In a normal year, Stimulus is published in June and December. However, as you know, this is no normal year.

As such, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit us, the Stimulus editorial team decided to put together a special COVID-edition of Stimulus which we would publish as quickly as we could. With that in mind, we put out a call for articles. We were overwhelmed with the response, receiving over 60 pieces. Of these, over forty passed peer review indicating their quality. 

Hence, we decided not to publish our usual June Stimulus, but we are releasing three issues of Stimulus over the next three weeks with all pieces devoted to the COVID-19 phenomenon. Later in December, we will bring out the regular timed issue for the year (although, we will keep an eye on how this thing develops and are leaving open the editorial license to do something different if events warrant it).

In this, first issue, we have a wide range of articles, poems, and a humour piece, written from people in lockdown. They have written from their hearts and minds from their respective fields designed to show quality scholarship and writing, yet speaking to the “thinking church” as we consider how to respond to such a time as this. As a team, we are thrilled with every piece and especially grateful to God for the speed in which people wrote, reviewers reviewed, and we were enabled to edit.

We hope this issue and the two to come in the next weeks will speak to your hearts and minds as we all grapple with something we have not experienced in recent memory.

All of God’s blessings to you all
Mark Keown, Sarah Penwarden, and Fiona Sherwin
The Stimulus Team