Inside Flourish Magazine, Spring 2012

Thank You Kendra

The issue of Flourish magazine you’re viewing is the fruit of many hands, evidence of the faithful work of a community. Leading that band of writers, poets, artists, thinkers, and volunteers for the last three years has been the work of our managing editor, Kendra Langdon Juskus, to whom we now bid a farewell. There is no way to communicate the thanks I owe her for her vision, hard work, charity, and grace. As one of the co-founders of Flourish in 2009, she stepped out on faith to create a new environment for faithful Christians to engage in conversations about tending and keeping God’s good earth and about loving and serving the people who depend on it. From the outset, we knew we had to have Kendra on our team. We couldn’t have done this without her, and we wouldn’t have done this without her.

The body of work in Flourish magazine and on the website is largely a result of her unique ability to bring disparate strands of Christian theology and philosophy to bear on the environmental and social problems our culture faces today. Where others saw the need to confront and dispute, Kendra saw the possibility of dialogue and growth. I and the rest of the Flourish staff relied on her judgment, which she exercised prudentially; she discipled us always to regard others more highly than ourselves, and she reminded us that her red pen was always wielded for our benefit. She taught me to be critical of my first reactions and my first drafts!

In this issue, Kendra takes a turn as author (a role in which we hope she appears often now) of our feature article on animal stewardship. She reminds us that compassion for animals can transcend political ideologies, bringing together Christian environmentalists and those believers who are skeptical about environmentalism’s claims.

Kendra has left Flourish as a paid employee, but she remains a trusted advisor, editorial board member, and friend. She now works at the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College, and continues to win awards for her poetry and prose. 

In the words of poet D.S. Martin (whose work appears in this issue), we pray that Kendra continues, with her life and her words, to sing “a song to counter the spirit of the age, the rage & rush the panic & push, the flitter scamper clamber cage, the grasp after what won’t last. Sing of the thing that continues, the prolonged the extended; a song from ancient days, of those whose strength is their length.”

We also welcome with this issue our new editorial intern, Lena Connor.

Grace and peace,

 

 

Rusty Pritchard
EDITOR