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Dear readers,
Church and Peace: is a European ecumenical network of peace churches and peace church-oriented congregations, communities and service agencies. The most recent issue of the Quarterly placed much emphasis upon an event which has been labelled quite correctly as "the biggest and most representative meeting of European Christians in this century": the Second European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz (23-27 June 1997). Many members and friends of Church and Peace attended and assisted in preparing this assembly. Their reports in this issue illustrate that more than 10,000 people from across Europe experienced a time of meaningful fellowship and sharing in Graz. Under the theme "Reconciliation: Gift of God and Source of New Life", persons of extremely varied confessional and political backgrounds showed their readiness to discuss openly the conflicts shaping the political and ecumenical landscape of Europe and to search for feasible paths of reconciliation. In Graz many realised for the first time that which Johannes Dantine, acting president of the Austrian Council of Churches, noted before the Assembly, Here we would like to thank you our readers for your financial support of the Peace House. In this manner you have made a very noticeable contribution to the success of this "first European Church Conference". Over the past year printing and mailing costs for the Quarterly have unfortunately gone up once again. Thus it is necessary to increase the subscription cost for 1998 to �12 ($25 outside Europe). We ask for your understanding in this matter. The editorial team thanks all of you for your encouragement this past year. We look forward to receiving your contributions in the coming year. We appreciate your support through feedback as well as reports of church and peace-related activities in your churches, communities and organisations. Christian Hohmann |