Religion: Words of the Week

"We have not seen deeply enough the real needs and situations of men; we have not demonstrated the distinctive character of Christian discipleship. To the degree that we have failed, the world has dismissed us and our faith with a shrug. We are passed by as irrelevant people, pleasant and well-meaning, whose God is optional, whose faith has no bearing, one way or the other, on the ... structure and meaning of life . . .

"What is the distinctive witness God expects us to bear? How shall we bear it? ... A church which concentrates on its own existence is doomed from the start. It will never see beyond itself. A church which speaks of nothing except religion in the narrow, technical sense has no mission to the secular world. God is concerned, in this world, that 'earth shall be fair, and all its people one.' "

—Pastoral Letter of the Protestant Episcopal Bishops.