What will be the impact of European integration on the economy, culture, politics, identity and ecology of central and eastern Europe? How does it interact with the world process of globalization? What social costs will the countries and people in the region have to pay? What has been their experience of living in an economy in transition over the last ten years? What kind of future should the peoples in this region envisage for themselves? What role should the churches play in this context?

These are among the questions to be addressed by a consultation of central and eastern European churches which will take place in Budapest at the end of June. The consultation, initiated by the Alliance within the framework of its church process on covenanting for justice in the economy and the earth, will be organized jointly with WARC's European area, the Conference of European Churches, the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches.