Editorials

...The N.I.H...

...On September 30 these contracts were scheduled for suspension, at the recommendation of Dr...

...In the United States we have two presidential and two vice-presidential candidates, which is about right for an election year...

...Of course, the loss of summer tans and ocean swims is a minor affliction compared to the drought conditions that stalked much of the Midwest, ruining thousands of acres of crops...

...The big issue at the 1988 conference was the imminent consecration of women bishops by the Episcopal church in the United States and in those Anglican Communion churches, Canada and New Zealand, that also ordain women...

...Our early assessment is that essential issues will be ignored in favor of trivial ones...

...Scientists seem ready to consider the possibility that this summer's intense and persistent heat reflects the long-term warming pattern associated with the greenhouse effect-the cumulative result of burning fossil fuels...

...Rather than an impediment to communion, this may be a real service to Anglicans as well as to Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox...

...The Lambeth Conference is the decennial gathering of the bishops of the Anglican Communion, the churches that have grown from the Church of England...

...and in East Germany-where perestroika gets a cold shoulder, there are shockingly few signs of adaptive responses to the new possibilities...

...At the same time, in Czechoslovakia- invaded twenty years ago this past August by the Russians...

...As the weather cools, and air conditioners are turned off...

...Perhaps that leaves some issues, such as ordaining women priests and consecrating them bishops, in a provisional state, but it also means that novel practices can be tried, evaluated, and, in the opinion of critics, (perhaps) found wanting...

...During July, however, two months before the suspension was to take effect, Lenfant's decision was reversed and the contracts reinstated...

...James Shannon, despite his objections, to take up the artificial heart project in the first place...

...as we climb out of cars and walk off airplanes from vacations that helped some of us escape the heat, there is the all-too-human tendency to think that this confluence was a coincidence: This year's drought will be offset by next year's floods...

...But rescuing the environment from the follies of homo sapiens will require wrenching changes in the way we live along with the resolution of deep-seated conflicts among opposing interests-commercial, regional, international...

...On Sunday, July 31, the congregation prayed for the success of the Lambeth Conference going on up the hill at the University of Kent...

...Drought and desertification are one outcome...

...So, by holding the purse strings, Congress forced N.I.H...

...Meanwhile, a breakthrough was at hand with a simpler device, which-given the institute's finite budget-deserved funding priority...

...Michael E. DeBakey of Baylor Medical School, Congress pressured N.I.H...

...couldn't risk having all new projects stifled...

...Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Ut) simply threatened the N.I.H...

...This relaxed sense of definition and boundaries would disorient many Roman Catholics, and some Anglicans are uneasy with it...

...The absence of a central authority requires that the bishops must act in a collegial spirit consulting with one another and with their people...

...With memories of Barney Clark and the four other recipients of an artificial heart-none of whom survived - still in mind, as well as the millions spent on artificial heart research so far, the council supported Lenfant's choice...

...The conference of the Soviet Communist party in June and July exposed a watching world to the sometimes awkward, sometimes conflicting efforts of Soviet leaders to deal with their new political agenda...

...A left-ventricle pump to assist a patient's own heart could help thousands within three years, and patient experience with the pump might provide data to advance future artificial heart research...

...The conference was preceded by threats of schism and "impaired communion" among Anglicans and fears that consecrating women as bishops would impede further efforts at unity, with Rome and the Eastern Orthodox churches...

...And yet, it is hard not to see, for example, in the bishops' vote to respect the decisions of those provinces that will ordain women bishops, and to appoint a commission to discuss the problems that arise, a certain kind of religious humility in the face of new and sometimes wrenching choices...

...allocations committee represent two of the four states awarded artificial heart contracts...

...Similar conditions prevailed in the other great breadbaskets: Canada, China, the Soviet Union...

...But the oddity of the summer rests not so much on human affairs directly as on the confluence of so many ecological afflictions.' 'The planet is telling us we can't treat it this way any more," was the assessment of Dr...

...Nature is now talking...

...Second, having no central authority either to acquiesce in or rebel against, Anglicans must proceed by persuasion and example, and many point to the way in which the Oxford Movement worked a change in Anglicanism by this means...

...Thomas's answered...

...Drought conditions destroy not just food and livestock but the land itself...

...Surprises and ironies continue in the Eastern bloc...

...And in that spirit the Anglican debates over authority are worthwhile for Catholics to reflect on in two ways...

