1.   In an opening address, Lawrence said many conference participants believe that religion coverage will play an even more important role in the next millennium.

2.   Rev. Allen recalls that seminars on religion coverage at an American Society of Newspaper Editors meeting last year drew standing-room-only crowds.

3.   The content of religion coverage is changing, said Roy Larson, director of the Center for Religion and the News Media in Evanston, Ill.

4.   The conference participants will support efforts to train journalists better in religion coverage.

5.   The former president of the Southern Baptist Convention travels around the country helping newspapers interested in expanding religion coverage.

6.   The goal of the meeting was to begin an ongoing dialogue between journalists and religious leaders to improve the quality of religion coverage.

7.   The keynote speaker, David Lawrence Jr., chairman and publisher of the Miami Herald, minced no words in taking religion coverage to task.

8.   The symposium provided more questions than answers about improving religion coverage and strengthening ties between religion and the news media.

9.   But expansion in media religion coverage is far overshadowed by the changes in religion itself.