WHEN TIME began, 38 years ago, we introduced new ways of telling the news--such as dividing it into subjects and using a narrative style, etc. We've been imitated so much since then that what was once novelty is now standard. That's O.K. with us. But one of the other basic TIME innovations was a concern with matters we thought to be important news, but which most newspapers and magazines left to the small, specialized journals to cover. Instead of accenting violence, politics and sports (which most papers concentrated on), TIME widened its horizons to include news in the fields of art, education, medicine and science, among others. Again, we're glad that many newspapers, magazines, radio and TV programs now find these subjects newsworthy, and do a good job on them.

Still, there are disappointments. In New Delhi last week one of the most significant religious developments in recent years took place. In fact, one exuberant participant at the World Council of Churches meeting regards the occasion as the beginning of the Second Reformation of Christianity. Christianity's new impulse to cohesiveness--against a common threat from outside, against a tradition of centuries--is the subject of this week's cover story. Though 375 journalists (most of them from religious periodicals) were on hand to cover the proceedings in New Delhi, the event got scant attention in even the best of U.S. news papers.

For our own coverage, New Delhi bureau chief, Charles Mohr, 32, did much of the reporting. He is an old hand at filing for cover stories from his days of covering the White House during the Eisenhower Administration. He was joined by Donald S. Connery, 35, our bureau chief in Tokyo, who returned to his old base in New Delhi to help. In New York, the story was written from their cables by Douglas Auchincloss, whose 19th cover story this is, in his 15 years as Religion editor. It was edited by Senior Editor Bill Forbis, who has put in a busy month. He has been responsible for editing three out of the past four TIME cover stories (the other two: the Rembrandt painting in Art, Virologist Enders in Medicine).

RECENTLY, Music Editor Richard Murphy--aware of what a confusion there is of great, near-great and merely good concert pianists--set out to rank the best of them, and chose four. He seems to have survived the ordeal well: his choices were not seriously challenged. This week, on the occasion of Joan Sutherland's much-cheered debut at the Metropolitan Opera, Murphy dares to rank the greatest sopranos of the day. He finds six outstanding. Readers are again invited to disagree--or even, if they wish, to agree.

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