I think adults and children in the church need new ways, new occasions for interaction and for continuing relationships. In many churches we like to think that the statistics we read about apply to other people's children. There are many children coming from affluent homes who lack a consistent, caring adult's attention. And the children that our children spend their lives with also have an effect on the kind of lives our children will live. I think certainly one of the implications of that question is that there ought to be at the very least within a community, or within a presbytery, a sharing of programs and resources and models that have proven effective.
Congregations often act in such isolation.
If the Episcopalians or the Baptists are doing something that is addressing one of these realities, then that ought to be known by Presbyterians and vice versa. I think also there are some models in the world. Despite many people's feelings that the church should not get mixed up in politics, it is unrealistic to think the church can or should remain aloof from the political situation. Charitable institutions and justice-related organizations have shown us that there are effective means to shape the lives of everyone. I am thinking here of lobbying efforts, of other kinds of work with political leaders, of calling our political leaders to accountability.