Monday Meet and Greet

It's time for the Monday Meet and Greet! We are just going to say "howdy" to our newest members today because there are so many to say "howdy" to....

Being Heidi is a "recovering fundamentalist, progressive christian, interested in buddhism and reformed judiasm, mom of one, librarian, and esl teacher, who happens to be married to a closeted conservative lutheran pastor comes to the table. where's the coffee?" She looks to be a beginning blogger too, starting with the Friday Five last week so join me in welcoming Being Heidi!

Lauren of Pastor's Patches from Lake Village, Arkansas describes herself as: " a Presbyterian minister, with a passion for needlework. I have a quilt studio and a yarn room, which I gladly open to anyone who wants to come and play with me. I share my life with three cats, one of whom has a serious yarn addiction, and a dog. All are certified nap testers of all things quilted, and fiber artists in their own right." She had a great link to a quilting site that looked great ... Welcome Lauren!

Iris is also a PC (USA) pastor from somewhere in the Bible Belt. She blogs at Growing Where I'm Planted and writes some nice things about the RevGals like "I checked it out and was amazed to discover this world where people are talking about the kinds of things I want to talk about: putting faith into action, pastor/mommy stress, how much choclolate one had consumed in the past 5 hours.... " Lauren, you have no IDEA how much chocolate some of us can consume....

Jorge Sánchez blogs at The Winged Man. He calls himself "A husband, father, poet, and teacher on the North Side of Chicago going on and on and on . . . " Jorge writes on prayer, feasts and liturgy -- he writes "Liturgy are these beautiful forms which we use to connect with God in communion with each other. To me, it doesn’t matter who presides. It doesn’t matter how perfect the liturgy is compared to the rubrics, although I do think that the way one does things is important. If it were up to me, lay people would preside at the Eucharist and preach the Gospel frequently, the pastor serving more as a spiritual director and guide for the whole congregation, advising the worship leaders of the congregation almost as a worship dramaturg, presiding and preaching much of the time but not most of the time." Beautiful writing and welcome Jorge.

Rantings of the Faithful is a blog for Pastor Peters, who says she was "born not far from the magical city of New York, I still identify as a New Yorker with some of the attitude but none of the accent. I recently graduated from Union Theological Seminary where I successfully mastered the Divine. Now I am praying and hoping for a call into God's service in my beloved denomination, the United Church of Christ. I am reigning champion of the Ha Game (which some believe led me to my call to ministry) who can make a mean latte. And, I paint watercolors." Her profile pictures looks like she's preaching in pastel pink strappy sandals and an off-the shoulder hot pink dress. (Yes!) Welcome Pastor Peters!

Make of Yourself a Light is the blog of katie day who has a "new state, new husband, new church, new name..." She writes "Here we are. I've thought about it and thought about it, and now in an over-caffeinated haze of insomnia I've gone and done something reckless: I've begun a blog. Which is funny, really, as I once ranted and raved over the stupidity of "blogging" (it's a noun! it's a verb!) and the vanity of bloggers everywhere ("really, do you really think people want to read your piddly little thoughts on the internet?), and then, while perusing the latest post on one of the five or six blogs I regularly read, I remembered. It's not about who reads it. It's about the writing." Welcome to the blogosphere katie! (Oh, she's had a bad "boo-boo" and she owns a cat named Esther who now has a nice clean porch to sun herself on.)

Fryer Drew is a blog by, well, Fryer Drew, a fellow UMC pastor from Pennsylvania. He writes "I am a pastor in the United Mthodist church, and was ordained an Elder in the church in 2006. This site is a place for me to post sermons and other thoughts about being a pastor in the Northeastern US as my denomination navigates through the next few years, which promise to be a pretty bumpy ride." Let's join Drew on his ride. Welcome Drew!

Molly from San Diego at Holy Trouble claims "i'm not a troublemaker. i prefer to think of myself as a trouble identifier. i don't make these things up; i just point them out." Molly is a fellow UMC'er as well, whose husband Matt is fresh back from Iraq. At one point she did point out that she does NOT endorse whacking church people with hammers. Actually, uh, I guess it isn't a good idea.... Let's welcome Molly!

And that's all folks! 8 new members ... please join me in welcoming them into our webring.