) for Spartanburg physician Robert Jackson’s guest op/ed piece, “Hard Choices,” on the sanctity of human life;
• Magazine or Specialty Publication (second place) for The Courier’s February 2017 issue, which featured a package of stories under the cover title, “Whatever Happened to Sunday School?”;
• Editorial Writing (second place) for “Addicts and Discipleship” by Rudy Gray;
• Column Writing (second place) for “The Blessing of Friendship” by Rudy Gray;
• News Reporting (third place) for “S.C. Baptists gear up to help Irma victims” by Butch Blume;
• Faith Reporting (third place) for “Making Christ Known on Campus” by Butch Blume; and
• Website Design and Functionality (third place) by staff.