SEA OF FAITH MAGAZINE BELONGS TO YOU — each member of the Network. It is yours to use as you wish. Yours to read and yours to write for, yours to pass on to friends or yours to keep for yourself.
The magazine is put together by a voluntary editor, appointed by and responsible to the Network’s elected steering committee. It is designed by a part-time professional in consultation with the editor. It is distributed by a voluntary distribution manager appointed by the steering committee.
It is a team effort — and you can be part of the team. You can help in two ways.
First, you can write and tell us what you like and what you don't like about the magazine: the way it looks, the way it feels, the way it reads. Is it too Christian and too preoccupied with the churches?
Or is it too humanistic and secular? Is it too intellectual or too “popular”? Does it adequately reflect the wide range of views and approaches within Sea of Faith? If not, what is missing?
Is it too “professional”, inhibiting those who think they are “not clever enough” to contribute? Is it biased towards the articulate? Would you prefer a more open forum where people can express themselves freely without “being a writer”? How would you organise that?
Does the magazine need to be edited? Would it be better if editorial filters were removed? Should responsibility for the magazine lie with an elected editorial committee rather than with an appointed editor responsible to the steering committee?
Would that make it a better magazine?
Or do you like it as it is?
If you have a view, let us hear it! Write either to the editor or the Network chair, addresses on page 2. In writing to the editor, please make it clear if your letter is NOT intended for publication.
The other way in which you can be part of the team is to write for us. Some of our articles are commissioned but most are unsolicited contributions from readers. You may want to comment on something you have read, or open up a new subject. Both kinds of contribution are very welcome.
But remember that we are primarily an ideas magazine, a forum for “exploring and promoting religious faith as a human creation”. We do not normally carry notices or reports of meetings and events (apart from our annual conference!) as the Network newsletter Portholes does that. And we are very selective when it comes to poetry.
We don’t just cover radical theology!
Contributions with a.postmodern or religioushumanist perspective on politics, the arts, the sciences, and all aspects of human experience are welcome. And we are happy to consider contributions which criticise Sea of Faith views, as well as those which explore and promote them.
There are two ways in which you can contribute: letters and full-length articles.
Letters stand the best chance of publication if they are short (preferably no more than 300 words) and limited to a single main point. While handwritten letters will be accepted provided they are easily legible, it makes life easier for us if they are typewritten or word-processed and doublespaced on one side of the paper only. They should be sent as far in advance as possible of the deadline printed on page 2 of each issue.
If you have it in mind to contribute an article, it might be as well to contact the editor in advance (just in case, for instance, someone else is already writing on the same theme). Articles should not normally exceed 1200 words, and never more than 1500 without prior consultation. They must be typewritten or word-processed on one side of the paper, double-spaced. Sources should be included in the text, not as footnotes, and double-quotes (“) rather than single (‘) should be used, with book and other titles in italics. Contributors should include a line or two of biography. As with letters, articles should be submitted well in advance of the copy deadline.
Contributions on disk are welcome but must be accompanied by hard copy.
All contributions, whether articles or letters, are accepted on the understanding that they may be shortened or otherwise edited as necessary. In particular, authors’ titles and headlines may be changed. It is not always possible to consult contributors in advance about such editorial changes.
Contributors are asked to send a stamped addressed envelope for return of unused manuscripts or for acknowledgements.
That’s two ways to make the magazine your own: tell us what improvements you would like, and share your thoughts with the rest of the Network in a letter or an article.
We look forward to hearing from you! After all, whose magazine is it anyway? ith as a human ing religious fait exploring and promot ing Heard the one cistor ate? shop whe ae religion an + who wan thre Catholic priest "ST equrehies, popes a> sane ie OM a the friehs = ALL INSIOE “ne Sea of Faith | exploring and prom: ‘oting religious faith as a A 43.4 human g : Time on Eart or Rede? by Dinah Li SoF PUBLICATIONS The top five best-sellers at this year’s conference were Don Cupitt’s The Religion of Being, Diarmuid O’Murchu’s Reclaiming Spirituality, Bishop John Spong’s Why Christianity must change or die, David and Anthea Boulton’s In Fox’s Footsteps — and a run-away winner at the head of the list, SoF’s new book This is my Story.