The scholarships give full-time journalists up to $5,000 to cover the cost of taking college religion courses.

With religion in the headlines more than ever, now is the perfect time to dig deeper into today’s hottest religion stories. More than 200 people have already taken advantage of Religion Newswriters’ Lilly Scholarships in Religion Program for Journalists.

Some of the timely topics they’ve studied include: Religion and Medicine, Islamic Movements, God & Politics, Culture of the Contemporary Arab World, Science & Religion and Evangelism, Religion, Violence and Liberation.

“I believe the chance this class [Isaiah to Malachi] has given me will prove invaluable in my work covering religion and faith in the years ahead,” said William Wan of The Washington Post.

The scholarships can be used at any accredited college, university, seminary or similar institution.  Journalists can take any course they choose as long as it is in the field of religion. Scholarships cover tuition, books, registration fees, parking and other costs. Online and travel courses are also included (as long as travel costs are a part of the curriculum).

All full-time journalists—including reporters, editors, designers, copy editors, editorial writers, news directors, researchers and producers—are eligible, regardless of whether or not they cover religion.

The next scholarship application deadline is April. 1, 2010. Scholarships must be used within three academic quarters of their award date. Only full-time journalists working in the general circulation news media are eligible.

Religion Newswriters Association is the world’s only journalism association for people who write about religion in the mainstream news media. The scholarships are offered through its non-profit arm, the Religion Newswriters Foundation, with funding from the Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Complete information about the Lilly Scholarships in Religion program is available at http://www.religionwriters.com. For questions, contact Amy Schiska at 573-355-5201 ext. 3#, or Schiska@RNA.org.

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Contact:
Amy Schiska
573-355-5201 ext. 3#
Schiska@RNA.org

Entering is free! Stories from professional internships or student media in print or online formats are accepted. A sampling of eligible topics include:

• Religion & LGBT youth
• Haiti/Chile earthquakes & faith-based outreach
• Pop culture & religion (movies, music, books, television)
• Diverse faiths on campus
• Science, health & religion (abortion, stem cell research, health care)
• Terrorism, Iraq War

The award, administered by the Religion Newswriters Association, honors excellence in student writing with an emphasis on reporting skill and a grasp of religion issues that is fair, balanced and in accordance with journalistic standards.

The entry deadline is May 3, 2010, and winners will be notified by July 1, 2010.

To view the contest rules and enter online, visit our website, www.rna.org/?page=chandler, or become a fan on Facebook:

Student religion reporters and editors can also benefit from these free resources from RELIGION | NEWSWRITERS, available at www.RNA.org:

• Religion | LINK story ideas and sources
• Stylebook of religious terms
• Primer on covering religion
• Online resource library
• RNA student membership information

The student contest is made possible through the generosity of the Chandler Legacy Fund in honor of Russell Chandler, former religion writer for the Los Angeles Times.

RELIGION | NEWSWRITERS is the world’s only association for journalists who write about religion in the general circulation news media.  We strive to promote excellence in media coverage and public discourse about religion by offering tools and training on covering religion, including: RELIGION | LINK story ideas and sources; a religion stylebook, primer and frequently asked questions about the religion beat; an annual training conference; contests honoring excellence in religion coverage; membership and networking. For more information or how to join RNA, see www.RNA.org.

Releasing this February, JESUS FREAK: Feeding * Healing * Raising The Dead (Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint), tells the gritty, sometimes funny, always moving stories of those who courageously respond to Jesus’ call to feed the hungry, heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse the ritually unclean, forgive sins, and even raise the dead. “It doesn’t take a special kind of person,” she writes, “– the selfish and obtuse are welcome, too. It doesn’t take a lot of equipment, or training – little kids can lead. Jesus is still with us, which means we can say yes to God’s call, without knowing what the outcome will be.”

Miles, author of 2007’s widely praised memoir, Take This Bread, shows, in vivid, heartbreakingly honest prose, how the ordinary people around her are transformed by taking up God’s work in the world. Publishers Weekly raves, “Miles’s obvious homiletic gifts infuse the narrative: startling metaphors (Jesus as promiscuous Boyfriend “who’ll go with anyone”) combine with honest self-reflection and a wry sense of humor, prodding the reader to take ownership of Christ’s commands to serve, feed, and heal.”

A guide for everyone who yearns for “life, abundant,”, JESUS FREAK offers readers an inspiring and empowering reading of the Gospel, and a glimpse of what is possible when Jesus’ teachings are acted upon.

Sara Miles is the founder and director of The Food Pantry, and serves as Director of Ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Her other books include Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion, and her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, and on National Public Radio. She is available for commentary on poor people who are sick of charity, church people who are sick of church, and gay people who love Jesus.

