Some 500 Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox journalists are in Atlanta this week at an ecumenical first, the first joint convention of the Catholic Press Association and the Associated Church Press.

Meeting Wednesday through Saturday at the Marriott Motor Hotel, the scribes heard an invocation by the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., a welcome by the archbishop and a statement of purpose by ACP President W.C. Fields at the opening session presided over by Msgr. Terrence P. McMahon, president of CPA.

Other convention speakers included Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen, speaking on “The City in Crisis.”

Seven books received 1969 national Catholic Book Awards at the annual awards breakfast Friday.

The National Catholic Book Awards competition was established in 1964 “to recognized and honor the many distinguished achievements in Catholic book publishing today… and to encourage the further development of this branch of the Catholic press.”

This year’s competition was divided into seven categories. The winners, selected from 131 titles entered by 50 publishers, are:

Theology: “The Church,” by Hans Kueng, Sheed & Ward, Inc.

Scripture: “The Jerome Biblical Commentary,” edited by Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm., Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Christian Life: “Comfort My People” The Pastoral Presence of The Church,” by Eugene C. Kennedy, M.M., Sheed & Ward, Inc.

Religious Education: “Vision and Tactics: Toward an Adult Church, by Gabriel Moran, Herder and Herder, Inc.,

Spirituality: “Open To the Spirit: Religious Life After Vatican II,” by Father Ladislas M. Orsy, Corpus Publications.

History and Biography: “The Life of Teilhard de Chardin,” by Robert Speaight, Harper & Row, Publishers.

Fiction: “Everything to Live For,” by Paul Horgan, Farrar Straus & Gioux, Inc.

The competition was judged by the five reviewer-editors who were also judges in previous years. They are: Dan Herr, president of the Thomas More Association, publisher of The Critic and Overview magazines, Chicago: Msgr. John S. Kennedy, editor of the Catholic Transcript, Hartford, Conn., archdiocesan newspaper and syndicated book reviewer: Father Francis X. Maynard, O.F.M., editor of Way-Catholic Viewpoints magazine, San Francisco; Father Arthur McNally, C.P., associate editor and book editor for The Sign magazine, Union City, N.J.; and Dr. James G. Murray, book reviewer of the Long Island Catholic, Rockville Centre, N.Y., diocesan newspaper.