It is significant and hopeful that in the aftermath of Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day (see Research and Media Debate) the global launch of a Charter for Compassion has taken place - an initiative (see Thinking in Action) which Ekklesia intends to participate in alongside others.
 
The Charter brings together people of religious, spiritual and ethical commitment to reassert the centrality of human values and connectedness in our discussion and action on justice, peace and ecology - from the international level to the very local and personal. This is a wake-up call in a world where the way we look back, around and forward is often dominated by deeply damaging narratives of tribal conflict and ideologically-driven antipathy.
 
Of course it will take much more than 'being nice' to turn the world around. Tough political, moral and belief issues have to be tackled. But talk of 'issues' can easily become remote and impersonal. We need to be reminded that the political is personal, and vice versa, precisely because it is about human beings. It is also spiritual because, as our highlighted quotations stress, the global dilemmas we face raise profoundly theological questions (often in apparently secular ways) and act as a challenge to the deceptive complexity of much modern living.
 
In tune with all this is the personal-political public demonstration ('manifestation', as Spanish speakers would evocatively put it) presently being coordinated by Christian Aid and the Stop Climate Chaos coalition in the run-up to the Copenhagen Summit in December '09 (see Event).
 
Meanwhile our feature articles provide expert commentary on the implications for human flourishing and action (including action by Christians and others of faith) from major world events past and present: the fall of Berlin Wall and the deepening conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
 
As a backdrop to such concerns, our online book service partner Metanoia (who have a sale going on at the moment) is providing an opportunity for a discount purchase of a timely collection of writings from Mennonite scholar John Howard Yoder, 'Christian Attitudes to War, Peace and Revolution' (see Reading Allowed), made available widely for the first time.