July/August 2000

Editorial

Fellowship Magazine: A Beacon for Peace

Harper's magazine recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. In the Harper's Index was this interesting fact: of the 155 magazines published in the U.S. in 1850, only thirteen remain. The Fellowship of Reconciliation-USA is only celebrating its eighty-fifth anniversary, but for peace movement organizations, as with people, reaching eighty-five is something to be proud of.

Throughout this history, Fellowship has always been there, a modest yet steady beacon that points the way toward a nonviolent path that many of us intuitively knew was before us, but that we still couldn't see clearly. Like most beacons, this one too instilled courage in those who were guided by it.

Fellowship has always served the FOR's mission, conveying images of what kind of world and sorts of people we want to become. Its pages have also carried the major debates in the peace and justice movement, arguments articulated by both barely-known activists and famous leaders. We would not expect less from the longest continuously published peace journal in the U.S.

Certain abiding images and goals have animated FOR over these many years, carrying its membership through the disappointments of social injustices and the horrors of war. A central image is that of the reconciled and beloved community "where differences are respected, conflicts are addressed nonviolently, oppressive structures are dismantled, and where people live in harmony with the earth, nurtured by diverse spiritual traditions that foster compassion, solidarity, and reconciliation." The FOR's main goal conveniently doubles as its method for bringing the beloved community to life: developing and promoting the theory and practice of nonviolent action.

As the FOR currently defines itself, "We are an interfaith organization committed to active nonviolence as a transforming way of life and as a means of radical change." Note especially the dual commitment to nonviolence: as both a lifestyle and a social change tactic. That two-track approach to nonviolent action has been a key to the organization's collective identity, the connecting thread among all the FOR's programs. This is the thread we see in the excerpts in this issue of Fellowship.

Our editorial task was made infinitely easier thanks to Walter Wink, who performed what can only be termed a "work of mercy." He read all the back issues of the magazine, originally called The New World for its first five issues, then The World Tomorrow, and now Fellowship since 1935. Weary-eyed yet inspired, Walter and others narrowed the thousands of essays to fifty-five essential articles.

Orbis Books has just published this extraordinary collection as Peace is the Way: Writings on Nonviolence from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, edited by Walter Wink. The few excerpts here have been selected from that 250-page manuscript. No article appears here in its entirety, and as ellipses were not used in the book manuscript, they are not used here either.

Patrick G. Coy, Guest Editor Patrick Coy, member of the FOR National Council, is a professor at the Center for Applied Conflict Management, Kent State University, where he teaches a course on "Nonviolence: Theory and Practice."