ECUMENICAL DICTIONARY
As someone with a general interest in the various ecumenical movements I took note when the World Council of Churches sent a press release this morning announcing publication of "the long-awaited revised and expanded second edition of the Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement." This is a book "produced by the World Council of Churches (WCC)..." And "...this volume is an essential tool for study and research on the movement and for passing the ecumenical memory on to a new generation."

I'm no particular WCC fan -- although they've got some strengths -- and what they are doing in ecumenics is a lot better than what the rest of us aren't doing. Still you have to wonder about an organization which makes a big splash about this new tool (with some pretty good editors -- including Geoffrey Wainwright) yet they don't include any kind of information in the release about how to get the book. No publisher. No ISBN. No nothing.

So I went to the WCC website and hunted around for information. Nothing. Fortunately amazon.com came through. But they would have to special order it and it costs $80. I suppose the price doesn't matter if you're not really expecting anyone to order it anyway. I'm wondering about just how capable they are of "passing the ecumenical memory on to a new generation" if it's such an ordeal to pass along a book.