From the Editors: Vulnerability and Pentecost

WHEN OUR SENIOR editor Rose Marie Berger was in second grade, she risked her opportunity for First Communion by declaring the Trinity “a holy mystery” rather than repeat words she’d been taught to memorize. But she knew it was a risk worth taking. In a review of Leslie John’s Revealing: The Underrated Power of Oversharing, Liz Cooledge Jenkins writes that “opening up involves real risk” but “risk is also where life’s greatest rewards are found.” Our May issue reveals some of the risks and rewards of vulnerability, like making friends with someone in prison and bringing your children for a visit, caring for a family member with dementia, or uplifting LGBTQ+ leadership even if it means leaving a beloved denomination.

As we look toward Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit settled like tongues of fire upon believers, we are thankful for that ongoing gift and remain open to that wind moving and guiding all of us. As Stuart C. Lord reminds us: “The Spirit still finds ways to speak when words alone are not enough.”