Nation: LITANY FOR CITIZENS

As 900 delegates of the United Presbyterian Church gathered in Minneapolis last week, they were less concerned with religious matters than social and political issues. The 180th General Assembly heard the Rev. Ralph Abernathy plead his poor people's cause, a plea which the delegates answered with a recommendation that their church donate $100,000 to the march on Washington. They agreed, moreover, to invest 30% of the church's unrestricted funds in housing and business enterprises in low-interest, high-risk areas. In a dramatic effort to invest church services with contemporary relevance, a new communion litany, which may become part of the permanent ritual, was written for the meeting. It was a litany of some relevance to citizens of any religion—or none—in which communicants publicly confessed their civic sins. Among the supplications: > "Forgive us for pretending to care for the poor, when we do not like poor people and do not want them in our houses."

> "Forgive us for bypassing political duties; for condemning civil disobedience when we will not obey

You."

>"Forgive.us for cheering legislators who promise low taxes, but deny homes and schools and health to those in need."

> "Forgive us when we deplore violence in our cities if we live in suburbs, where lawns are clipped and churches large, or in villages where there are too many steeples."

In addition to the litany, a committee in charge of leavening some of the church's stodgier rituals commissioned a hymn in folk idiom, entitled When the Changes Come:

Dusty creeds, lonely prayers, where are you, where are you?

At the edges of our sight, visions

taunt us in the night, Men kill other men at war. Hungry children lying on the floor.

Religion won't protect us any

more.

But when the daylight comes the eye is trained to see only what it wants to see . . .