Column: Share your faith, write a column

Skye Pournazari The Maryville Forum

For many years, The Forum has offered local religious institutions an opportunity to share their words of faith with our readers and many have taken us up on the offer.

With the help of the local Ministerial Alliance this was achieved by each church involved in the alliance receiving a month’s worth of editions (either four or five depending on the number of Thursdays in the month) to profess their faith, share their thoughts and/or encourage those seeking faith or help to reach out for it.

However, lately, it has been difficult to find writers prepared to share their faith with our readers, so The Forum has been publishing the nationally syndicated column “On Religion” by Terry Mattingly.

And while his column is typically a very timely look at something deeply important happening in the national and international religious communities, it is rarely something incredibly relevant to our local community.

This week Mr. Mattingly is on vacation and it offered me an opportunity to explain my view of this column space, this page and just how important it is to our readers and community.

In my view, this paper is performing at its best when it is providing local viewpoints on an array of topics important to not just our readers, but the community as a whole. The more people reading about local religious institutions, their communities, events and beliefs, the stronger the entire community becomes.

There is absolutely no reason this column space should ever be left empty. It is a free opportunity to share words of faith with the public. Whether that be through a personal religious experience, a local pastor sharing information about his or her church or someone submitting their ecclesiastical beliefs, this space is an open forum for people wishing to share their perspective on faith and it is open to anyone.

I know not everyone feels comfortable writing about their innermost thoughts and beliefs. I am more than happy to help you share them, should you be interested.

To submit a column for publication consideration, please email me at [email protected].

This space is for everyone.