Maine-based magazine not afraid to take stands

CAMDEN – This witness has questions, not easy answers.

It is a magazine called The Witness, published and edited by Julie Wortman of Tenants Harbor. It is independent of any institution but has long ties to the Episcopal Church.

Billing itself as a “feisty and opinionated” journal, The Witness has taken stands for racial equality and the rights of women, gays and workers. And it has taken stands against nuclear power, the death penalty, war and what it calls “the evils of capitalism,” invoking the “social gospel” of Jesus.

Recently, it was nominated for the Utne Reader’s 2001 Alternative Press award in the area of spiritual coverage.

The magazine is no stranger to controversy. It was founded in 1917 by an Episcopal bishop who wanted to help his fellow bishops understand labor issues in the early 20th century. Its editor during the 1950s was accused of being a communist. The editor who served in the 1970s had been one of three Episcopal bishops who ordained women as priests before the church approved of the practice.

“The Witness has this history of sticking its nose into Central America, labor issues, Vietnam, civil rights,” said Wortman during a recent interview. “It’s been a voice for all of that.

“It is about posing questions,” she said, “and not presuming you have the answers.”

The March issue, organized around the theme of “faith and patriotism,” includes an essay titled “Saying Goodbye To Patriotism,” which argues that emotionally based loyalty to country has at its core a belief that the lives of those within its borders are somehow more valuable than those in other places.

“The America I love is not wrapped up in a mythology about ‘how good we are’ that ignores the brutal realities of our own history of conquest and barbarism,” the essayist says, while acknowledging that such a position flies in the face of post-Sept. 11 patriotism.

The spiritual connection comes, Wortman said, through the belief that Jesus preached a gospel calling for all to take responsibility for the downtrodden.

“It’s a justice perspective,” Wortman said, in which the “good news” is for the poor and the oppressed.

“It’s a gospel in which the welfare of people is at its heart,” she said.

Born and reared in Cleveland, Wortman said her family was Unitarian. She remembers her parents having “community, social justice kinds of values.” Attending college during the Vietnam War era, she said she was nurtured on the political activism that opposed the war.

Wortman’s educational background – including postgraduate work and a fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution – was focused on architecture and historic preservation.

In the late 1980s, she began working in the communications office at the Episcopal Church’s national headquarters in New York. She worked on the church’s national newsletter, then, beginning in 1991, on The Witness.

In an era when editors and printers can work miles or continents apart, Wortman was able to relocate to Maine in the late 1990s and run the magazine from here. The Witness has other ties to the midcoast: The office manager works at her home in Lincolnville, the magazine is laid out by KAT Design in Camden, and its Web site is designed by Jim Dugan of Camden.

It appears 10 times a year and its circulation is about 4,000. Advertising is mostly a few classified ads, and an endowment helps pay the bills. A subscription costs $35 per year.

A warm, engaging woman with a ready smile, Wortman admitted the magazine’s 85-year history of bold activism weighs on her as she considers its direction.

In the June issue, The Witness will explore the dynamics of political and social movements, asking how they are formed and when are they transformed into campaigns.

Other themes to which issues of the magazine have been devoted include politics and spirituality, transportation, animal spirituality, and women confronting violence.

It doesn’t mince words. As the magazine says on its Web site:

“The Witness is the only publication aimed at Episcopalians and the Anglican Communion that embraces – without equivocation – the liberation perspective that flows from the very core of Christian belief and values.

“We side with Jesus’ radical claim that every person, every creature, every part of creation belongs to God and deserves the deepest respect and care.”

For Wortman, putting together each issue, including choosing its theme and who will write what, is a deeply satisfying way to present that claim.

The challenge is to find ways of looking at a topic that are unexpected.

“I’d like to push the boundaries,” she said.