Editorial: "You Like Us! You Really Like Us!"

*published inthe Pacific Church News, Aug/Sept 1997*

A few weeks ago we sent out our 1997 PCN Donation Appeal. We have already seen some generous donations, and just as importantly, many of your comments!

Overwhelmingly, your comments have been positive. Opening the envelopes and reading your many compliments and blessings, I felt like Sally Field at the Oscars a few years ago: "You like us! You really like us!"

Many of the glowing notes were about the beautiful new designs Andrea Sohn puts together, as well as her general re-design under the PCN's former editors, Sarah Blackmun and Karyn Wolfe.
I can also tell that many of you read this magazine very closely, for I read many notes approving of the new, more "newsy" editorial direction that our current editor, Dennis Delman, has instituted. "Bravo!" you have said, and we reply with a heartfelt "thanks."

Not surprisingly, when it comes to the popularity of certain sections in the PCN, the hands-down winner was Bishop Swing's column. As one reader put it, "Bill Swing's articles are outstanding," and we couldn't agree more. His articles provide a "human touch" so important in a news-oriented publication like ours.

We also found, reading your comments, that the PCN has readers as far away as Australia, and that there are many people who no longer live in the Bay Area who continue to feel connected to their spiritual "home" through the PCN's ministry.

Although the vast majority of your comments were praise, there were also many suggestions which I have already found to be invaluable in preparing the issue you now hold in your hands.
Most of the criticisms were constructive, but I found one which kept reappearing. Several readers have taken us to task for being too "Politically Correct." I find such statements puzzling since our theological approach has been solidly moderate, striving for both sensitivity and accuracy at all times.

It is also disturbing because it reduces people's real concern for equality and justice to a perjoritive label ("Political Correctness") which can then be summarily dismissed. There are many aspects of the "PC agenda" which cannot be so easily dismissed by Christians. Such "agenda items" as feeding the hungry, companioning the lonely, clothing the naked, and declaring freedom to those who have lived in bondage are not inventions of the left but Gospel imperatives, the responsibility for which is shared by all Christians. If this is the "Political Correctness" of which we are accused, I joyfully plead guilty, and would hope that any other sister or brother in Christ would do the same.

Fortunately in this diocese, Jesus' imperatives to care for each other are realized to a heartening degree through the agencies of the Episcopal Charities Appeal and many other programs supported by the caring people of this diocese.

Our church communities also reach out to the neighborhoods around them, where both laity and clergy bring Jesus to people in ways that are liberating, life-changing, and healing. With a record like that, who cares about being "correct?"

In this issue, we see many examples of this kind of ministry. Our cover story reports on the rousing success of Christmas in April (p. 8); in the Diocesan Digest you can read about the generous donations of clothing and time from the parishioners of St. Anselm's, Lafayette (p. 16); and finally, in our Ministries and News section, the residents of St. Paul's Towers, Oakland, are committed to being Christ to their community (p. 27).

We hope you enjoy this issue as much as you have enjoyed its predecessors. God's Peace!

-John R. Mabry

P.S. We are disappointed to discover that we can no longer allow personal advertising in the PCN. Government regulations on 2nd Class postage say that the only "ads" we are permitted to run are "in house," or notices from Diocesan groups only. We regret that this regulation may cause some inconvenience to our long-time advertisers, and we have decided to make the notices in the back of the PCN (p.30) available to all of our readers, free of charge. As we have a very limited space, however, notices will be selected at the editor's discretion.