The 42nd annual Anglican Fellowship of Prayer International Conference convened April 27-29 under the theme, "Prayer: Making the Most of the Millennium." Nearly 200 registrants from widely scattered states, Canada and the Bahamas went to Nashville, Tenn., for the three-day conference.

The Rev. Dallas Willard, professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California and an ordained Baptist minister, offered three keynote addresses. "Why make requests in prayer?" he asked in a plenary session. We hesitate to pray, he noted, partly because we think nature is "fixed and unchanging, that there is nothing we can do about it." Or we suspect that "God is fixed and we are not going to change God." Yet the biblical picture reveals that God is not "a great cosmic stare, an unmoved Mover who looks unblinkingly at everything." Instead, Mr. Willard argued, God responds. "God will do some things in prayer he won't do if you don't ask."

Mr. Willard also addressed the problem of unanswered prayers, and noted that "we are interested in wielding power when God is more interested in our character. We are interested in results when God is interested in our growth." His concluding message focused on the "sweetness" of prayer and communion with God.

Other presenters included the Rt. Rev. Bertram Herlong, Bishop of Tennessee, and the Rev. Colenzo Hubbard of the Emmanuel Center in Memphis, Tenn.