Heroic tasks for a world fit to live in.

Over the last months of the 20th century, this magazine reported and supported two grassroots campaigns, one global and the other British. Jubilee 2000 calls for the international debts of the poorest countries to be written off, removing a burden hanging over millions of people so that they can enter the new century with a clean slate. Using the same phrase, the Clean Slate Campaign encouraged individuals to take at least one practical step to wipe their personal slates clean in the run-up to the new Millennium.

Both campaigns have had a major impact. When a retired British diplomat and a lecturer in politics first met at a conference in Cheshire in 1993, both hoped but perhaps never quite believed that Jubilee 2000 would become a touchstone for the world's conscience. It has been supported by rock stars, the Vatican, the White House and millions around the world. The task is far from over and the campaign continues through this year.

When Edward Peters in Oxford apologized to work colleagues whom he had `bad-mouthed', he had no idea that that act of personal reconciliation would lead to a campaign which would touch countless individuals and gain the support of national political and religious figures. The Clean Slate Campaign was reported around the world including to two million listeners of the BBC World Service.

There is a link between the two campaigns, beyond the use of the same phrase. The Bishop of London pointed out recently that when we make acts of personal apology and reconciliation a great spiritual energy is released. Such acts can also liberate the mind and imagination to think of the wider issues the world faces--and perhaps to take on heroic aims, as the two founders of Jubilee 2000 did. Christ put it this way: `The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold on it.'

Wiping the personal slate clean is, of course, never a one-off experience but a continuing process, as fallible human nature causes us to fall short of the ideal. But the question remains, what new heroic tasks will individuals take on, liberated from the down-drag of personal preoccupations? There is no shortage of issues as we begin the new century. A fairer trading system and distribution of the world's wealth? The elimination of corruption or racial prejudice? The restoration of sound family life? Each person will have their own wish list for the new Millennium. But each heroic task, of whatever scale, may begin, or be given new impetus, through the small kernel of personal decisions.