FROM THE EDITORS January 12, 2009 Issue

PRAYING ABOUT PIRACY

IN AN ADDRESS to a Christian Science branch church almost exactly 110 years ago to this day, Sentinel founder Mary Baker Eddy offered a gently reassuring statement—one that still resonates with hope for people across the globe: "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 149–150).

That message comes to mind as many of us pray about a relatively new threat to world peace. It surfaced in the Gulf of Aden when in one two-week period in November, Somali pirates armed with grenade launchers and grappling hooks seized eight tankers, including a 1,100-foot-long Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil. Those assaults increased the threat against merchant shipping to levels not seen since World War II, and followed a rise in piracy off the coasts of West Africa, too, especially near the oil-producing Niger Delta.

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