Thank you, Patrick Heery: A Prophet with Honor in Unbound

Patrick Heery Becomes Editor of Presbyterian Mission Publications

Rev. Dr. Chris Iosso (left) and Rev. Patrick Heery

It is sad for us at Unbound—the advisors and supporters across the church and in the Presbyterian Center—to say farewell and thank you to Patrick Heery for his 20 months of service to Unbound as he moves two floors up to edit for Mission Publications and Presbyterians Today, in a new position designed to engage, among other things, online media. To say that the post was a good fit would be a vast understatement. Patrick worked well with me in planning issues and editing, often serving as a mentor to new contributors, and helping us fulfill well the goals of “inspiring, equipping, and connecting” particularly younger adults with the justice ministries of the church. As the first managing editor for Unbound, Patrick worked with advisor Rob Moore and consultant Bryan Volz in setting up the website. He brought great enthusiasm, steady moral commitment, and an imaginative faith seeking understanding to the work. Even on the legal aspects of getting past copies of our predecessor, Church & Society, to be made available digitally by the American Theological Library Association (ATLA), he had curiosity and dedication.

Vision and integrity are key virtues in the communications work of the Church, and not easy to maintain. Unbound is grateful for the freedom and at times “edgy” place we have been able to occupy, always distinguishing Unbound’s exploratory and critical functions from those which represent General Assembly policy. In point of fact, the journal has lifted up how much our church’s social witness stands are critical of our culture, our economic disorder, and our political dysfunction. The prophetic Jesus still stands as a light that sometimes burns, and the plumbline of Amos still works on crooked institutions. Church communicators—and Patrick was ordained by Scioto Valley Presbytery to be one—need always to be combining evangelism and social justice, knowing that our faith is far more than happy talk.

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Church communicators—and Patrick was ordained by Scioto Val­ley Pres­bytery to be one—need always to be com­bin­ing evan­ge­lism and social jus­tice, know­ing that our faith is
far more than happy talk.
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Why is it hard for the church’s voices not only to stand out from, but to stand against, the fads and fixations of our day? In his book, Washington Rules (Holt/Metropolitan, 2010), Andrew Bacevich summarizes: “In the postmodern age… what matters most is not originality but novelty, not intrinsic value but marketing, not product but packaging” (p. 197). Bacevich, a retired Army Colonel now critical of the policies of American empire, was showing how recent military interventions ignore the lessons of the past. But his bigger point is classic: the U.S. should be an exemplar, not an empire, among nations. To help our nation re-acquire that vision requires churches that know their own callings, and have their own inner lives un-coopted.

The communications task within the church is to sustain its distinct culture and “language of Zion.” Who are the leaders to be lifted up? What are the books, authors, blogs, and films to be cherished, the innovations to be shared, the mistakes to be acknowledged, the hopes to be proclaimed? These are parts of the calling of an editor for a publication that serves the church. Without that wholeness of Christian culture, the vision perishes.

A recent Sunday’s lectionary (Luke 4:21-30) warns us that following Jesus may lead us also to the edge of a cliff, if we challenge the self-regard of our village or tribe. Jesus both inspired AND challenged; transformation includes repentance, forgiveness, and sometimes the sacrificial witness of martyrdom. There can only be a few degrees of separation between those iconic stories in scripture and our own world, if we are to carry that same Spirit. Patrick had the theological training and awareness to recognize parts of the Great Story in the stories he edited; may his successor know how to spot them as well.

In Patrick we have seen a person seeking to be faithful to the prophetic calling through the written word (and well-chosen illustrations!). We wish him very well in his new post, and wish Mission Publications and Presbyterians Today very well, too. We pray that the callings of both will be enlarged, to the benefit of the shared conversation AND imagination that is our church. May he be a prophet who is welcome in his—and our—own publication.

Read Managing Editor Patrick Heery’s Farewell to Unbound