On Behalf of the Cast
With this Reformation Sunday issue we begin our second year of publishing Pietisten. By happy coincidence the pericope texts for Reformation Day include Psalm 46, the middle section of which we lifted up in the cover article of our introductory issue. It begins with this wonderful word, "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God."
We reawakened the old journal Pietisten and have continued nurturing it this past year because each of us on the staff has been made glad by one of that river's streams which is known as pietism. What has been our unexpected joy in all of this is that the life and resources of that stream have not only continued to nourish each of us as individuals but as a group as well; indeed, they have brought the four of us together and interwoven us into a community which we recognize: as conventicle. Each issue of Pietisten is the end result of several gatherings of this conventicle (my title of managing editor is actually an embarrassing misnomer — Pietisten is very much a group process from start to finish).
Even more of a glad surprise has been the discovery throughout this year that there are many besides ourselves who find themselves interconnected through their appreciation of the pietist movement and its perspectives on life and the Christian experience. Nearly one hundred subscribers now receive Pietisten; our other readers and interested friends greatly expand the list of those who share in the discussions of our journaL In this sense we view Pietisten as one of the resources of an extended conventicle which includes a few hundred people around its table.
We are grateful for your response to our effort and we intend as a staff to continue to provide Pietisten as such a resource, expanding, we hope, its range of articles, its contributors and its audience — and to have a fun time while we' re doing it! Thanks again for your contributions to this wonderful and surprising year.