a busy August meet-n-greet!

August is such a great time to think about new things...and new friends! Hop around the ring and say hello to these new RevGals and BlogPals...


Stratoz, a BlogPal who shares a birthday with St. Ignatius! He says he has "too many interests for one blog but I go for it all the same. Join me as I express my love of jazz, nature, food, and art. At work I teach science and run a horticulture program. My wife, Mosaic Woman, and I run a crafting business, which we call Nutmeg Designs. I can make strudel. I love birds. I dig quilts. I eat out in Lansdale. And through it all runs the mystical. I am an Episcopalian who loves to go on silent retreats with Jesuits."

Jennifer, who many of us may know as Juniper, is blogging in a new home, There Is A River. She is "wife, mother, daughter, friend, pastor, dog-lover, onetime triathlete, seeker and writer. I have too many favorite things to list them all, but some current ones are: homemade vegan peanutbutter banana ice-cream, compassion, my husband's deep laugh, my son's earnest explanations, scifi reruns, swimming pools, intense memoirs, not camping, and Psalm 46."

Erin, blogging at Did She Say Seminary?, is a seminary student (just finished CPE on Friday, so stop by and show her some love!) who is "many things, but most often identified as... aunt to the 10 coolest kids on the planet, god-mother to an awesome one-year-old, daughter, sister, friend, rotten-dog mom, cheese-lover, traveler, bleeding-heart-do-gooder, disaster junkie, bike commuter, list-maker, Redskins/Orioles superfan, free-festival finder, public transportation enthusiast, knitter and micro beer drinker. Wow, that sounds more granola than it should. Don't worry, I also watch a lot of tv."

Patricia is an Episcopal priest in northern Illinois. "Not many undertake the journey from Salvation Army captain to Episcopal priest in the course of a lifetime—but, I have. This roller-coaster bi-denominational spiritual path provides me with pertinent and poignant Christian experiences. In seminary I joked about being switched at birth. It was my hiding-behind-humor attempt to acknowledge my convoluted path—from an impoverished childhood in central California to a middle-class maturity in northern Illinois; from a fundamental-evangelical Christian upbringing to a progressive mainline Christian walk of faith. In maturity, I find that I do not regret, my switchback-filled journey. Even though there are theologies and beliefs that I no longer embrace, some of which I even consider harmful, the Christian individuals encountered along the way have made a positive difference in my life—no matter on which side of the mainline-evangelical divide those individuals place themselves."

Sarah is a pastor in Minnesota. Her blog And So I Give Thanks is "A look into what I see every day as well as some ramblings about life. You never know what you'll find on here, some days it's thought out and others it is spur of the moment." She has some BIG. EXCITING. NEWS right now, so stop in and see/congratulate/say hi!

Welcome, new members! We're glad you're here! Everybody jump in to conversation in the comments and over on facebook, don't forget to stop by and pray at the Place For Prayer, and while you're at all of that, enjoy the last vestiges of summer/winter (depending on your hemisphere)!