Deborah Warner, this week’s guest facilitator, grew up in New York City. She studied at Union Theological Seminary receiving a Master of Divinity degree with Psychiatry and Religion as her area of concentration. After completing a chaplaincy residency at in the neonatal unit at New York Hospital and working on a medical floor at Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center, she became one of the first generation of women ordained as priest in the Episcopal Church. Most of her 40-year tenure was lived out in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts primarily as the rector of two separate parishes.

Sarah Hollar, an Episcopal Priest and Spiritual Director, lives in Charlotte, NC, where she serves a parish, tends relationships with her husband, two children, two stepchildren, their spouses, seven grandchildren, and her wise aging mother. She also has a good number of friends. Deeply curious about the complexity of the human experience and how God is present in that complexity, she invites you to join her as all sorts of folk share their memorable encounters with God.

www.whengodgotreal.com

Tamara Franks is a wanderer, sojourner and courageous soul who loves to experience each day fully. She isn’t prone to chit chat; instead, on a moment’s notice, will invite anyone into deep, thoughtful conversation. Wilderness Guide, College Lecturer, and Pastor, she loves to explore diverse lands, listen to the trees, the wind and people’s hearts, cook both simple and elegant meals, and laugh with her whole being.

Sarah Hollar, an Episcopal Priest and Spiritual Director, lives in Charlotte, NC, where she serves a parish, tends relationships with her husband, two children, two stepchildren, their spouses, seven grandchildren, and her wise aging mother. She also has a good number of friends. Deeply curious about the complexity of the human experience and how God is present in that complexity, she invites you to join her as all sorts of folk share their memorable encounters with God.

www.whengodgotreal.com

Mandy Monath, a North Carolina native, is the author of This Is Like That: Poems and Process, a collection of poems accompanied by observations on creativity and poetic craft. She is interested in what makes a poem a poem. In other genres, her recent children’s book, How Counting Came to Be, tells the story of a cave girl who thinks too much. Her essays have appeared in Christian Science Monitor and The Wall Street Journal. Mandy earned her B.A. from Salem College in Classics and her M.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill in Comparative Literature. She lampooned that experience in her romantic comedy, Manifestations of Idiosyncrasy in the Actualization of the Potential Work.

Keith Walker, the author of All That Names Us (Saddle Road Press, 2024), offers this review of Mandy’s work, This Is Like That: Poems and Process. “So much of what I read these days feels like sophisticated word play without soul. In these poems I feel the poet’s sensitivity, her open heart receiving the world and her discerning mind carefully turning it over and over to understand the underlying dimensions of what she sees and feels. It’s very powerful and very spiritual. I really admire these beautiful, resonant poems and will keep reading them and letting them speak to me.”

Sarah Hollar, an Episcopal Priest and Spiritual Director, lives in Charlotte, NC, where she serves a parish, tends relationships with her husband, two children, two stepchildren, their spouses, seven grandchildren, and her wise aging mother. She also has a good number of friends. Deeply curious about the complexity of the human experience and how God is present in that complexity, she invites you to join her as all sorts of folk share their memorable encounters with God.

www.whengodgotreal.com