Tidings

>"We cannot wait until an election. Unless the American people end the war now, tens of thousands of unnecessary victims will be killed, wounded or rendered homeless between now and the inauguration of the next President." So saying, five women and nine men began a "fast for life" last week at New York Theological Seminary in Manhattan, where they will live during the vigil. The fasters will take nothing but water for an "indefinite period," hoping to inspire a "new stage of resistance" among Americans. The 14 included familiar peace-movement veterans (David Dellinger, former Benedictine Monk Paul Mayer), younger recruits in their early 20s, and Roman Catholic Priest Tom Lumpkin of Detroit. Lumpkin carried the blessings of Detroit's two auxiliary bishops, Thomas Gumbleton and Walter Schoenherr, who promised their "prayers in this just cause." >For three years Anglicans and Lutherans have been holding international talks to bring about a closer mutual relationship. Now the two teams of representatives have issued a joint report in London "unanimously" urging increased intercommunion, more joint worship and even integrated ministries between the two groups. The report notes that the two bodies now recognize each other as basically "catholic" and "apostolic." In the wake of Roman Catholic talks with both Anglicans and Lutherans, the report could help pave the way for intercommunion among all three groups within the decade.

> Some two months ago the steeple of the red-brick Hobbs Street Church of Christ in Athens, Ala. (pop. 14,000), was sliced in two by a bolt of lightning. This may have been prophetic, for now the Hobbs Street congregation is split just as surely, and all because of a bathing suit. The one-piece white swimsuit was worn by nubile blonde Becky Marshall, 17, as she won a Fourth-of-July beauty contest to name "Miss Spirit of America." Trouble was, Becky's father, Charles Marshall, was the minister of the Hobbs Street church. Aghast, the elders of the church fired Marshall. When 251 of the 371-member congregation petitioned for his reinstatement, the elders refused to budge. Now more than 200 of Marshall's supporters have followed him into exile to open a new church. As for Becky, she's going to try for the Miss Alabama title next year.

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