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[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

FOR RELEASE:  THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

For more information, contact
Dr. Carl Dudley
Professor of Church and Community, Hartford Seminary
Co-Director, Faith Communities Today
Tel: 860.509.9543
Email: cdudley@hartsem.edu

A FACToid is available electronically at the FACT website.  Please visit
http://fact.hartsem.edu/Press/mediaadvsry4.htm.

	HARTFORD, CT, November 20, 2001-America's synagogues, mosques and
churches are already deeply involved in President Bush's call for a new
voluntarism, according to Prof. Carl S. Dudley of Hartford Seminary's
Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

	"The nation's congregations provide a massive 'safety net,'" Dudley
says, citing comprehensive research on U.S. Faith Communities Today.  "It's
not new."

	"From one coast to the other, American congregations are engaged in
caring ministries.  Where pain is greatest, churches, synagogues and mosques
respond," he said.

	Dudley has statistics to prove it.  "Our FACT research shows that
nearly 85 percent of all U.S. congregations are engaged with soup kitchens
or food pantries, with emergency shelters and clothing pantries, and with
financial help to persons in need," he says.  (See FACToid at
http://fact.hartsem.edu/Press/factoid3.pdf)

	American religious groups are deeply involved, either directly or
with other local faith-based agencies, in such programs as tutoring
children, providing housing for the elderly, substance abuse therapy and
ministries to persons in prisons.  According to Dudley, Americans "act out
their faith" by collecting and distributing food and in other ways sharing
the benefits of the life they enjoy."

	"The religious practice of caring for and about others is nearly
universal in America," he said.  "People are thankful and want to
share-regardless of their theology or liturgical practices."

	Speaking in Atlanta earlier this month, President Bush urged all
Americans to become "September 11th volunteers" through service in their own
communities.  Earlier he had called for a partnership between governments
and religious groups to provide aid to needy families and individuals.

	According to Dudley, "the work of faith communities long preceded
what people today call charitable choice.  Our research demonstrates that
congregations are already at work with governments at every level.  In many
situations there is a close partnership between local religious groups and
business, philanthropy and educational institutions when it comes to serving
people in need."

	"These fluid relationships are a reflection of current practice
rather than the cutting edge," he said, describing congregations serving
with schools to help tutor, with police departments in mentoring teenagers,
with businesses to help prepare individuals for jobs and with welfare
agencies providing foster parents.  "There's an enormous amount of
counseling going on in these days when men and women, even highly-placed
persons, lose their employment."

	Such ministries with direct ties to governments take place
everywhere, but especially in urban and suburban areas, the FACT research
shows.  More than 40 percent of all congregations in center-city areas
provide child-care or health related programs that have connections to
federal or local governments.  (A FACToid for this data will be forthcoming)

	The FACT research was funded in part by the Lilly Endowment of
Indianapolis, was conducted by 41 religious groups and denominations, and
was coordinated by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford
Seminary.  It is the most extensive research ever undertaken on
congregational activities and motivations.

	Commenting on the September 11 attacks, Dudley said that Americans
are showing the physical, psychological and spiritual symptoms of stress.
"This is a significant faith-challenge to religious leaders, as well as a
medical and public health issue," he said.  Pastors, rabbis and imams are on
the front line of counseling, he pointed out, and called attention to the
large number of hotline programs and counseling centers that operate under
faith group sponsorship.

	The Hartford scholar called attention to the deep involvement of
historically African American congregations, especially in urban areas,
where they clearly lead the way in outreach to people in need.  On average,
he said, African American congregations sponsor 8.7 different outreach
ministries.  Liberal protestant groups come second with an average of 7.1
separate programs to meet human needs.

	Dudley says that the FACT research also demonstrates that the
growing number of Muslim congregations reach out to their communities as
well.   "Although they are distinct in belief and faith-practices, in their
social ministries they appear remarkably similar to other faith
communities," he says.

            -end-