November 6, 2009

The Rev. J. Bennet Guess, UCC director of communications, and Cheryl Leanza, policy director for the UCC Office of Communication, Inc., will join more than 50 presenters and speakers at Religion Communication Congress 2010, the world's largest interfaith gathering of religion communicators, scheduled for April 7-10 at the Chicago Marriott.

Under the theme Embracing Change: Communicating Faith in Today's World, more than 1,000 communications professionals from different from different faiths, different countries, and different areas of faith communications.

The congress will feature panel discussions, roundtables, performances, exhibitions and skills-building workshops focusing on the changes in technology, society and perceptions of religions that affect the way communications professionals and others for who communication is important to their ministry tell their faith stories.

Guess and Leanza will co-present the workshops "Media Reform and the Religious Community" and "Join the Coalition: Media Justice is Social Justice." The first workshop addresses how communities of faith can organize to ensure media is accessible to and representative of diverse communities. The second will discuss the activities of the interfaith media justice organization "So We Might See."

"We have an exciting and broad offering of workshops that will appeal to people at different levels in their careers, said Shirley Struchen, executive director of event. "We have sought out professionals at the very top of their fields to share their expertise and make this an enriching experience for the variety of faith communicators who will be attending the RCCongress 2010 from all over the world."

Best-selling Tuesdays with Morrie author Mitch Albom will speak at the opening banquet. Albom's new book, have a little faith, debuted in the No. 1 spot on the Oct. 16 New York Times nonfiction best-sellers list. The book describes his own journey of faith, influenced by a Jewish rabbi and a Christian pastor.

Other presenters include Diana Eck, founder of Harvard University's pluralism project; columnist and distinguished authority on American religion, Martin Marty; Ingrid Mattson, first female president of the Islamic Society of North America; Otis Moss III, pastor of Chicago's Trinity UCC; musician, composer and storyteller Ken Medema, and Barbara Bradley Hagerty, religion correspondent for National Public Radio.

Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), the movement that teaches young leaders to look beyond diversity and build relationships of mutual respect and shared values will present at the closing banquet.

A pre-congress seminar, "Global Media, Global Religion: Research in Popular Media and the Remaking of Religions" will be led by Stewart Hoover and Nabil Echchaibi, from the Center for Media, Religion and Culture, University of Colorado at Boulder.

For more information and registration, please visit the RCCongress 2010 website at http://www.RCCongress2010.org.

United Church of Christ News Service