Celebrity Bloggers

Lent Madness 2024 boasts an all-star lineup of Celebrity Bloggers serving as contributors. Laurie Brock, Megan Castellan, Anna Fitch Courie, David Creech, Neva Rae Fox, Emily McFarlan Miller, Miriam McKenney, Keegan Osinski, and David Sibley are all members of the Lent Madness team. Adam Thomas continues in his unsung role as Lent Madness Bracket Czar, regularly updating the bracket throughout Lent.

Enjoy reading the contributor bios below, log onto their respective website and blogs, and by all means buy their books! (where applicable). Oh, and PLEASE don't mob them when you see them out in public places. The aura of "celebrity" can be a heavy burden.

 

The Rev. Laurie Brock

The Rev. Laurie Brock, returns as a Distinguished Celebrity Blogger because this, like God's love, is eternal. She serves as the rector of St. Michael the Archangel Episcopal Church in Lexington, Kentucky. She blogs occasionally at www.revlauriebrock.com. She has written two books about horses and spirituality, Horses Speak of God and God, Grace, and Horses. Her next book, Souvenirs of the Holy, is scheduled to be published in fall 2024. She frequently shares photos of horses and random stuff on Instagram at  @revlaurieinlex and at various church gatherings as a retreat leader and speaker. When she's not doing priest things, she is riding her horse Nina, the Official Horse of Lent Madness.

 

The Rev. Megan Castellan

The Rev. Megan Castellan, Distinguished Celebrity Blogger, is the Canon to the Ordinary for Formation and Mission in the Diocese of Central New York. Previously, she lived and worked in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Arizona, Missouri, and a period of time in the West Bank that the government can’t know about. Her ongoing adventures and strong opinions are chronicled in her blog Red Shoes, Funny Shirt  and on BlueSky @revlucymeg. (From time to time, she also writes actual books, such as Welcome to a Life of Faith in the Episcopal Church.) She and her husband, Ben, live a Noah-like existence in Ithaca, NY with their two dogs, two cats, and two small children.

 

 

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Anna Fitch Courie

Anna Fitch Courie is a wife, nurse, university faculty, and author of multiple titles on health, wellness, and spirituality. Her current professional focus is on the strategic development of wellness programs. Anna keeps busy as mom to Patton and Merryn, her human children, and Norman and Jaeda, her fur-children.  When not working, she enjoys spending time with her husband Treb hiking, traveling, playing board games, reading, and attending as many Clemson football games as possible.

 

 

Dr. David Creech

This is David Creech's 11th year as a Celebrity Blogger. He has managed so far to remain undistinguished. Undeterred by more than a decade of losing, he is still fascinated by hagiography, both ancient and modern. He is a product of an Evangelical seminary and a Catholic PhD program and taught for years at a Lutheran college and worships with Episcopalians. Some would say he is an ecumenical voice but mostly he’s just confused. His book title is long and boring (The Use of Scripture in the Apocryphon of John: A Diachronic Analysis of the Variant Versions) but nearly sold out of its initial print run of 200 copies. He also edited the New Testament portion of The Path, a fantastic abridged Bible (in Spanish too!) He has long dabbled in a project that explores early Christian criminality. A native of Southern California now exiled in the Upper Midwest, David lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his family. You can follow him on Bluesky or Threads (but not that other site filled with much weeping and gnashing of teeth).

 

If it’s Lent, that means it’s time for devotions, reflections, spiritual reading, wearing purple nail polish, and, of course, Lent Madness! The excitement continues for Neva Rae Fox as she marks another Lent Madness season as a Celebrity Blogger and add another Golden Halo mug to her collection. For Lent 2024, Neva Rae plans to delve deep into more spiritual reading – and is am always open to suggestions of book titles. First up – “Devotions for People Who Don't Do Devotions” by our own Lent Madness Supreme Executive Committee member Tim Schenck.

 

Miriam McKenney

Miriam Willard McKenney is a child of God who fiercely loves her husband, David, and their three adult daughters. Miriam felt God’s call to the ministry of librarianship from an early age. After receiving her Master’s in Library Science at the University of Michigan, she practiced librarianship for over 20 years before joining the staff at Forward Movement. Miriam serves as Director of Mission at Forward Movement and Director of Dismantling Racism for the Diocese of Southern Ohio. She’s also a professor of children’s literature at Xavier University. Miriam loves to spend time outdoors year-round, as nature has gifts to give us every day.

 

Emily McFarlan Miller

Emily McFarlan Miller is communications specialist for Indigenous Pathways and a freelance reporter writing about the spiritual and supernatural. In 2017, she wrote an article about Lent Madness for Religion News Service, and the rest is history. When she’s not writing for or about Lent Madness, she enjoys hosting Halloween for her family (her sister has dibs on Easter) and working with her husband, Joel, on the fixer-upper they share in Chicago with their son, Asher, and cat, Poe. Find Emily online at emmillerwrites.com.

 

 

Keegan Osinski

Keegan Osinski is the librarian for theology and ethics at Vanderbilt University’s Divinity Library. She is the author of Queering Wesley, Queering the Church.

 

 

 

 

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The Rev. David Sibley

The Rev. David Sibley serves as Rector of St. Paul’s Church in Walla Walla, Washington, within the Diocese of Spokane. Raised in South Carolina, David proudly studied and did research in chemistry at Furman University before a call to ordination. He is a graduate of General Theological Seminary and has previously served parishes in New York City and Long Island. He was a four-time Jeopardy! Champion in 2022, until his brief run was ended by an eventual 21-game champion. When not in church, David enjoys travel, trivia, all things food and music related, and enjoying any number of sporting events, especially the Chicago Cubs, Walla Walla Sweets, South Carolina Gamecocks, and Liverpool Football Club.

 

The Rev. Adam Thomas

The Rev. Adam Thomas, Distinguished Lent Madness Bracket Czar, has been with Lent Madness since 2012 in various capacities, most recently as the keeper of the bracket and writer of pithy headlines. Since 2014, he has served God as the pastor of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Mystic, CT, where he lives with his spouse Leah and their twins. In the early 2010s, Adam wrote a few books for Abingdon Press, and now he independently publishes fantasy novels, as well as cohosting the Podcast for Nerdy Christians. You can find out more on his websites adamthomas.netwherethewind.com, and nerdychristians.com, and on his Amazon author's page. You can also follow Adam on Facebook and Twitter @RevAdamThomas.