One of the foremost analysts of contemporary religion recently gave vent to his exasperation with people who criticize ecumenical organizations such as the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches. "Why do you even waste time commenting on those groups? Don't you know that nobody cares about what those relics do? Certainly their pronouncements have nothing to do with what's really happening in the churches." This private expression, it should be noted, comes from one solidly located in the "liberal mainstream" of American Protestantism. Let the record show that he supports these ecumenical agencies wholeheartedly. It is just that he is totally indifferent to them. The simple truth, he says, is that they no longer matter very much.