In a world increasingly overwhelmed by diversity, the church is challenged to remain simultaneously faithful and relevant. At the heart of that challenge is the conviction that Christians cannot understand themselves or the most vital issues affecting the church today without rethinking their relationship with Judaism and the Jewish people. This conviction brought together leaders from the Presbyterian and Lutheran churches in Maryland and the staff of the ICJS to design an educational program that would enable local congregations to examine the ways in which their most cherished beliefs can enshrine igno-rance of the other, or even become twisted and put in the service of hatred. Organizers maintained that such a bold effort would create a fresh perspective from which to see the difficulties posed by a world torn apart by ethnic and religious conflict. Motivated by a commitment to assist congregations in their struggle with the complexities of living faithfully in a religiously plural world, the ICJS held a landmark conference, "Faith for the Future," a gathering of nearly one hundred leading educators and clergy from around the country at Balti-more's Mount Washington Conference Center.

To attract outstanding participants, the ICJS coordinated its efforts with the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College, the Baltimore Presbytery, the Maryland-Delaware Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The ICJS also drew on some of its local talent by inviting area rabbis and ministers to lead discussion groups.

Beginning with an expedition to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on June 25^th, participants investigated the historical, theological, and spiritual forces that have pitted Christians and Jews against one another. For three days participants examined the possibilities of redefining a more positive under-standing of the Christian-Jewish relationship and explored implications of this new relationship for the teaching and preaching ministries of the church.

The first plenary focused on "The Partings of the Ways." Dr. Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Director of the Religious Studies Program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Wyncote, PA, challenged participants to take a fresh look at Jewish and Christian origins and to reconsider the portraits that we have fashioned of one another and of the God we each proclaim. Dr. Norman Beck, Chair of the Religion Department at Texas Lutheran College and author of Mature Christianity, responded to Fuchs Kreimer. He pointed out that in the long and sometimes bitter process of defining themselves in response to the other, both communities helped to create and perpetuate a caricature of the other.

In the second plenary presentation, Dr. Scott Hendrix of Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary, traced the development of anti-Jewish typology and polemic from the Church Fathers to Luther. In rehearsing the attitudes that evolved through the Reformation, Hendrix noted many pitfalls into which Christians can stumble if they blindly imitate their predecessors. At the same time, he encouraged participants not to forget a vision that grew out of the Reformation, namely, a reevaluation of the Jewish scriptures that might in turn lead to a renewed appreciation of Judaism. Dr. Bernard Cooperman, director of the Meyerhoff Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, challenged the audience to entertain the possibility that Christianity's need for Judaism is not reciprocated by a Jewish need for Christianity. He also sug-gested that there were sociological, political, and economic factors that provided a climate for Christians to persecute Jews, and that theological perspectives only give one angle of vision into the historical phenomenon of Jewish-Christian rela-tions. He proposed that Christians projected onto the only recognizable "other," namely Jews, their own worst fears.

Dr. John Roth, of Claremont-McKenna College, delivered the third plenary presentation on "The Impact of the Shoah (Holo-caust)" by exploring Elie Wiesel's challenge to Christianity. Roth urged participants to no longer "be for God at the expense of humankind." In their pursuit of justice, Christians may need to quarrel with their sacred texts, to hold them (and God) accountable to the highest standards of love, and to refashion their image of God. Rabbi Jack Bemporad, director of the Sacred Heart Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding in Connecticut, invited participants to think theologically about the doctrinal implications of Roth's central questions.

In the final plenary, Dr. Douglas John Hall, of Montreal's McGill University, explored the nature of "Power, Authority, and Responsibility in the Post-Holocaust Era." He recommended that the church recover the Jewish context of Christianity and redirect its mission from an "otherworldly" retreat to an engagement with those destructive forces that threaten to undo the creation. Rabbi Leon Klenicki, of the Anti-Defamation League's Department of Interfaith Affairs, affirmed Hall's pre-scription and indicated that the Holocaust also poses a serious challenge to Jewish faith.

The ICJS commissioned five scholar-educators to compose educational resources for congregational use. These scholars then facilitated workshops for participants to learn how to implement these curricula.

The interchange throughout the conference was rigorously honest. Participants asked unsettling questions, probed funda-mental assumptions, and demanded the best from one another. In the evenings, scholars and participants wrestled with the challenge of integrating their insights into congrega-tional life. The conference provided a powerful demonstration that Jews and Christians can inspire one another to sharpen their thinking and to envision new possibilities. According to conference surveys, participants found this one of the most important and well-designed seminars they had ever attended. It is our hope that its effects will reverberate in Presbyterian and Lutheran communities around the country, and that we will extend this national initiative to different denomination settings in the future.

We are grateful to all those who generously contributed their resources, human and financial, to this initiative, especially Bishop George Mocko, Dr. Herbert Valentine, Dr. Margaret Thomas, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.