"At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms,
And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school."

- As You Like It

It's always satisfying to know better than William Shakespeare. He knew nothing of our modern category of youth. His seven ages of man leap straight from the whining schoolboy to the adult roles of lover, soldier and justice. In addition, although he recognizes that the players on the world's stage include women as well as men, the women have no sooner entered the speech than they about face and promptly exit again.

My colleague, Rev Anna Ljung of the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden, is WARC coordinator for youth concerns. For this issue of Reformed World she invited nine young people from around the world to reflect on the theme of our forthcoming general council "Break the Chains of Injustice". She succeeded in every case but one. We couldn't get an article from Africa, and that leaves an obvious gap.

Each writer was asked to write an interpretation of the theme from his or her personal and national perspective. We asked them to reflect on the following questions: What chains of injustice are young people in your country struggling with? What are their hopes for change? How are they active in the struggle for justice? What is the role of the church in the struggle? How is the situation of young people different from that of other generations? Is their situation taken seriously by the state, the society, the church?

The issue will serve as a special youth contribution to the preparation for the general council and the international Reformed youth forum, which takes place immediately beforehand. It shows, I think, both the similarities and differences in the challenges facing young people across the globe, and will, we hope, prove useful both to them and to "oldies" like myself - hastening toward oblivion "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything".

Páraic Réamonn