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In 1979, as Christmas approached, the United States Embassy in Tehran held more than fifty American hostages, who had been seized when revolutionaries stormed the embassy. No one from the U.S. had been able to have contact with them. The Reverend M. William Howard, Jr., was the president of the National Council of Churches at the time, and when he received a telegram from the Revolutionary Council, inviting him to perform Christmas services for the hostages, he jumped at the opportunity. In America, \u201cwe had a public that was quite riled up,\u201d Reverend Howard reminds his son, The New Yorker Radio Hour\u2019s Adam Howard. \u201cWho knows what might have resulted if this issue were not somehow addressed? . . .Might there be an American invasion, an attempt to rescue the hostages in a militaristic way?\u201d Reverend Howard was aware that the gesture had some propaganda value to the Iranian militants, but he saw a chance to lower the tension. Accompanied by another Protestant minister and a Catholic bishop, Howard entered front-page headlines, travelling to Tehran and into the embassy. He gave the captives updates on the N.F.L. playoffs, and they prayed. It was a surreal experience to say the least. \u201cIt was in the Iranian hostage crisis that I understood how alone we are, and how powerless we are when other people take control,\u201d Reverend Howard says. \u201cAnd really it\u2019s in that setting that one can develop faith.\u201d