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Friday, July 21, 2006

Friday Five: RevGalBlogPal Anniversary Edition

Can you believe it has been a whole year?!?!!

Last summer, in the midst of a hurricane threat to a clergywoman blogger somewhere on the Gulf Coast, a dozen or so bloggers began to realize they had become a community. That clergywoman suggested we needed a t-shirt, and in a thread that grew to more than 100 comments, the RevGalBlogPals were born. St. Casserole posed the question on July 19, and by July 21 we had refined the suggested name to connote inclusivity (yes, that was my doing), opened a Cafe Press store (thanks, reverendmother!) and started a WebRing and blog page (kudos to reverend mommy!).

From the beginning our numbers included clergywomen, other women engaged in churchwork as both Christian Ed professionals and devoted volunteers, seminarians and women discerning vocations to Protestant ministry and Catholic sisterhood. We are happy to include several men among our BlogPals, too. For some of us faith is the primary focus of our blogging, while for others it is the quiet underpinning of all we do and blog. We are preachers, mothers, poets, fathers, dog-lovers, cat-bloggers, married and single. We live in the US, Canada, the U.K., Finland and Australia. Our denominations include, but are not limited to, PCUSA, ECUSA, UCC, UCCan, Roman Catholic, United Methodist, Baptists of various stripes, Church of England, AOG, RCA, ELCA and Disciples. And even one UFMCCer! (Thanks, Rainbow Pastor!) (If I left you out, tell me in the comments, and I will keep editing later today.)

I think we could all agree that Hurricane Katrina galvanized this community. Our collective concern for St. Casserole and her family made checking in at this blog a more frequent occurence, and guided our decision to donate profits from a writing effort to Hurricane Relief. reverend mommy suggested the book project and with help from many others we have now self-published two books, A Light Blazes and Ordinary Time.

On a lighter note, we have achieved some modest sales at our Cafe Press Store. There are some 80 pieces of "pulpit" merchandise out there floating around! After a discussion on the blog, we agreed to raise the prices of each item in order to generate mission money, and we designated Heifer Project as the destination. To this date we have given about $80 to Heifer, for beehives and most recently two gaggles of geese! Thank you to reverendmother for continuing to work on this project.


A council meeting of RevGals took place at the Festival of Homiletics in May, and so did a happy meeting between Rev Gals old and new; read about it here.

Many people wonder, when will there be a RevGalBlogPal gathering? In hopes of making such an event possible, your Matriarchs have engaged in applying for incorporation, the first step in becoming a 501(c)3 group able to receive grant money. Great thanks are due to Quotidian Grace for her efforts in this area. Look for further announcements here when there is official news.

And now the Five:

1) What is your first memory of the RevGalBlogPals?

2) Have you met any of the other ring members in real life?

3) Of those you haven't met, name a few you would love to know in person.

4) What has Ring Membership added to your life?

5) Describe a hope for the future of the WebRing.

As always, let us know in the comments if you play. And if you are able to create a link to your post, you will be spared the peevishness of certain Matriarchs...

52 comments:

  1. Am I the first to respond? This is as exciting as it is for knitters to respond first to Yarn Harlot!

    I am getting ready to respond to this at my blog now!

    Here is my blog!
    Don't get used to the link... :)

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  2. I've written my response, too.

    I'm disappointed. The GIF isn't animating here, but you can see it do so at my blog.

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  3. Hey, dere...you fergot da Looterns, eh?;-)

    I will respond on my blog later today.

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  4. Thank you! I knew I was leaving people out. Fixing it right now. We don't have an official list, so I was drawing on memory...before coffee...which is dangerous...and as a Lutheran, you ought to understand that, right? ;-)

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  5. Join me in some virtual margaritas to celebrate!

    Quotidian Grace

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  6. Happy Anniversary. I will try to get to the Friday Five. But Ephesians calls.

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  7. Virtual margaritas sound wonderful. Wondering if the meet up would be in Texas and the virtual ones would become reality. mmm

    I wrote my thoughts one year on over at my place.