...The Soviets continue their withdrawal from Afghanistan-and odds are their puppet government will not be far behind...

...Soil-ravaging practices used in Iowa impoverish the nation...

...to line the pockets of contractors in a few states, and to cut the research budget of a project promising rapid and less costly public-health benefits...

...CANTERBURY TALES Within the walls of the town of Canterbury there is one Roman Catholic church, Saint Thomas of Canterbury...

...so are flooding and the distortion of delicate ecological balances...

...The move was not without precedent...

...Lenfant's decision to favor the heart pump research was based on exemplary reasoning: providing the best medicine for the most patients in the least amount of time...

...That Anglicans are the first to say so is refreshing and exemplary.s refreshing and exemplary...

...But a great deal more is needed, at local, regional, and national levels...

...director, Dr...

...advisory council on heart research that the artificial heart projects were progressing poorly and slowly, would take at least a decade to complete, and would benefit only a few patients at enormous expense...

...It should have been applauded not overturned...

...Several noted heart surgeons vowed to continue artificial heart research with private funds...

...The first response of concerned individuals-buying fuel-efficient cars, cutting back on summer air conditioning and winter heating-is essential but insufficient...

...Europe's beaches, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, too, showed the shortsightedness of using oceans as garbage dumps...

...The United States has ceased its funding of the contras, although the Sandinistas continue to act as a government besieged...

...The list of ecological disasters-in-the-making (or already here) is long, and most proposed remedies are intricate, hugely expensive, politically difficult...

...Last spring Lenfant told the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H...

...Bishop William Frey of Colorado was referring to this same quality, perhaps more wryly, when he observed "no one, not even the Ayatol-lah Khomeini, can be absolutely certain that he might not inadvertently be an Anglican...

...Anglicans are the first to criticize and even poke fun at their predilection for compromise and accommodation...

...FAINTHEARTEDNESS Last January, four federal contracts worth $22.6 million over six years were awarded to researchers working on the artificial heart...

...The two senior members of the N.I.H...

...Instead, pure pork barrel politics prompted the action...

...Congress ought to take the lead in funding programs dedicated to such aims...

...And the Sandinistas seem hell bent on centralization of the means of production while the performance of the Eastern bloc all but certifies that it can't work...

...What happened...

...The cease-fire between Iran and Iraq is most welcome...

...Were the prayers of the Roman Catholics at St...

...in Poland-where Solidarity is once again asserting itself in a leadership role...

...The particles and chemical residues, especially carbon dioxide, gather in the upper atmosphere trapping warm air, which, over time, scientists think is not only raising temperatures but distorting normal weather patterns...

...In 1963, influenced by Dr...

...The 1987 Montreal treaty to protect the earth's ozone layer is a promising (if modest) signal that global consciousness can be raised and international cooperation can be achieved...

...Pesticides applied in California are consumed in Dallas and Peoria...

...There were other divisive issues, including reconsideration of the 1888 conference's condemnation of polygamy, relations with non-Christian religions, and the morality of armed struggle...

...Congress, however, pressured the institute to reverse its decision, a move which would have been less objectionable had medical reasons been the cause...

...The images of the great dust bowl that we associate with photos from the 1930s are reappearing in areas where topsoil is thin and easily blown away...

...The Anglican notion of authority may not be perfect...

...Voluntarism plus peer pressure can indeed bring change, and sometimes with surprising speed...

...Many among the 500 Anglican bishops at the Lambeth Conference may have been grateful for them and some even a bit desirous of the authoritativeness of Rome...

...Health-care costs cry out for careful long-range planning and priority setting...

...Stephen Joseph, New York City's health commissioner, as he closed the beaches and tried to deal with the illegally discarded syringes, vials of contaminated blood, and other medical debris that washed in with the tide...

...But, if the planet is talking back to us, some serious and sustained listening is called for...

...Lacking the centralized authority of Roman Catholicism, the Anglican Communion must struggle with the increasing diversity of practice among its member churches...

...The waters flow, the winds blow without regard for distance or boundaries...

...The politics of heart research won out over sound, long-term priority setting in health-care research...

...with legislation making funds for any new projects contingent on the continuation of current contracts-such as the artificial heart...

...Clifford Longley of the London Times called it "the least fanatical of religions, hence one of the most civilized...

...soon she may howl...

...Claude Lenfant, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland...