Vision of Shalom:

...Evangelicals and Pentecostals are proportionately more in- The Geneva conference is a new stage in the twenty-fivefluential than the mainline churches, will increasingly be a year-old dialogue of Soviet and American Christian leaders, key - if not the key -geographical area in the field of church- and is the first such meeting to focus on a single moral issue...

...The United States paid roughly a quarter of a million of them fees...

...campaign against them is genocidal...

...As Ms...

...They also stressed enough to shelter the birds of the air...

...presented in the spirit of "friendly persuasion...

...In the name of God-No...

...The precepts of the Gospel about distributive Colossians...

...Arie Brouwer replied, "This is one windmill we're going vive...

...There isn't much factual basis for optimism, but tions afford the Russians more leverage in getting a hearing for our faith isn't founded on that...

...Avery D. Post, President of the United Church of Christ, said American delegates to Geneva stressed that Russia's that he would urge his organization's annual synod to conduct ecclesiastical authorities could not be expected to challenge programs of grass-roots education and consciouness-raising head on the repressive policies of the Kremlin, for this would on the subject of arms control...

...He does not believes in facile optimism about the In Russia, church leaders believe it equally imperative to task of waging peace, but rather that God does govern the demonstrate their loyalty to the present government, and many world, and can give mankind the victory over today's "prin- among them feel genuine respect for what the regime has cipalities and powers...

...The Rev...

...price of gold is steady by comparision...

...The spirit blows where it out of Iowa and New York City...

...Alice Wittier, Executive for International Affairs of the GEORGE G. HIGGINS National Council of Churches, recalled that "I was almost in (Monsignor George G. Higgins, a long-time contributor, is tears when we got to the end of the statement...

...The conference participants recommended a common Christians...

...If, in the short run, the SALT II does not go far enough in containing armaments, it church-labor coalition or network which the Conference has should be welcomed as an essential first step in building a tentatively projected does nothing more than encourage and momentum for peace and paving the way for more sweeping give aid and assistance to this hopeful development, it will across-the-board arms limitation in SALT III...

...have justified its...

...But one observer noted cautioned that one must expect "inevitable tough bargaining that Moscow policy-makers do take the churches seriously as a about allocation of resources," but she hoped that the Council force in the shaping of public opinion, and pay some regard to would provide expertise and resources to local church the counsel of Christian leaders, so long as this counsel is afffiliates who wished to organize for political action...

...Nevertheless, the prophetic dimension has suffered in sense that the Bishop is attempting positive reinforcement, "official" Russian Christianity, the casualty of centuries of hoping through his praise of Soviet peace diplomacy to spur Czarist protection and control, and in latter days of Communist even greater efforts from his government...

...The chief the market is remarkably stable...

...The poisoning of wells as evidence that the claimed the lives of countless thousands...

...In 1977, unwanted that new arrivals are frequently executive officers of some of the for example, the United Nations main- pushed back out to sea to drown or die of Fortune 500 are worth, or are at least tained 15 camps for about 40,000 Lao- exposure or starvation or dehydration or paid, as much as a million dollars a year...

...the better...

...All in all, While the churches of Russia share enthusiasm for the American delegates felt that the Russian church could help 22 June- /979: 359 bring about a climate favorable to Kremlin doves, an atmos- wills...

...For simplici- across the Mekong River into Thailand...

...It's a question of interpreta- namese wanted to leave, perhaps as her two children on welfare in New York tion...

...After decades of oscillation between permeasurable long-term results...

...He implies that the than by formulating explicit political programs...

...10016...

...Asked if the churches had the importance of the international...

...One has the cosmos...

...Alice Wimer of the NCC be considered tantamount to treason...

...accomplished in elevating the standard of life and self-respect Only time will tell whether the Geneva conference leads to of working people...

...ever desperate their plight, because of the ty's sake I have used the figures of $100 Those captured are sent to "reeduca- difficulty in finding a port which would billion and one million respectively...

...Shipping companies have ply dividing the cost of the war by the the Meos they find trying to escape been reluctant to pick up refugees, howestimated number of dead...

...tion" camps, where they are organized allow them to disembark...

...The sooner such mutual understanding as we bad at this meeting...

...probably fair to conclude that taxpayers the Meos still remaining inside Laos...

...catastrophe...

...But even these numbers, large as they $10,000-$12,000 it cost to maintain But it is misleading to say that a Meo are, present only a fraction of the probthem in job training programs, although tribesman from the hills of Laos is worth lem...

...Meos cite the bombing of villages and the rigors of the open sea, which has already The market in men rises and falls...

...Working papers prepared in advance of the VISION OF SHALOM meeting by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna, THE CHURCHES ON ARMS CONTROL and by Bruce Rigdon of McCormick Theological Seminary, lay the groundwork for the discussion which produced the joint statement...

...Wimer indicated, the theological "homework" of Geneva dialogue the conferees reveals much about the shaping of their consen1 sus, although it also illumninates the differences in cultural and historical perspective between the churches of the two superpowers...

...Rigdon's preparatory essay, "Taming the Principalities they assaulted the churches with a ferocity nourished by disiland the Powers," is an exegesis of...

...The prestige and publicity surrounding such consulta- to have to tilt...

...The captain of a British-owned freighter, Not so long ago the American govern- Doubtless they exaggerate...

...Held in suspicion by a dominant Protestant the military-industrial complex and the war economy which it society, it is no wonder that Catholic leaders became stout sustains...

...Rigdon urges Christians to call upon the were placed in a dilemma similar to that of many Catholic resources of their faith to battle the principalities and powers of immigrants to America: the need to preserve one's cultural our present age: an uncontrolled technology which imposes its heritage while proving one's loyalty and patriotism toward the own death-dealing internal logic on the decisions of statesmen...

...Our century has not been wanting in heirs to this legacy: A.J...

...Writing and unconstitutional police power in the USSR...

...one generation, a homeland fit for the "new Soviet man," Dr...

...The This would spare the unfortunates the do not really think they are worth it...

...Taking a stand against the danger of "still more terrible Evangelicals and Pentecostals and organized labor) has con- weapons," the church leaders affirmed, "Against this, we say tributed more than any single factor to the impoverishment of with one voice-No...

...The same goes for all the other refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, who can be divided into two groups...

...But historically, the church of Russia has tended to witness more by the example of its own inner life tives on disarmament in the postwar years...

...churches in general and, however hesitant, in the Evangelical In this context of urgency, the delegates felt that although and Pentecostal churches as well...

...A mother and Laotians...

...and mysticism speak with one accord...

...will in turn support official socialism...

...Arie R. Brouwer, General secution and grudging accommodation, the regime appears to Secretary of the Reformed Church in America, felt encouraged be developing a rough modus vivendi with the churches, where that those who attended were denominational executives who the churches are allowed a limited measure of freedom if they could have impact on their respective communions...

...inner-city ghettos were not worth the per year...

...labor relations...

...President Nixon, never a sentimen- roughly 65 percent of the bill, which was who have fled war in Cambodia and the tal man, decided that young blacks from $10.66 million, or $266.50 per person rigors of the new regime in Laos...

...One of the Southern participants made the A joint statement adopted by the delegates urged the world's point that the separation between the churches and labor in the peoples to "choose life, that you and your descendants may Old South (meaning principally the separation between live...

...cosmology, were believed to govern the courses of nature and Under the Communist government, Russian Christians the affairs of men...

...Vietnam, he said, will may be worth, say, $479 a month, but the their North Vietnamese allies have been help to arrange their departure if counmoney is surrendered so grudgingly it is conducting a military campaign against tries can be found to give them asylum...

...into labor battalions...

...The ground of our faith is Jesus their views in official, quarters...

...Mail resume and samples of published work have been renewed and nourished by an apostolic succession (no phone, please) to: Commonweal, 232 Madison Ave., New of prophets who have called to judgment a godless established York, N.Y...

...As the Bolsheviks tried to build, in den," a millennium of harmony...

...volve more people from the Evangelical and Pentecostal tradi- and commitment of funding and staff support for Christian tions, particularly in the Old South...

...In this instance both, very likely, are underestimates...

...The ment initiatives, encouragement of ecumenical arms control Metropolitan repeatedly cites statements of Leonid Brezhnev advocacy, under the aegis of the World Council of Churches, in support of arms control, and refers to seventy Soviet initiaCommonweal: 358 cause, their contribution will, in practical terms, be cirPART-TIME EDITOR: Commonweal, a biweekly jour- cumscribed by the realities of history and contemporary polinal published by Catholic laity, seeks to fill a low-paying, tics...

...The churches of the West religion essential...

...established order...

...refugees throw a dead baby into the sea...

...On the one hand the Laotians and many as 600,000...

...There can be no persecution...

...elude that the Laotians do want the Meos, Of several minds: Thomas Powers it is certainly clear no one else does...

...from a grain of mustard seed-can blossom a tree sturdy phere "in which disarmament is possible...

...This narrow corner of where, they are aso sincerely and deeply on the circumstances...

...doubt, however, that the Metropolitan's concern for arms Even though many Orthodox intellectuals called for drastic control is personal and heartfelt, and he becomes truly political reform in the waning years of the Russian empire, the eloquent in his vision of presenting the Creator not with a church was hopelessly identified with the old regime at' the "lifeless, burnt out, devastated land" but a "blooming gar- onset of the Revolution...

...Nor does anyone problem a Vietnamese diplomat, Vu from the American people to help him else, with the possible exception of the Hoang, said that a great many more Vietsend out Christmas cards...

...dialogue in breaking down embarked on a quixotic crusade in their quest for arms control, the isolation under which the Russian church has had to sur- Dr...

...The same speaker-and The conferees believed that nuclear conflict was a probabilother delegates as well -strongly emphasized a new realiza- ity by the 1990s unless the arms race was called to a halt...

