Contact: Mary Dickey, Director of Communications, 212-870-1046, mdickey@odysseynetworks.org; Desiree Frieson, Communications Manager, 212-870-1053, dfrieson@odysseynetworks.org; both with Odyssey Networks 

NEW YORK, May 3 /Standard Newswire/ -- Six distinguished organizations and three notable individuals from the worlds of faith and media have recently been admitted to membership in Odyssey Networks. They join 52 other members of the 23-year-old non-profit multi-faith organization, whose mission is to promote tolerance and to support causes such as peace and social justice. Odyssey Networks produces content for distribution across multiple platforms: television, the Internet and mobile.  The new members are:

Organizations:
The Alban Institute (Washington, DC) - An independent center of learning that develops and shares knowledge through consulting, publishing, research, and education programs directed toward congregational leaders.

Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (Washington, DC) - Dedicated to improving the capacity and effectiveness of the faith community in its collective effort to reduce global poverty and disease through increased interfaith coordination, best practices and model sharing, innovative mobilization of resources and influential advocacy to governments and the general public.

Church World Service (New York, NY) - A global relief, sustainable development and refugee assistance agency, addressing the root causes of poverty and hunger around the world.

Harran Productions Foundation (Chicago, IL) - Producers of thought-provoking interfaith documentaries and programs that open dialogue between individuals and societies around the world.

The Pluralism Project (Cambridge, MA) - A think tank that helps Americans engage with the realities of religious diversity through research, outreach, and the active dissemination of resources.

The New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good (Washington, DC) - A faith-based nonprofit that offers a renewed Christian public witness for the sake of the Gospel and the common good.

Individuals:
Burton Buller - President of Buller Films, and, until his recently announced retirement (effective June 2010), Director of Third Way Media, the outreach department of the Mennonite Mission Network. Producer of "The Amish" and "The Hutterites," and winner of the first CINE Golden Eagle ever awarded to a film produced by a religious institution. 

Gayla K. Jaminson - Founding member and Executive Director of Lightfoot Films and  producer of  numerous human rights and social issue documentaries, including  "Lives For Sale," (human trafficking), "Approach of Dawn," (Maya women and human rights during the Guatemalan civil war), "Scraps of Life," (Chilean women with family among the detained-disappeared during the Pinochet dictatorship), "Living in America," (portrait of the historic Latino community of Tampa, Florida), and "Enough To Share," (portrait of an inter-racial intentional community in rural Georgia).

Terry Thomas - President of Caption and Subtitle Services, specialists in producing captions and subtitles for video, DVDs and webcasts.

To learn more about membership in Odyssey Networks, visit www.odysseynetworks.org.

About Odyssey Networks
Odyssey Networks is the nation's largest non-profit multi-faith coalition dedicated to producing and distributing media for multiple platforms to promote peace and tolerance and addresses issues of social justice.  Established in 1987, Odyssey Networks is a service of the National Interfaith Cable Coalition, Inc. For more information visit www.odysseynetworks.org.