TOMAS GÄRTNER FROM DRESDEN IS THE 2004 EUROPEAN RELIGION WRITER OF THE YEAR

Mr Tomas Gärtner, a freelance journalist writing mainly for the daily newspaper, "Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten" (DNN), from Dresden (Germany), has been named the winner of the 2004 John Templeton award for the "European Religion Writer of the Year".

The announcement of the award, which is valued at 5,000 Swiss Francs, was made today in Geneva, Switzerland, by the Office of Communication of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), which administers the award on behalf of the USA based "John Templeton Foundation".

The prize will be presented in September 21 September 2005 at 6:00 p.m. in the Dreikönigskirche (Church House) in Dresden.

The aim of the award is to honour journalists who write about religion in the secular press with accuracy, impartiality and with an ecumenical spirit.

Tomas Gärtner was born in 1962 in Riesa (Saxony / East Germany). He studied German language and literature at the university in Leipzig and has a Dr. phil. in German literature. He has been working as a freelance journalist since 1993, mainly for the daily newspaper "Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten" (DNN), but also for weekly papers of the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in Saxony, Christian journals (e.g. "Publik Forum"), the news agency "Evangelischer Pressedienst" (epd) and for the radio station "Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk" (MDR).

Mr Gärtner's entry for the Templeton prize included three articles published by DNN. "The articles he has submitted", said the judges, "although local in focus, address broad issues of the place of religion in a highly secularised part of Europe, Eastern Germany. His profile of a youth deacon and writer highlights questions about the quest of young people for meaning in modern society. His piece on Christianity's response to the Neo-Nazi movement probes the actual and potential effectiveness of ethical action by church people to address one of the pressing problems of his region. And he evokes a sense of place and history in his depiction of the Trinity Cemetery of Dresden (Trinitatisfriedhof) that invites readers to be drawn in by a familiar local setting to a contemplation of the place and history of religious institutions within the life of Germany."

Tomas Gärtner, the judges added, "tells his stories with objectivity, permitting readers to draw their own conclusions rather than imposing judgements upon them."

The newspaper "Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten" (DNN) goes back to 1893, when a newspaper with this name was founded in Dresden (it was shut down by the Nazis in 1943). DNN was re-founded in 1991 as an amalgamation of three newspapers, one of them "Die Union", which was the newspaper of the Christian Democratic Union (Christlich Demokratische Union - CDU) party during the time of the German Democratic Republic (1949-1989). Today DNN is one of the two newspapers in Dresden, which you can receive by subscription. The circulation is about 34.000 (2004) with most of the readers living in Dresden and surrounding areas. A particularity of DNN is the once a week special page for church-themes.

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The Conference of European Churches (CEC) is a fellowship of some 125 Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican and Old Catholic Churches from all countries of Europe, plus 40 associated organisations. CEC was founded in 1959. It has offices in Geneva, Brussels and Strasbourg.

For more information:
Luca Negro
CEC Office of Communications
Phone +41 22 791 64 85 or 791 63 25
Fax +41 22 791 62 27
e-mail: Luca.Negro@cec-kek.org