Late one night in the dead of winter, Bill Moyers awoke and could not find his way back to sleep. To keep himself com-pany, he switched on the bedside radio and listened to disgruntled callers empty their minds. The drone of complaint was working with the precision of an anesthetic when an impassioned voice yanked him out of the twilight zone. "This is my birthday," announced a young man. "Here I am three hours into my 18th year, and I need help to know how to live in a world that is disintegrating!" When the host attempted to lighten up the scene with a wise crack, the boy refused to be brushed aside. "No, I'm really serious. I'm scared. I'm starting my 18th year in a world that makes no sense to me."

The desperation within the exchange continued to haunt Moy-ers, and it haunts me. We live in a culture that distrusts communal allegiances, a culture that suspects the claims of the past will blind individuals to the promises of the future. Yet the gnawing disease of the teenager bespeaks an irreducible need to situate our own stories within a larger story. We need to stand on the shoulders of our ancestors to gain greater altitude. We need to feel the pull of future generations to transcend the demands of the immediate. We need to discover the narrative links that draw people out of their isolation and join them to larger purposes in a more expansive conversation.

Bill Moyers subsequently stepped into an ongoing discussion on the Book of Genesis facilitated by Burton Visotzky, a rabbinics professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was startled by the realization that here was a conversation that ventured into a strange and ambiguous territory and in the process activated the moral imagination. Here was a discussion with the gravity to hold the attention of the young man who had recently turned eighteen. Moyers concluded that a PBS series on the Book of Genesis would create a forum in which people might demonstrate the art of speaking across theological and ethnic divides, make imaginative connections with the past, and discover vital areas of commonality in the present and the future. And he has begun recording a ten-part series this summer.

The ICJS has been asked to participate in the development of a resource book that will accompany the Moyers' series on Genesis. The invitation emerged from our experience in wres-tling with difficult texts, and the opportunity will pull us into the midst of questions that have occupied the ICJS since its inception. How do we crack open the Bible and move beyond the unexamined assumptions that make the Holy Scriptures a safe, predictable, and lifeless thing? How do we guide viewers to mine their traditions -- to seek what is strange within the familiar, to explore what is concealed beneath the surface, and to welcome what is unmanageable and disruptive? How do we orient Christians and Jews so that they can learn from their differences -- from their variant interpretations, and from the divergent beliefs and practices they have shaped as a result of their respective readings? We hope to cultivate new habits of reading: an opening of the ear, eye, and heart to the text that illuminates the dilemmas and paradoxes of the reader's world. From this encounter with the stories of Genesis, people will not only learn how others wrestle with these foundational stories, they will also gain unexpected understandings of the sacred ground on which they stand.

As this Newsletter makes clear, this disciplined quest into untamed theological territory remains central to the life of the ICJS. The Moyers project coupled with the formation of a national Jewish Scholars Group and another national confer-ence, this one for Roman Catholic clergy and educators scheduled for the Fall of 1996, demonstrate the reach of the ICJS. We nevertheless remain convinced that "nothing is real unless it is local." Through our public programs, preaching colloquia, scripture forums, Israel expeditions and study sem-inars, the ICJS will continue to encourage men and women, blacks and whites, clergy and laity, Jews and Christians from across Maryland to traverse the distance that separates them from the world of the Bible and one another. We remain convinced that in the interpretive dance with the memories of our ancestors, the power of our respective religious traditions is revealed.

While we sorely miss the many contributions of Rabbi Shira Lander, we welcome Dr. Michael Signer, who will serve as our visiting Jewish Scholar for 1995-96. I am also delighted to report that Valerie Williams has joined our staff and is coor-dinating the operations of the office. This development is enabling Sr. Joan Marie Stief to direct her attention to special projects and community outreach. Of course, none of the initiatives of the ICJS would be possible without the tireless dedication of our board. Two years into the Endowment Cam-paign, $4.1 million has been pledged to a $5 million dollar goal. While this effort is critical to the long-term vitality of our organization, it is the generosity of our members who con-tribute faithfully to our Annual Giving that has kept us seaworthy. And for this we are enormously grateful. If you are not already members, we invite you to join this pioneering endeavor and to help us navigate uncharted waters.