What Is Weavings?
Welcome to Weavings, a quarterly journal committed to exploring the many ways in which God’s life and our lives are woven together in the world.
Contemporary life often seems to have the texture of a tangle of cords working at cross purposes with each other. There are knots where we hoped for a smooth weave, and dangling threads where knots should be. Worn and torn by rough-edged experiences, the fabric of our life sometimes appears to have been separated from the warp and woof that unite us to one another and to God. Weavings seeks to thread together some of the unraveled ends of Christian life—personal formation and social transformation, individual renewal and church renewal, prayer and ministry, contemplation and mission, Sunday and Monday.
Each issue of Weavings is organized around a central theme. In this way, the journal offers a forum in which contributors and readers can gather for conversation on important matters of common concern. We believe that such conversations will help us recognize large patterns of meaning, hope, and commitment in the events that clothe our days.
Woven throughout the pages of Weavings are several convictions about Christian spiritual life that shape the material of the journal. They are simplicity, authenticity, and inclusiveness.
The spiritual life does not begin with special knowledge and end in flight from the world. Simplicity locates the spiritual life where it belongs—in the ordinary events of daily life. The spiritual life leads to the very heart of the world. Authenticity means, to paraphrase Irenaeus of Lyons, that the glory of God becomes visible in human beings fully alive. Finally, the spiritual life embraces all of life. Inclusiveness implies that there is no issue in the personal, congregational, or political sphere that is without spiritual significance.
Weavings: A Brief History
In 1984 Rueben P. Job, then World Editor of The Upper Room, convened a committee to conduct research on the feasibility of developing a new Upper Room periodical. After months of reviewing current literature, analyzing data, and discussing possibilities, the committee reported that there was need for a new spiritual formation publication with an editorial focus somewhere between a daily devotional magazine and the scholarly journals produced by some Roman Catholic religious orders. In September 1985 John S. Mogabgab (Founding Editor) joined The Upper Room staff and began developing the concept of a bi-monthly publication that would become Weavings: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life. The inaugural September/October 1986 issue of Weavings was sent to some five thousand charter subscribers. Its theme was “A Serious Call To A Devout And Holy Life.” The Editor’s Introduction to that issue announced: “Each issue of Weavings will be organized around a central theme. In this way, the journal offers a forum in which contributors and readers can gather for conversation on important matters of common concern. We believe that such conversations will help us recognize large patterns of meaning, hope, and commitment in the events that clothe our days.” John Mogabgab served as editor until June 2009, when Pamela Hawkins took over editorial responsibility for the journal. Nelson Kane, the Weavings art director since the beginning of the journal, lives and works in Florida. A 1998-2000 research grant from the Lilly Foundation, Inc. allowed the Weavings staff to develop and test the Weavings Reading Group model of small group lectio divina. The journal is considered to be a significant contemporary resource in the field of Christian spirituality. Noted author Parker Palmer observed: “Weavings has consistently given voice to the kind of Christianity that we most need in our time—passionately committed to the light that is in us, radically open to the diverse ways that the light gets refracted in our world, and unabashed by the fact that light and shadow are always found side by side.” The mission of Weavings is to promote informed, committed spiritual growth by providing resources for spiritual leadership and exploring how God’s life and human lives are being woven together in the world.
Who Are We?
Dr. Lynne M. Deming serves as editor of Weavings, and also as World Editor/Executive Director of Publishing for The Upper Room. She received an MDiv from Candler School of Theology and a PhD in Hebrew Bible from Emory University. Lynne began her tenure with The Upper Room in 1990 as Editor for Upper Room Books. As a member of Belmont United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, Lynne chaired its Spiritual Formation Committee for several years and has led various Companions in Christ groups. She has a passion for music, plays guitar and violin, and finds swimming, cycling and walking in half-marathons to be great stress relievers. Most importantly, Lynne and her husband, Jim (a United Church of Christ clergy person) welcome any opportunity to Skype with their two sons, daughters-in-law and (almost three) grandchildren who live much too far away.
Nelson Kane has served as the art director of Weavings since it’s inception. He created the original Weavings format, and has now designed the new full-color format. With study in art and design from the University of Miami and the School of Visual Arts, he has worked in the advertising and publishing world, serving as designer and art director in many situations, and now for his own design firm. When not contemplating the dimensions of form and formless, Nelson is an ardent student of Tai Chi Chuan, and dabbles in his former career, music.
Gina Manskar has been part of the work of Upper Room Ministries in several capacities before joining the Weavings staff in 2010. She is experienced in office administration and support. Gina has used her organizing know-how to coach others in decluttering their lives as a personal organizer. A native of Minnesota, she has lived in Nashville for twelve years with her husband, Steve, and teen-aged son, Noah.
