Religion: De-Estrangement?

The leaders of the ecumenical movement—the central committee of the World Council of Churches—met last week for the first time in Communist territory. In Hungary's resort town of GalyatetÖ, 85 miles northeast of Budapest, the 90 committeemen, plus 300-odd "fraternal delegates," observers and assorted bureaucrats of the 162-church World Council gathered for their annual meeting. Before an assembly including delegates from Communist China, Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Poland, the council's Dutch General Secretary W. A. Visser 't Hooft said: "The World Council lives its own life in complete independence from any particular political...