The Association of Diocesan Liturgy and Music Commissions' conference in Oshkosh, Wis., Nov. 13-17, focused on "L2K: The Changing Context of Music & Liturgy." The Rev. Charles Fulton, keynote speaker and president of Church Building Fund, discussed the church's ministry to various generations.

"The Episcopal Church works well for those over 50 years old," he said. "One-quarter of the Boomers come back, mainly for their children. But we are really off base with the unchurched Gen Xers." Many of them, he said, have never been in a religious building. They hate our music. Their kids will grow up with no church experience.

The world today is decreasingly Christian, he said, but is spiritually hungry, reachable by one-to-one contact. "We can't talk about liturgy but about Jesus."

Technologically, he said the church is living in the 18th century. "We were the sound and light show. Not any more. 'Ally McBeal' is the Gen X liturgy."

The church, Fr. Fulton said, no longer looks like "the world I live in ... the grocery store, the airport ... the real world is not homogeneous. But we minister to other ethnic groups" rather than with them. "We have got to offer more than one kind of liturgy, music, Christian education. Baskin & Robbins under the Episcopal Church would be vanilla and chocolate, and we'd split over that." Churches, he said, should be "acting like dioceses, with lots going on."

Workshops included "The Role of the Liturgical Presider," by the Rev. Canon Janet Campbell of the Diocese of Chicago; "Musical Leadership: An Instrument of Change," led by Julia Huttar Bailey of St. Clare's Church, Ann Arbor, Mich.; and "Enriching Our Worship," in which Phoebe Pettingell of the Diocese of Fond du Lac, chair of the Expansive Language Committee of the Standing Liturgical Commission on Liturgy and Music (SCLM), described the newly developed services for death and dying and the burial of a child. Frank Tedeschi of Church Publishing gave a demonstration of new CD-ROMs encompasing the Book of Common Prayer, the three hymnals (1982; Lift Every Voice and Sing II; Wonder, Love, and Praise), and lectionary commentary. The entire set, to be shown at General Convention, will be called The Rite Stuff.

The Rev. Joseph Russell, Diocese of Ohio, who chaired the Consultation on Common Texts, described the Revised Common Lectionary, in use in many American denominations and in some Anglican provinces around the world. New texts, he said, will highlight the role of women, and bring to the fore the prophetic Old Testament.

If adopted by next year's General Convention, the RCL would become standard with Advent 1, 2001.

Business meetings discussed other issues to be heard at General Convention: new liturgies, names proposed for the calendar and blessing of same-sex unions. The conference elected Patrick Campbell, program co-chair, president-elect. Next year's conference will take place at Kanuga Conference Center.