Winter is long. We stand in need of more heat and light, and we scour the supermarket aisles in the hopeless quest for an edible tomato. The impulse to hibernate, or at least nap, gains peak momentum in February. As I huddle next to the fire, I ponder what fuels the ICJS. What enables us to resist the freeze and stay wide awake?

There are a great many people whose support and guidance have kept the fires burning. A special source of energy has come from all the clergy and educators who have made the ICJS an integral part of their ministries. The ICJS depends mightily on religious professionals who are willing to grab hold of difficult challenges, to step into unfamiliar terrain and to reexamine their fundamental assumptions. The importance of this core group has become especially pronounced as the ICJS ponders the retirement of two exceptional ministers, The Reverends Carl Edwards and John Roberts.

Carl Edwards has been the Rector of Immanuel Episcopal Church for the past twenty years, and his participation in Jewish-Christian relations helped to launch and then direct the ICJS. Carl sets the stage for creative engagement by living in the expectation that every moment promises an unexpected discovery. His curiosity is an essential disposition of his soul. Whatever comes his way invites further exploration, and whether by way of exposition and analysis, or by circuitous storytelling and song, he playfully makes connections that bring people together.

John Roberts has served as the Pastor of Woodbrook Baptist Church over the past twenty-five years. I can remember knocking on the door of his church for the first time, wonder-ing if entrance would require a total immersion experience. What I found was a man of keen intelligence, gracious hospi-tality, expansive heart, and affable wit. Over the years, all of us at the ICJS have depended on John for his wise counsel and enlivening humor. He has kept his door open to any mis-chief we could make, and Woodbrook Baptist has become our home away from home.

Carl and John have served on the ICJS Program Committee from its inception. They chaired their denominational study groups in the Maryland Interfaith Project. They anchored the first ICJS Preaching Colloquia, and participated in the first ICJS Israel trip. They have remained active in the Scripture Forums. They have worked closely with our board, and they have instigated significant changes in Jewish-Christian relations on the regional and national scenes.

How then does an organization like the ICJS manage in the face of such losses? Can the ICJS help cultivate the next gen-eration of religious leaders? What does it take for some-one to take the plunge -- besides a measure of courage, reckless-ness, a high threshold for ambiguity, a sense of intellectual and spiritual adventure? The clergy and educators for whom the ICJS has become hugely important are all grounded in their own traditions. At the same time, they are quick to acknowl-edge that there is something yet to learn from those who stand outside their tradition. People who immerse themselves in the work of the ICJS quickly discover that they have something to teach and they have something to learn. What we have to offer and what we have to receive become clear in the encounter with those whom we once regarded as the outsider, the stranger, the other.

By bringing Christians and Jews into intensive study, the ICJS plays a vital role helping its participants develop a greater level of theological modesty. As long as there are religious professionals who want to know wherein the distinctiveness of their traditions really resides, the ranks will be filled. As long as there are rabbis, ministers, and priests who want to know if their religious beliefs, their ethical values, and their practices can communicate anything distinctive to the larger society, the ICJS will draw new members.

There are no replacements for Carl Edwards and John Roberts. Yet there is an emerging generation of leaders who believe that our religious communities can bind the wounds of injustice and orient us to the common good. With your support and encouragement, the ICJS will be there to help them find their voices and speak words of critical wisdom.