Plymouth Magazine-Summer26-DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 2
Letter from the Editor
By Luke Stringer, Associate Pastor (he/him)
In this special digital issue of Plymouth
Magazine, we wanted to see how artists
in our community are meeting this
moment in time in our shared life; how,
in their own ways, they are attending
to the beautiful possible in their reach,
and sharing it with us. Their individual
responses to this moment, as you will
see in the following pages, are diverse in
origin, in medium, in tone. My belief,
however, is that, together, they speak
with beautiful, polyglot harmony about
the goodness of being made in the image
of a creative God.
Beauty is not a luxury; it’s our birthright.
Art is not frivolous; it’s arterial.
Humanity was not meant to live off
bread alone; we need roses, too. Art
and justice are two deeply entangled
ways that we engage the world here at
Plymouth. Both sit at the core of our
church community. Both are, I believe,
mutually reinforcing practices of hope—
ways of training our attention on the
beautiful possible, and doing what we
can to bring it to life; in humble ways,
to see glimpses of the Kingdom of God
on Earth, and to retain enough audacity
to say, “That reality can be here, can be
now, can be good. For you. For me. For
all of us. We have more than enough of
something good to share.”
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In a time of large language models,
algorithmically-disciplined content, and
radical inequality that undercuts the
dignity of us all, there is something holy
and powerful in witnessing artists assert
the infinite, irreducible worth and beauty
of the human person as reflected in art
only they could create. As an editor, I
see each submission to this issue as the
equivalent of a fingerprint: something
singular, an impression left by each of
these artists on the world, marks left by
each of them that image God for us in
ways only they can. Their work together
reminds us that each of us have the power
to bring new things into the world. And
what a powerful, timely reminder that
is, given all that’s at stake, all that we’re
losing, all that feels scary and inevitable.
Art is the good glitch in the system that
reminds us, small though we are, God
can be at work in the smallest acts of
imagination and care. That things are
not certain. That possibility is there
to find if you are willing to show up
searching for it. I hope, as you journey
through this issue, you find something
that reminds you of your power, your
agency, your identity as a subject and not
an object. And I hope that the courage
and audacious hope evidenced by these
artists inspires all of us to continue doing
the radical thing of being human in an
anti-human time. Let’s see how God
will multiply what’s shared. Let’s put
ourselves in a position to be surprised by
what happens.
Wishing you God’s beauty and bread in
abundance,
Pastor Luke
