A Belief That We Can Do More

I’ll admit it: a year ago, I was worried. Returning from the World Quaker Plenary meeting in South Africa, I had felt the weight of a concern that we at Friends Publishing were falling short in carrying out our mission. Despite the great geographic dispersal of Quakers and the potential for the internet to carry our stories anywhere on the globe, our audience was concentrated in North America and a few English-speaking countries. Eighty-seven percent of the people we were reaching came from places with less than thirty percent of the world’s Quakers. We had work to do. With some visionary support from generous Friends, the Friends Publishing team has been busy tackling this challenge over the past year, and I’d like to share with you news of our progress.

In October, we welcomed Alfred Mbai to our staff in the role of corresponding editor for Africa. Alfred is passionate about reimagining and retelling the African religious narrative from an African perspective. Trained in both communications and ecumenical theology, Alfred has already begun developing relationships with Quaker writers across Africa and suggesting ways we can use new media to increase African Friends’ engagement in global Quaker conversations.

Renzo Carranza, who joined our team in June, has been cultivating the contributions of Latin American Friends in a similar way, and in this issue, we’re very pleased to begin sharing articles that originated as Spanish-language manuscripts. Jasson Arevado’s “You Will Be Told What You Must Do: A Biblical Perspective on Quaker Pastors” makes for an illuminating beginning. Readers can expect many more contributions from the Spanish-speaking Quaker world to enrich our understanding of how God is leading Friends today.

Thanks to the generous support of readers like you, we’ve built the world’s largest library of free Quaker materials. And this year, we’ve made it even more accessible: as of now, all of the material on Friendsjournal.org, Quaker.org, and Quakerspeak.com is available in Spanish and Swahili translations as well as English, and new stories will be translated into these widely spoken Quaker languages going forward. We’re already seeing this change lead to increased readership. Both Alfred and Renzo have contributed mightily to this project.

We envision a Quaker publishing ministry that more thoroughly draws from and reaches audiences across the world and across our theological and cultural diversity. So what do I believe? I believe that the next big opportunity for growth in our mission is to zoom out, to embrace the reality of Quakerism as a diverse, multilingual, global faith tradition. We’re taking steps to embrace this opportunity. Reader, I hope that we can walk together!

We could have filled a dozen issues with fascinating Quaker responses to our theme: What Do We Believe? The testimonies that our editors have curated in these pages are but a taste. Let them linger in your mind and in your heart. For me, understanding what my fellow Friends believe challenges me to think more deeply about my own leadings. I can’t help but be changed.

I’m excited to work toward a world where Quaker perspectives and values have ever more reach and influence, one where Quakers everywhere can develop and nourish a global spiritual perspective. With God’s guidance, I believe we’ll see that Friends can transcend political and cultural parochialism and think boldly about what unites us.