...Because peacemaking Ten representatives from the National Council of Churches is a calling of the first magnitude for Russian Christians, the and its affiliates met in Geneva last March with an equal churches of the USSR have attempted to fulfill that vocation by number of counterparts from five Russian ecclesiastical establishing relationships of brotherhood with American bodies...

...In Colossians, the Apostle announces the subjuga- justice came back to haunt the Russian churches in the mouth tion to the triumphant Savior of those forces which, in ancient of Lenin...

...But there are other editing ability as well as interest in books, current affairs and contrasts with the Western situation...

...A CONFERENCE OF Soviet and American church leaders Bishop Juvenaly argues that peace is a gift of the Spirit and has, with one heart and one voice, sounded an alarm the pre-eminent sign of the life of God's Kingdom...

...It was a significant step in the right direction, and I fully Krutitsky and Kolomna remarked that in a generation of expect it to result in a modest but potentially important American and Russian church dialogue "There had never been church-labor network within two or three years...

...ingly, worth a great deal less, probably a But even if, on balance, we must con- He was allowed to disembark the refuCommonweal: .160...

...While the practical consequences of Geneva are yet to be DAVID DILLON seen, it is sometimes inaccurate to measure religious devel- (David Dillon is a free-lance writer and historian working opments in purely political terms...

...The tion in the South, that there needs to be a closer on-going greater accuracy of warheads and shorter lead times to respond relationship between labor and religion...

...Paul's Epistle to the lusionment...

...The members of the ference...

...It depends dollar or two a day...

...Better days are definitely com- strategists have turned from a theory of mutually assured ing in that area, thanks to a growing social awareness in the destruction to the belief that an atomic war is winnable...

...the great masses of people in that area...

...Yet I am reasonably optimistic about this they prepared their joint statement...

...The best THE UNWANTED known are the boat people from VietA WORLD IN FLIGHT nam, of whom there are now about 125,000 in camps in Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, WHAT IS a man worth...

...Evidence the Sibonga, rescued 982 refugees from ment was willing to spend $100,000 to that the Laotians really value the Meos, two boats he discovered sinking about kill a single North Vietnamese or Viet- and want to kept them, can be found in 100 miles off the Vietnamese coast in cong soldier, a value calculated by sim- the fact they attempt to capture or kill all mid-May...

...champions of the American way of life, and that the catechism For Rigdon the arms race is a form of madness, promising Jimmy Breslin learned in the Diocese of Brooklyn was as sham security while increasing geometrically the prospect of much an exercise in Americanism as in Christianity...

...Speaking as a Yankee to a suspected attack vastly increase the temptation for one side and therefore as one less wise, I would agree with this cau- to resort to a first strike at a time of crisis, and many military tiously optimistic assessment...

...Not least among these realities is the danger of naked, part-time editor's post (1'k -2 days a week...

...More An American in a coma may be worth, or $16.4 million, which comes to $410 per numerous are the so-called land people, at least cost, $100,000 a year in hospital person per year...

...program of action on arms control to their respective denomi- Bishop Juvenaly's article bears witness to the delicacy nations, calling for passage and implementation of SALT II, a Soviet church leaders must adopt in commenting on public total ban on nuclear weapons tests, support of UN disarma- policy, particularly as it pertains to their own government...

...Muste, Dorothy Day, Emmanuel Mounier, Pope Paul VI, Martin Luther King...

...At a recent international meeting Nixon himself is worth, or at least gets, $410 a year, since the United States does held in Jakarta to consider the refugee several hundred thousand dollars a year not really want them...

...Here the over the escalating arms race and called on the peoples teachings of Scripture and the traditions -of Russian theology of the world to exorcise the demon of nuclear holocaust...

...The Old South, where education on the issues of the arms race...

...It was a cry from Secretary for Special Concerns, United States Catholic Con- the heart, a cry of passion and urgency...

...From every quarter, the delegates reported that they had Experience has taught me to restrain my enthusiasm about arrived at a deep and authentic meeting of mind and will as meetings of this type...

...tian refugees in Thailand at a cost of otherwise provide for themselves...

...Apparently the the captain, Healey Martin, said he had South Vietnamese refugees, in the years Meos are slow learners, because none of decided to go ahead after watching the between 1961 and 1975, were, interest- those sent to the camps ever return...

...fear-ridden nationalisms which mask inner despair...

...Americans Kremlin is already moving in the right direction, and there is have much to learn from Russia's Christians about perseverno overt scrutiny of Soviet actions which contribute to the ance under persecution, the quest for personal sanctification, balance of terror...

...Metropolitan Juvenaly of one...

...existence...

...order...

...drafting committee had obviously done their homework, and achieved unity of spirit...

...To Americans nurtured in , the antiwar the richness of monastic and community life, and the praise of movement, the document appears muted, and reflects plainly God's glory in his whole creation, the "Divinization" of the the constraints on political advocacy in the USSR...