Contact: Jeremy Burton, Oral Roberts University, 918-495-6649

TULSA, Okla., Dec. 15, 2010 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today marks the one year anniversary of the passing of Oral Roberts University Founder and Chancellor Oral Roberts. His legacy continues in the administrators, faculty, staff, students, and alumni of ORU. The university continues to focus on the vision and mission that was set in place by Roberts.

"Oral Roberts was a great man who profoundly impacted the world for Jesus Christ. We are deeply thankful for his life," said ORU President Mark Rutland. "Nowhere is the imprint of this man of God more evident than ORU. This university is the enduring legacy of Chancellor Roberts."

"ORU is Oral Roberts' most enduring legacy. It represents everything he stood for - from healing evangelism to whole person living to academic excellence," said Thomson Mathew, dean of ORU's College of Theology and Ministry.

The university was founded as a result of Roberts' obeying God's mandate to build a university on God's authority and the Holy Spirit. God's commission to Roberts was to "Raise up your students to hear My voice, to go where My light is dim, where My voice is heard small, and My healing power is not known, even to the uttermost bounds of the earth. Their work will exceed yours, and in this I am well pleased."

The mission of Oral Roberts University - in its commitment to the Christian faith - is to educate the whole person in spirit, mind, and body, thereby preparing its graduates to be professionally competent servant-leaders who are spiritually alive, intellectually alert, physically disciplined, and socially adept.

The university seeks to synthesize the best practices of liberal arts, professional, and graduate education with a charismatic emphasis to enable students to go into every person's world with God's message of salvation and healing for the totality of human need.

The university is paying tribute to Roberts on its website. This site includes photos and video of Roberts, a biography, comments from around the world at his passing and a message from Rutland. ORU will also honor Roberts at the first chapel service of the spring semester which will air January 5, 2011 at 11 a.m. CST on Golden Eagle Broadcasting (KGEB Tulsa 53), DirecTV Channel 363.

Oral Roberts University is an interdenominational Christian liberal arts university located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Founded in 1963 by evangelist Oral Roberts, ORU serves students from 49 states and 53 countries, representing over 40 denominations. Offering 64 undergraduate majors, 14 master's programs and two doctoral degrees, plus NCAA Division I athletics, ORU is preparing its students mentally, spiritually and physically to go into every person's world. For more information about ORU, visit www.oru.edu.