54 SOCIAL SCIENTIST reading it from the point of view of the poor and oppressed classes. Also, they are beginning to assume once again the responsibility of themselves directing their churchly activity. And, finally, they arc beginning to re-appropriate liturgical and sacramental symbols and to find new possibilities for contemplation, celebration and cucharist,which can provide a common sign of their two-fold fidelity, to Christ and to the liberating struggle of the poor. A truly new form of the church can be developed only in a society which has broken down the structures of domination and laid foundations of the objective conditions for liberty and justice. We know that no type of historical society or church can ever be totally free of sin, and therefore the forward pull toward human and Christian fullness of life will never cca»e. Nevertheless, the Utopian perspective has already attained a mobilizing impetus in today's struggle, promoting new kinds of local Christian participation still groping and provisional but not less vital for all that. It is in this growth of a people's church that the Christian conscience takes on class-consciousness without being reduced to it. Throughout this forward groping the Christian community slowly begins to envision the features of the future society. To the degree that the people become the subject of history, the people of God will be the true subject of the church. The church will be an effective sign of God's love and of Christ the Liberator only if it becomes in itself an effective and prophetic sign of a different kind of future, not only beyond but in the very heart of history. Hopeful Signs A growing number of Christians in five continents are joining in the struggles for the liberation of the people. These Christians are shaping a broad current, defined by a new quest of faith and a search for churchly forms within a proletarian and socialist political practice. In the different countries, these Christians are forming a variety of grassroots groups and national movements. They are not, nor do they wish to be, ^Christian" political parties. On the contrary, viewing the workers' movement as necessarily one, these Christians are joining proletarian parties and organizations. Inserted in and somewhat dispersed throughout the polical struggle, they nonetheless unite to carry on in the Christian domain an ideological struggle which is becoming more and more important. This activity brings new motives for coming together in committed Christian communities where a liberating evangelization and the seeds of a peopled church are germinating. In this way, a new kind of Christianity, tied to the interests of the working class, is arising as an alternative to a Christianity allied ideologically and structurally to the dominant system of exploitation. As part of this wider current, the ^Christians for Socialism" movement is nourished by it, and in some countries and certain situations it constitutes an