At first I was divided between wanting to address the theme of the issue — discipleship — and wanting to do a tribute to Father Walter Burghardt, S.J., who passed away while we were assembling this issue.  We certainty did not have to feel torn in choosing between the two topics because the life, the work, and the spirit of Walter Burghardt were the very embodiment of discipleship.  We are grateful to Orbis Press for allowing us to include in this issue some of Father Burghardt’s own reflections on discipleship and how he viewed his own response to God’s call.

        Father Burghardt’s life, preaching, teaching, and writing all reflected his unswerving commitment to the Gospel which he understood in every molecule of his being to be a call for justice in every form — political, racial, gender, spiritual, and economic.  Father Burghardt was passionate about justice.  The call for justice for children, women, religious minorities, and the poor and the powerless was at the core of how he understood his calling from God.  Indeed, one of his motivations for working so hard to launch and guide The Living Pulpit was to encourage thoughtful reflection on issues of justice.

        Those of us who were blessed by knowing and working with Walter Burghardt feel his loss daily and we can offer no better tribute to his life and work than to help our readers to explore the meaning of discipleship in each of our lives. In this issue you will see that although our authors represent the usual wide range of denominations, backgrounds, and points of view; there is solid agreement that discipleship transcends divisions of denomination, doctrine, tradition, time, and place.  There is a shared understanding that discipleship springs from the very heart of our lives and our most basic response to God’s call in our lives.  Our authors all remind us that discipleship is not conditional, but is a wholehearted response to God’s call to us.  True discipleship can not be relegated to a pigeon hole, can not be compartmentalized, can not be compromised and manipulated, and certainly can not be compromised.

        As Bill Sappenfield writes in this issue, “there can not be more than one absolute priority in life.”

About the author

Douglas Stivison wrote 11 articles for this publication.

Douglas Stivison is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. He has served both Presbyterian and UCC churches in New Jersey and Massachusetts. He lives in South Dartmouth, MA . Formerly, he was editor and publisher of The Living Pulpit. He is the author of three books and over 400 articles.

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