Welcome to the 133rd year of publication of the Presbyterian Record. It's still fall as I write this – despite the snow – but we already have a full line-up of stories and features for 2009 – not to mention covering the news as it happens.
Here are some of the broad issues we'll be looking at.
Mainline denominations in Canada are going through some interesting times. While it is true that numbers are still falling, it is also true that people's hunger for spirituality continues to grow unabated.
The big question for churches is whether as institutions they can meet the needs of individuals. Given their breadth and depth of spiritual resources, there is no reason why they can't. But are they?
A number of researchers have been engaged in figuring this out and we will be bringing you some of their findings – and some of the possible solutions.
The widely held suspicion is that they aren't. Why is that?
But it's not enough for us to report on these issues from a distance. We don't pretend to have all the answers (if indeed there are answers, as such), so we are working on broadening the ways you, as readers, can interact with the Record, its staff and each other. Because as always, there is likely more to be gained by engaging in dialogue than in dispensing advice, as if spirituality could be taken in pill form.
We are also refining our redesign of the Record based on the excellent feedback we received from several groups of readers who graciously participated in in-depth focus groups earlier this fall.
Thank you to all those who gave their time to help us by candidly sharing your views about the publication. Your comments have been invaluable as we shape the magazine to address readers' needs.
And while we can't invite everyone to spend 90 minutes with us, we do want to hear your views. I invite you to e-mail me with your comments about what we're doing well and also not so well.
We are also in the process of revamping our website to make it more interactive. Soon, you'll be able to read others' comments and add your own at the end of a story. We'll also have lots of other ways in which readers will be able to have a conversation with other readers and the church as a whole.
An increasing number of readers have indicated an interest in having an online subscription to the magazine. Others have thoughtfully but mistakenly cancelled their subscription to save us postage.
Not mailing a subscription does save the postage, but the loss to the magazine is far greater than the cost of mailing. If you want to continue to read the Record, please do not cancel your subscription!
We will also be offering online-only subscriptions for those who only want to read stories on their computer or smart phone.
Finally, let me offer a thank you to all of you who so generously donated to the Record's annual appeal. Although we won't know exactly how many donors there were or what the final tally is until sometime in January, we have received almost $100,000 to date.
This speaks volumes about the amazing generosity of our readers. Your financial support provides a crucial portion of our annual income. It has already allowed us to switch to more expensive but more environmentally friendly newsprint. Your appeal support will also permit us to weather the several proposed changes to postal rates that threatens to drive up that aspect of our publishing costs.
This is going to be an exciting year at the Record and we hope you will share in that excitement as we move forward.
In one of the first articles he wrote for the Record in the summer of 1989, as he was just starting his Cariboo Ministry, Rev. David Webber challenged the church: “I dare us to have the vision to put Christ at the centre of our mission and ministry instead of our 'sacred model.' Freed from the traditional and 'sacred model,' what possibilities exist for mission and faithfulness in your location?”
As he shares monthly in his column For The Journey, Webber works hard at meeting his own challenge. He exposes his own vulnerability to show that faith is not static; it is a process, a journey, filled with fits and starts. But we are not alone.
Or as he writes in this month's column: “I always knew I had to believe in him, but it never occured to me that [Jesus] believes in me. This is the Epiphany with which I begin 2009.”
We wish you many epiphanies this year.
