Interviews

"Could overcoming poverty become a bipartisan issue and a nonpartisan cause?" That's the question Jim Wallis, convener of Call to Renewal, tossed at his students to open the last session of his fall semester course "What's Faith Got To Do With It?—Activism, Spirituality and Social Change" at Harvard University's Institute of Politics in the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The Journal spoke with the Clerk of The Mother Church, Mary Weldon Ridgway , about the continuing spiritual momentum that attendees felt following 2002 Annual Meeting & Conference and the vision for the 2003 Annual Meeting & Conference. What has been the effect of 2002 Annual Meeting & Conference, as the 6,000 attendees returned to their homes around the world? There's been an extraordinary effect! So many have expressed a new awareness of opportunities right in their own backyard along with a greater global sensitivity.

February is Black History Month in the US, and with that in mind, the Journal's Jenny Sawyer spoke with Gail Hansberry , who has for decades been involved in African and African American affairs. She served as executive director of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Washington, DC from December of 1990 through March of 1992.

Peter Ackerman is the chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict in Washington, DC. Dr.

Featured with Jennifer Foster on Jubal-ation is baritone Gregory Emanuel Rahming, soloist for First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Westport, Connecticut. Mr.

Many church families of various denominations these days are having lively discussions about how their music ministries can be meaningful to their sometimes quite diverse congregations. Besides the obvious nuts-and-bolts of music production, there are deeper, spiritual issues.

For the last five years, Spirituality & Health magazine has—in the words of its editor Robert Owen Scott —been dedicated "to all who wish to dig deeper. " As part of the Journal's exploration of how people and magazines are communicating with today's spiritual seekers, Journal staffer Jeffrey Hildner talked with Scott in his office at Trinity Place, near Wall Street in New York City.

For The First Church of Christ, Scientist, the presentation of spiritual healing as lived by Christ Jesus and described in Mary Baker Eddy's book, Science and Health, is the key mission. Here, the Journal's Jeffrey Hildner interviews the managers of four different church activities, who tell how they are supporting that purpose.

As the Journal editorial staff talked about this focus on prayer, it was clear that we couldn't just stay at our desks. We wanted to hear what our neighbors are thinking about prayer.

Many people don't know that in addition to Retrospection and Introspection, Mary Baker Eddy wrote another autobiography entitled, Footprints Fadeless. This fall, Mary Baker Eddy, Speaking for Herself, a volume that contains both works along with an introduction by Jana Riess, religion book review editor for Publishers Weekly, w ill be issued.