Catholic Publisher, Software Company Training Catechists
to Use Innovative Computer Game Based on Gospel Readings
Gospel Champions™ helps children master foundational Catholic Teachings

Parsippany, NJ (June 5, 2006) --- Catholic publisher Silver Burdett Ginn Religion and Third Day Games, Inc. announced that they will hold training sessions across the nation to introduce Catholic educators to a new series of educational computer games sequenced with the Liturgy. The Gospel Champions™ series takes children back to biblical times by recreating Gospel stories they hear in Mass in a state-of-the-art game that integrates action/adventure gameplay with sequenced elements of the Gospel stories.

"Video games are one of the most popular media forms for elementary age children," said Brian Mitchell, president of Third Day Games and a catechist himself. "These training sessions are designed to show catechists how they can use this specially designed video game series to extend their teaching of the Catholic faith into families' homes and children's video game playtime."
The free training sessions will show Catholic educators how to take advantage of the unlimited distribution of the games to all their K-8 children, as well as how to use the games in intergenerational teaching and for special needs children. All attendees will receive a free evaluation copy of the Gospel Champions™ video game product.

Gospel Champions™ unlocks a new Gospel story each month to link Sunday Mass readings to the daily lives of students. The game series features three skill settings for children grades K-8 and utilizes a family leaderboard to encourage kids to play repetitively with their parents, siblings, and friends. The game software also enables parishes and schools to send personalized messages to kids each time they play the game.

Raymond Latour, President of Silver Burdett Ginn Religion and a Deacon in the Diocese of Paterson, said, "The Gospel Champions™ games will provide a parish or school with a low-cost, high-impact resource for connecting the home to the Gospel proclaimed at our Sunday Eucharist. This very much responds to our Bishops' request in their recent National Directory for Catechesis wherein they ask us to explore each individual medium of communication so as to make the gospel ever more accessible to our youth."

For an annual site license fee of $125, Gospel Champions™ can be easily incorporated into the educational program of any parish or school. The series is programmed for the 2006-2007 school year, but can be pre-ordered now. For additional information and a demonstration, visit www.GospelChampions.com.

The first training sessions for the Gospel Champions series are scheduled for June 13th in Diocese of San Bernardino and for June 14th in the Diocese of Orange and Archdiocese of Loa Angeles. Additional sessions will be held in dioceses across the nation. For a complete listing of time and dates for training visit www.GospelChampions.com.

To arrange for a training session for your diocese, please call 1-800-338-2150.

About Silver Burdett Ginn Religion:
Silver Burdett Ginn publishes and distributes faith formation and character education materials and provides educational services for the Catholic and Christian communities. SBG Religion's publishing draws upon Scripture, tradition, the documents of the Church, the best research in pedagogy, and catechetics. Silver Burdett Ginn is a business of Pearson Education, the global leader in educational publishing. Pearson Education is part of Pearson (NYSE: PSO), the international media company. In addition to Pearson Education, Pearson's primary operations include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.

Media Contact:
Dave Bohon
WDC Media
612-940-8406
davebohon@wdcmedia.com