Vickie Frayne is the creative coordinator for publishing and marketing at Good Faith Media.
- What story, verse or passage from your faith tradition’s sacred texts has significantly influenced / shaped your life?
Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
The immigrant experience is one I have lived most of my life. Although I was born in England, I grew up in South Africa and moved to the United States at 19. Having traveled extensively, I’ve always been a “stranger in a strange land” as I’ve moved through different countries and cultures.
While we may all be one in the eyes of God, being an immigrant has taught me that in the eyes of man we frequently are not.
- Who are three people (other than your family) who have shaped your life and worldview? And how?
Former president Nelson Mandela. I grew up in pre-apartheid South Africa. Here was a man who spent 27 years in a 10-by-10 cell then walked out of prison and changed the world.
My college professor, Dr. Sarah Gordon, who shared her love and deep knowledge of American literature both during my undergraduate and graduate studies.
The very Revered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whom I’m embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of until I moved to America. In my defense, I would say “see above” about growing up in pre-apartheid South Africa. It was not until a trip to the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama, when I stood in front of the words carved in granite, “Until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream,” that I truly considered how difficult it must have been to be a person of color in this part of the world during the civil rights era. I don’t think it’s much easier today.
- List three of your “desert island” books, movies or TV shows.
“Law & Order,” Simon Schama’s A History of Britain and pretty much anything by Rick Steves. But if I have to choose, his guide to Germany, as that’s next on the list of places to visit.
- What is one of the most critical issues people are facing today?
Our inability to love our neighbors as ourselves. The news is a daily reminder of this.
- What are a few of your hobbies?
Reading, particularly biography/memoir and travel books. I’m currently reading Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations, by Admiral William H. McRaven, which encompasses both genres. I like to joke that I take a break from editing books to read them. I also cook and watch English crime dramas on Netflix.
- If you could freeze your life into an already-lived 10 seconds, what would they be?
Looking at the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament, at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, last summer. I love beautiful books!
- Our tagline at Good Faith Media is, “There’s more to tell.” What’s your “more to tell”?
That would be telling!
Reflection and resources at the intersection of faith and culture through an inclusive Christian lens.
