The coming of the third millennium will be a time for parties, retrospectives, predictions and lots of lists.
It's also becoming something of a religious event, especially for Roman Catholics.Pope John Paul II issued a proclamation that 2000 is both a holy year and a "great jubilee" to recognize the joy of 20 centuries of Christianity, using a term from ancient Jewish tradition for a period of celebration and a time of forgiveness for past debts.
"This is an occasion to remind ourselves that Jesus came among us 2,000 years ago," said Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, Md. "We must use every aspect to reaffirm this. It is something that catches the imagination and touches the heart."
Keeler, who is helping plan Catholic millennial celebrations in the United States, said the Catholic church will be working to expand interest in the millennium.
"We are in very serious discussions to have an affirmation with Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities," the cardinal said. "We in the Catholic community will be doing some very visi- ble things to celebrate the great jubilee."
But America's Jewish and Muslim communities are uncertain how much to acknowledge the millennium.
"I was in Rome to meet with the archbishops (who prepared the pope's announcement) and 'jubilee' was a term that they used insistently," said Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, chairman of the National Council of Synagogues. "If Christianity sees this as a chance of reflection and renewal, it is certainly something that we can affirm."
However, Waxman, from his synagogue in Great Neck, N.Y., said there are limits to the amount of support Jews can give. "Obviously, it can't be a religious celebration for us. This is, by our calendar, the year 5759 since creation," he said.
Yet he and Keeler, members of a group called the Catholic-Jewish Consultation, in May issued a joint statement of their "Reflections on the Millennium," urging both faiths to "work together to prepare the way for the coming of the reign of God, for which we both pray."
Muslim publisher Abdal Hakim Murad said that many Islamic followers are "regrettably planning celebrations of some kind" when the millennium arrives. A magazine in Turkey has started publication under the title "Iki Bin'e Dogru" which means "Straight to 2000."
"This semi-hysteria should be of little interest to us," Murad said. "As Muslims, we have our own calendar. The year 2000 will, in fact, begin during the year 1420 of the Hijra. Isn't this just another example of annoying and irrelevant Western influence?"
The pope's call for a holy year has excited some interest in other quarters of Christianity. Archbishop Spyridon, head of the Greek Orthodox Church for North and South America, has said he will celebrate the millennium as a time for self-examination.
But few leaders among America's Protestant churches have taken up the call for the millennium as a religious event.
The Rev. Jerry Falwall has produced a $25 video cassette titled "Y2K: A Christian's Guide to the Millennium Bug" to advise the audience of his "Old Time Gospel Hour" television show how to reduce the risks from computer failure in older mainframe systems. But he has not discussed the millennium in other terms.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association announced this month that it will host "Amsterdam 2000" in Europe, an event association President John Corts predicts will attract 10,000 religious leaders from 185 countries to "launch world evangelism into the 21st century and a new millennium."
In a similar theme, Ray Thompson, executive director of Baptist International Missions, decided to call a new initiative for his group the "Third Millennium Missions" program. "We approach the 21st century with our churches facing the responsibility of the third millennium missions," he said.
Thompson urged Baptist ministers to expand beyond their base in the United States, to learn new languages so they can preach throughout the world.