Richard Cleaver is the author of Know
My Name: A Gay Liberation Theology (Westminster John Knox, 1995), among
other works. He began his life-long association with the Catholic Worker
movement in 1975. Later worked for the American Friend Service Committee in
Michigan for over a decade. Raised in Iowa and a graduate of Grinnell College
there, he has lived all over the United States and also, on three separate
occasions, in Japan. He holds the M.A. in Advanced Japanese Studies from
Sheffield University in England. In 2003 he was ordained to the priesthood for
the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America, a welcoming and inclusive jurisdiction
in the Orthodox tradition that does not restrict ordination by gender, sexual
orientation, or marital status. He currently works and lives in the U.S.
Territory of the Virgin Islands. .
Malcolm Himschoot is an
ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, with experience in local
church, community, and denominational settings. His writing on religion
and social reform has appeared in Prism, The Progressive Christian, Belt, and
in the previous Wilgefortis book "Letters for My Brothers: Transitional
Wisdom in Retrospect." He currently helps raise a family in Cleveland,
Ohio.
Thom Longino is an
ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ and an Associate Night Minister
in San Francisco. The Night Ministry is
a ministry for San Franciscans that takes place between 10pm and 4am each night
in bars, on the streets and on a crisis line.
Kathryn Muyskens is a
perpetual student of life. She is originally from Denver, Colorado. Recently
she has been studying in London, getting her MA in Philosophy from the
University College London. Writing is her passion and you can find more of her
work on Elephant Journal, an online journal dedicated to living mindfully.
Emily Olsen is a New
Jersey native currently completing a Masters in Biblical Languages at the
Graduate Theological Union in Berkley, CA. She is also a candidate for ordained
ministry in the ELCA. Emily enjoys reading, writing, and pretending to be a
dinosaur in her spare time. She is always up for an adventure be it Jurassic or
otherwise.
Laurel Kapros Rohrer has
an M.F.A. In creative writing from New York University. By day she is a legal
secretary and in her spare time she writes, volunteers and does martial arts.
She happily lives in San Francisco with her wonderful spouse and two furry
cats.
Megan
Rohrer is the first openly
transgender pastor ordained in the Lutheran church, was named a 2014 honorable
mention as an Unsung Hero of Compassion by His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
received an Honorary Doctorate from Palo Alto University and was a finalist for
a Lambda Literary Award in transgender nonfiction. Megan is the co-editor of Letters for My
Brothers: Tranistional Wisdom in Retrospect and Holy Night: Prayers and
Meditations for People of the Night and the author of Queerly Lutheran and With
a Day Like Yours, Couldn’t You Use a Little Grace.
Daniel
Tisdel taught high school Spanish for
fourteen years and then finally decided to change careers to something he had
been putting off for over twenty years, ordained ministry as a Lutheran pastor.
Other jobs he has held have been as varied as anyone; Electrician, Golf
Course Construction Worker, Pizza Chef, School Bus Driver, Professional Actor,
and Grocery Store Clerk, among others, but while "Writer" was
something he often aspired to, it was something he never expected to attain.
And there are a lot of stories (and even full books) still bouncing around in
his brain, waiting to be released on an unsuspecting public... He grew up
in Colorado, lived extensively in North Carolina, Florida and California, and
has now gone full circle to live in the mountains of Colorado where he pastors
a small church. He loves hiking and camping, woodworking, and playing and
watching sports, but most of all he loves people.
Amanda Zentz is the pastor at Central Lutheran Church in Portland,
Oregon. With a passion for baptism and
funerals and a love for liturgy, Pr. Amanda digs deep into the traditions of
the church to teach the deeper meanings of our ritualized actions. Growing up outside of the church, Amanda was
baptized on December 14, 1997 while studying for her undergraduate degree in
Theatre Arts from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA. Amanda went on to
receive her MDiv from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berekeley, CA in
2004.
This books begins by sharing Jesus' parable of good soil. It goes on to teach children that, just as a succulant can grow in the dessert, God can still loves them even when they misbehave.
