The Korean economic meltdown sent a shockwave through Korean churches, and one immediate result was the 1998 statement of faith by the Presbyterian Church of Korea reprinted in this issue. For me, at least, the fascination of this text lies in its startled recognition that not only Korean society, but the church itself, has been permeated with the false values of an acquisitive materialism that is the antithesis of the gospel. As economic conditions in Korea begin to pick up again, it remains to be seen whether the PCK will come to regret its vehement denunciations of last year, or whether it will deepen its critique into a comprehensive theological and economic analysis of Korea's problems.

The United Church of Canada has a long history of prophetic social critique and in its current moderator it has someone who stands squarely in that tradition. But the moderator's consultation on faith and the economy which Bill Phipps initiated attempts to be traditional in non-traditional ways, using email and the worldwide web to break with hierarchical modes of communication and to create something like a town meeting extended in time and space. Both the matter and the manner of the consultation (see the contributions by Mark Hathaway and Ted Reeve) may offer a model to other churches.

The paper by Lukas Visher comes from a meeting which brought together participants from the Alliance and the Lutheran World Federation with representatives of what have been called the "First" and the "Radical" Reformations in an effort to reach a more comprehensive understanding of the Reformation trajectory in Christian history. But the turn to our roots is always for the sake of a return, and Lukas deploys the central Reformed concepts of justification and sanctification to throw theological light on our own time - a time, as he contends, of survival.

One may wonder how many of the delegates to the 23rd general council (Debrecen 1997) fully realized the significance of what they were doing when they issued the call to Alliance member churches to engage in a common process of recognition, education and confession with regard to economic injustice and ecological destruction. All member churches, at all levels of their lives: so ambitious an undertaking tempts one to reach for the word, hubris.

Papers like these presented here may help, as may the regional hearings on globalization which the Alliance is organizing together with the World Council of Churches. We will do all we can to involve our churches in this processus confessionis. But in the end it is your engagement that counts.

Páraic Réamonn