Has network of over 1,500 churches worldwide. They work alongside existing local churches to help reproduce and plant new Vineyard churches. Michael Gatlin is the national church planting director.

The Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church supports religious liberty internationally and employs legal experts. It is based in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Americans for Religious Liberty is an interest group in Silver Spring, Md., that monitors issues of the separation of church and state. Albert J. Menendez, the ARL research director, has analyzed the religious makeup of each Congress since 1972. Contact Menendez

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious is an association of leaders of Catholic women religious in the United States and represents U.S. nuns and sisters. While male clergy commit the vast majority of abuse cases, victims’ advocates say abuse by women religious is an overlooked problem. The LCWR is also based in Silver Spring, Md. Contact the […]

The Conference of Major Superiors of Men represents religious orders in the United States. Unlike diocesan priests, the priests and brothers in religious orders – Franciscans, Jesuits and Dominicans, for example – generally live in communities and by their orders’ rules. They are subject to local diocese mandates, but concerns have been raised about how to integrate […]

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness in Potomac, Md., runs Food for Life, a vegetarian food relief program in several South African cities, and operates several temples.

Ellen Wilcox is public relations director for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists in Bethesda, Md., which tracks legislation involving pharmacists and represents close to 40,000 pharmacists who work in hospitals, long-term care facilities and other health care systems.

The Maryland Healthcare Ethics Committee Network, established by the Law and Health Care Program at the University of Maryland School of Law, serves as a resource for ethics committees. Contact chairwoman Diane Hoffman.

The American Ghost Society is a national network of ghost hunters, authors, ghost enthusiasts and psychical researchers who conduct investigations into the paranormal. They maintain a list of members and ghost hunters by state.