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  8. I don't know how well margaritas go with chocolate cake (I'm allergic to alcohol), but here's some virtual edible sin to help us celebrate at my place.

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  9. The Holy Spirit is truly at work!!!

    I woke up this morning with a great idea for the Rev Gals to have a virtual retreat in the fall and just came to blog it, checked here first and found this. Hurrah for "coincidence!"

    I'll flesh it out over at my place.

    Grateful to the Gals and to God (not necessarily in that order)....

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  10. I added in my two cents worth.

    Which won't mean much if the US mint gets rid of the penny, now will it?

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  11. I played, I played, I played!

    La la la!
    Felicitations to us all!

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  12. Happy Anniversary to Us, Happy Anniversary to Us, . . .

    I played in honor of this momentous occasion.

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  13. Well, there's at least one UFMCC'er (Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches) here too!

    I am rushing over to my place ( here) to play and decorate!

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  14. I played.

    Mazel Tov, congratulations, all. And special thanks to the mighty matriarchs.

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  15. I played for the first time ever! But I am confused at the link....so here is where you can go. (Please forgive me!!)


    http://princessandthebeads.blogspot.com/
    Please check out the pic of Bebo while you are there!

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  17. Check out my blog at prayingontheprairie.blogspot.com. I played too. Im sorry I havent mastered posting a link yet. Sorry to my faithful readers! COngrats RevGalBlogPals!

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  18. COme on over to my place and see the new blogthings I put up on Wednesday! Or just go read my friday five Love the links. Still need to learn about the open in a new window thing though...

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  19. Oh and I thought of a slopgan to go with my answer to #5

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  20. I played here.

    Happy Anniversary everyone!!

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  21. I played too! Happy birthday RGBPs and thank you to the Matriarchs who thought this whole thing up and who continue to faithfully "administer" it!

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  22. Oh and I so enjoyed reading the beginnings of the thongs, mugs and shirts ... laughed so much it hurt.

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  23. Happy Birthday!
    I got a little teary on this one.
    Thanks gals!

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  25. Isn't it *always* a party at your place, will smama?

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  26. woo hoo! party time over at construction time again !!!

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  27. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  28. I played! And, I posted retreat locations near Houston since there has been some interest in Texas.

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  29. OHMYGOSH - that link thing worked the first try! Impossible!

    Oh, and thanks for the link to the directions for linking. I've been wondering how ya'll did that! (Forgive me. I'm a little slow at some of this computer stuff.) It killed me to know that I was getting on a respected leader's last nerve! :)

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  30. I played - my first Friday Five!!

    The link from my name will take you direct to the blog!

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  31. I finally got around to it this a.m.
    Thanks to Erin for pricking my conscience!

    Here is the link right here

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  32. Now I'm REALLY confused. I did play, honest I did, and on the right day too...and I thought I'd managed to post here to say so, and to ask a question re the 501(c)3 thingummy,- which doesn't make sense to UK ears, but I guess is some sort of charitable status?
    But now I can't see any sign of my comment, so perhaps I've finally lost it (great age, after all...).
    However, my response is at
    http://goodinparts.blogspot.com/2006/07/happy-birthday-to-us.html
    And I'm sorry I'm not clever enough to turn that into a link. Will ask TeenWonder for assistance another time.
    So now it's a year and a day...which sounds wonderfully fairy tale, doesn't it.
    And I'm still delighted we're together :-)

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  33. i'm a little late to the party but i've i playedplayed too!

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  34. I played. And I'm just a little late because of the cursed exegesis. Read it here

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  35. I finally played. Is anyone checking these comments anymore???
    mark

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  36. I played all be it a little late. Is anyone still checking the comments?!

    Congrats on the 1 year anniversary.

    This also my first Friday Five


    Em

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  37. Still checking! Don't want to miss a one of these.

    (Yes...it's true...I'm an RGBP addict. *Sob*)

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