Her website is: www.saramiles.net.

To request an interview or complimentary review copy of the book, please contact publicist Erin Lane Beam by telephone at (415) 782-3213 or by email at ebeam@wiley.com.

Media Contact: Erin Lane Beam, (415) 782-3213 / ebeam@wiley.com

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This 6th Conference was attended by 400 doctors and medical professionals from 30 nations including USA and Italy, and was represented by many medical doctors from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many other Russian-speaking nations.

During the Conference, an Australian Doctor Irene Jacovou presented a healing case of a 68-year-old man, as the most outstanding case presented. In 2003, he was diagnosed to have severe emphysema, asthma and alpha 1 anti-trypsin deficiency, and had a bilateral lung transplant and received immunosuppressive therapy. In 2008, he noticed a skin lesion on the top of the right shoulder, which was later found to be a malignant tumor. He was diagnosed with skin cancer and was surgically treated, but it recurred. In October, 2008, cancer cells metastasized to chest and lungs, and he was sentenced to live just a few months longer because of this cancer. In winter of that same year he attended a Christian healing prayer meeting and tumor regression started. All the tumors in his skin were gone through fervent prayers, and the CT scan showed that lung metastases disappeared.

A Ukrainian Doctor Larisa presented the case of healing of hepatitis C, confirmed by the person of the case appearing at the conference firsthand and testifying to his healing. Another Australian doctor Mieke Kuiper presented the case of healing of eclampsia and subarachnoid hemorrhage by prayer. Two Korean doctors presented the cases of healing of the infected cystic mass in the submandibular area and the retroperitoneal necrotizing fascitis due to perforated acute appendicitis, with scientific and medical data confirming the healing cases. In addition, many cases of the healing of various diseases including schizophrenia, pancreonecrosis, and AIDS were presented at the conference.

Dan Wooding, Founder and International Director of Assist News Ministry said, “At the same time that Ukrainian candidates are battling each other for votes in the upcoming Presidential election, Christian doctors gathering in Kiev, the country’s capital for a “Spirituality and Medicine” conference, have already cast their vote–for “miracles.”

WCDN was organized to medically analyze divine healing cases performed by God, clarify the data before and after the healing and testify with that data as to existence of God and the authenticity of the Bible. WCDN aims to work with intellectual people including medical doctors and scientists. They have held annual international Christian medical conferences in Seoul, Korea, Chennai, India, Cebu City, Philippines, Miami, USA, Trondheim, Norway, Kiev, Ukraine. www.wcdn.org

Media Contact: Kimberly Shin, 82-2-818-7039, shallom2002_7@hotmail.com

Now, in this highly anticipated biography, Prophet of Purpose: The Life of Rick Warren (Doubleday Religion, on sale November 3, 2009), award-winning author and journalist Jeffery Sheler traces the road Warren has traveled, the influences in his life, his trials and tribulations, and the opposition he has encountered along the way.

Sheler, who had unprecedented access to Warren and those closest to him, presents an intimate and objective portrait of Warren as a man of faith and vision but also of flesh and blood and human foibles–a pastor, communicator, philanthropist, and family man who is driven by a sense of divine purpose.

Unlike any book before it, Prophet of Purpose brings Warren and his mission to life and provides a provocative glimpse into the potential future of Christianity in America.

“A compelling read about a man in the middle of so many of the issues of our time.” —Senator John F. Kerry

“Prophet of Purpose is essential for anyone who wants to understand America’s most prominent pastor and the tectonic shifts on the religious landscape he represents.” — David Neff, Editor-in-chief of Christianity Today

Prophet of Purpose: The Life of Rick Warren
Doubleday Religion Publishing Group • Biography• November 3, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-52395-0• Hardcover • 320 Pages • $22.99 U.S. / $27.99 CAN

Review copies, interviews and excerpts available upon request.
Visit www.ProphetofPurpose.com for more information.

RNA Active Members are eligible to receive 30 percent off the cost of a year’s subscription to Knowledgewebb, an online, multimedia, do-it-yourself training center.

With the discount, active members pay just $90 for unlimited access to more than 150 self-guided courses, webinars, live chats with a dozen recognized experts and “smart room” threads on topics such as creating soundslides, measuring social media, Twitter basics, shooting video and more.

Knowledgewebb also offers personalized training for members via a new service called CustomCurriculum, a customized learning plan based on personality, career goals and work style.

All events, training, courses, webinars and live chats are included in the membership fee, which works out to about $7.50 a month—or the cost of two Starbucks lattes!

See a complete list of RNA’s member benefits and find out how to sign up today. More information about Knowledgewebb is available here.

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Such questions will be discussed more fully at an extraordinary one-day conference, “Religious Practice and the Family: What the Research Says, ” set for Thursday, Oct. 29, at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.

