FROM THE editors October 20, 2003 Issue

'What a wonderful world...'

Thousands of years ago the Psalmist David declared: "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord" (Ps. 33:5). One might wonder, Was that statement true then, but not now? Just take a quick perusal of today's headlines, with their warnings of environmental threats, bombings, war, natural and personal disasters. It would be easy to buy into the sense of foreboding that often hangs over television newscasts, economic forecasts, and everyday conversations. Yet that temptation should be resisted. Even in today's strangely woven world, those glorious words from the Old Testament are still valid, still predictive of what must inexorably come to pass "in earth, as it is in heaven."

Here's a modest example of what we mean. Last year, on a bright summer Sunday, a terrorist attack on a hotel in Indonesia took 12 lives and wounded nearly 150 innocent people. Halfway around the world in Boston, people on the streets went about their daily business, but one could tangibly feel in the air sadness and uncertainty about the future.

That evening across the river in Cambridge, however, a small congregation of the United Church of Christ gathered for its evening church service, and one of our Sentinel staffers joined them. People sat in chairs in a semicircle and participated in informal worship, sharing thoughts and prayers about the day's events. A jazz trio played its interpretation of traditional hymns.

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