Last week, as we began the work of updating our print catalog, I was reminded of the huge investment many have made in Barclay Press. Nearly one in five Barclay Press titles, for instance, lists Arthur Roberts as a writer, editor, or contributor. Arthur edited a modern-English edition of Robert Barclay’s A Catechism and Confession. Arthur shared his poems in collections like Heavenly Fire, Let the Spirit Soar, and Look Closely at the Child. Arthur closely studied the life and work of George Fox in Through Flaming Sword. Then, in Prayers of Twilight, he explored his own mortality (and ours).
Arthur passed away this last December at the age of 93.
As a way of remembering Arthur’s contribution to Barclay Press, to George Fox University, and to Friends, we’re offering a 20 percent discount on all of Arthur’s titles for the next month. Click here to see the full collection. I hope that many of these might be books you already own and love.
In closing, I want to offer this excerpt from a letter Arthur sent to pastors in April 2003. His words for then still matter today (something that remains true for many of the words Arthur offered over the course of his life):
“Look through the lens of sovereign purpose to spot virtues shining in rough and parochial settings, e.g., soldiers risking their lives for each other, sorrowing families finding solace from caring neighbors, hungry children bonding with relief workers, medics healing broken bodies. In such activities the Spirit sows seeds of loyalty and love that when nourished will grow and flower in broader fields of humanity. Watch the Holy Spirit etch images of a million peace marchers into the consciences of the people world-wide. Anticipate not only a growing repudiation of war but also minds newly opened to embedded injustices that feed violence.
“Watch the Spirit prod religious leaders of the world into affirming full religious freedom, without monopolistic tyranny. Watch idealists search for foundational truth in the rubble of Babel’s tumbled towers. Witness lessons of compassion learned from refugees and from the families of the slain. Through communities of suffering God teaches everyone lessons about love. Rejoice in the bond of peace that will fuse into Kingdom solidarity humanitarian aid workers and the families they assist.
“My companions in the Gospel, rest your faith in the power and presence of the Lord, as expressed in Psalm 46:”
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.
6 The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
8 Come, behold the works of the LORD; see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.”
Eric Muhr
The way forward
I met with a writer two weeks ago. We talked about a potential book-length study on institutional conflict, and he asked me how we at Barclay Press like to work with writers in the development of a manuscript. Which stopped me for a minute. Because we don’t have a set process. At least not yet.
But that’s changing. With three books published this year and three more on the way, we’re starting to figure this out.
I started work as the new publisher at Barclay Press on Monday, January 4, 2016. My second day on the job, I received an email from Vail Palmer about his masterwork on Quaker theology. Vail had been working on the study for decades, and when we met up for lunch in February, I asked if he might let us publish a portion of his unfinished work as a first volume in a series. That volume, Face to Face: Early Quaker Encounters with the Bible, was released in July. We hope to have the second volume available this coming summer.
In March, Nancy Thomas asked if we could meet about a poetry collection she’d been working on, and in the first week of April, we had that meeting. Nancy’s collection, Close to the Ground, was also released in July.
Then, on a Saturday in November, a friend of mine approached me with an idea: a reader with more than fourteen hundred Bible passages – one each day for four years – illustrating God’s kingdom vision for a society in which all are valued as individuals bearing God’s image. We finished that book, Praying for Justice: A Lectionary of Christian Concern, just in time to ship the first week of this month. Since then, we’ve sold out each of our first three shipments and are working through our fourth print run.
Our next book is Presence and Process, Danny Coleman’s study of contemplative practice and process theology. Carole Spencer, Professor of Christian Spirituality at Earlham School of Religion, provided the introduction, and early endorsements are already coming in - Bruce Epperly, Tripp Fuller, J. R. Hustwit, Brian McLaren, and Richard Rohr – suggesting the importance of Danny’s work.
We’re also working through Jim Teeters’ collection of devotional poetry inspired by the Tao Te Ching and informed by his Christian/Quaker experience.
Here at Barclay Press, part of the way forward as Publishers of Truth is to publish books that tell the truth. It’s been just over a year since I started as the publisher at Barclay Press, and along with the books I mention above, we have nearly a dozen additional publishing projects in various stages of completion. I still feel like I don’t really know what I’m doing. But we’re doing it.
Eric Muhr
The tools we need
In this morning’s Fruit of the Vine, Harold Arnett offers a reflection on Acts 3, one in which he’s reminded of a Christmas gift from his wife, a new drill. “I was a bit disappointed when I opened the gift,” Harold writes. “The new drill was tiny, about half the size and weight of the one I already had. ‘I don’t need a toy drill,’” he thought.
It’s not an obvious connection, but this is what we find in the story Harold refers to from Acts 3: “Peter and John were going up to the temple. . . . And a man lame from birth was being carried in. . . . When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. . . . Peter said, ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk. . . . Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.”
Again and again in my own life, I’ve found this to be consistent with the way God answers prayer. Stuck in an impossible place, I pray for help. Unfortunately, the answers that come to mind are too small for the problem I’m facing. So I continue to pray. And, if I’m honest, I also continue to be frustrated. What I forget is that God is more likely to bring me a seed of future potential than the specific thing I think I need. I ask for what I want right now – relief. But God wants to give me freedom.
Harold found that this tiny new drill “had the same torque as the older, larger, heavier drill,” allowing for “hours of overhead drilling or driving without my arm and shoulder beginning to ache.” And as he reflects on his life, Harold recognizes that “what at first disappointed me in God’s response to some request or longing actually proved to be far better than the thing or situation for which I had asked.” God always gives “greater growth, greater blessing, greater good” than we first imagined.
Here at Barclay Press, I’ve been praying for more people who might give monthly to support the work we do as publishers of truth, sharing stories that have the potential to change lives. And people do give! Little by little this last year, we’ve reduced inventory, paid down significant portions of our long-term debt, and built up a small but stable fund-reserve that’s saved us more than once. The thing is, God isn’t calling us to pay our bills (as much as that matters). God intends for us to grow and to flourish and to make a difference. So I’m taking Harold’s words to heart this morning, and I’m thanking God for knowing our work well enough to give us the tools we need, even if at first they seem too small to be of use.
Eric Muhr