Sociologists have observed a family revolution marked by dramatic increases in divorce,  cohabitation and nonmarital childbearing. But a growing number of social scientists are researching how religious practice is influencing these trends and proving beneficial in the creation, health and longevity of the family.

Sponsored by The Heritage Foundation, the free conference will run from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and feature a roster of top academics who bring a wealth of experience and data to an important, little-understood issue.
“Anyone interested in the connection between religion and family stability will want to attend this event—journalists, policymakers, researchers, and counselors,” says Jennifer Marshall, director of Heritages’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society.

One contributor, Annette Mahoney, a researcher from BowlingGreen State University, notes that couples who identify with a specific faith and regularly attend religious services tend to be more satisfied with their marriages. Couples often show more satisfaction in the marriage when they pray for each other, view their union  as sacred, and engage in spiritual activities that enhance communication.

The research is complex and nuanced across denominational affiliation. But according to Brad Wilcox, a professor at the University of Virginia, changes in the American family “pose a crisis of institutional survival to religion in the United States.”

In fact, the research indicates that “the fortunes of American religion rise and fall, at least in part, with the fortunes of the intact, married family,” Wilcox says.

Noted sociologist and University of Notre Dame professor Christian Smith will present the keynote luncheon address, offering the good and bad news on religious practice to fill out the common stereotype of American adolescents and teens.

Smith is co-author of the book “Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers,” in which  he encourages youth leaders to adjust their paradigm of ministry.

“Most religious communities’ central problem is not teen rebellion but teenagers’ benign ‘whateverism.’ ” he writes. “Huge numbers of U.S. teenagers are currently in congregations, feel okay about them, mostly plan to continue to stay involved at some level, and generally feel fine about the adults in their congregations. But the congregation simply does not mean that much or make much sense to many of them.”

Hosted by Heritage with research partners Child Trends and Baylor Institute for the Studies of Religion, “Religious Practice and Health” is supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

For details on the event and to register at no charge, visit heritage.org/ReligionResearchConference.

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Contact: Jessica Prol (202) 608-1503
Editorial / Broadcast Services
(202) 675-1761

Centennial, Colo.—International Christian music sensation Hillsong United makes its U.S. big screen debut featuring their inspirational “The I Heart Revolution” project in “Hillsong United: We’re All In This Together” special in-theater event on Wednesday, Nov. 4th at 7:30 p.m. EST / 6:30 p.m. CST / 5:30 p.m. MST and 8:00 p.m. PST (tape delay). Hosted LIVE from Australia, this one-night exclusive event includes a LIVE performance by the internationally recognized band followed by their documentary, “The I Heart Revolution: We’re All In This Together.” Audiences in movie theaters nationwide are invited to join Hillsong United in their cross-cultural journey through six continents, 42 nations and 93 cities where they encountered people of faith addressing human slavery, child soldiers, displaced refugees, extreme poverty and other global concerns.

Tickets to “Hillsong United: We’re All In This Together” event are available at participating theater box offices and online at www.FathomEvents.com. For a complete list of theater locations and prices, please visit the web site (theaters and participants may be subject to change).

Presented by NCM Fathom and Different Drummer, this unique event will feature a LIVE introduction by lead singer Joel Houston, followed by a performance from Hillsong United LIVE from their home church in Sydney and conclude with the debut of their cause-based documentary “The I Heart Revolution: We’re All In This Together.” Filmed over two years, the documentary follows the band as they are confronted by the stories of remarkable individuals facing injustice and hardships around the globe. Hillsong United: We’re All In This Together will inspire audiences in movie theaters nationwide during this event to join those who are changing the world by putting their faith into action.

“The I Heart Revolution: We’re All in This Together” documentary is the second of the three-part “The I Heart Revolution” project – a movement of people helping people. The first installment, launched last year as a CD+DVD; “With Hearts as One,” captured the sound of Hillsong United’s collective worship and their passion toward Christ. IHeart.org, an online community with the sole purpose of offline action of sharing ideas and inspiring users to be part of the solution by transforming local initiatives into a collaborative global impact, is the third and final part of the project.

Hillsong United began in Sydney, Australia as the youth movement in Hillsong Church. Over a decade later, the band travels globally with a message of justice to raise awareness about poverty, natural disaster relief, equality, human rights and health issues affecting the world.

Hillsong United: We’re All In This Together appears in high-definition with Cinema Surround Sound in select movie theaters through NCM’s exclusive Digital Broadcast Network.

For more information about NCM or Fathom events, visit www.ncm.com.

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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Michelle Portillo
NCM Fathom                                    
(303) 792-8651                         
michelle.portillo@ncm.com