Celebrity Blogger Week continues as we welcome a fresh face to the Lent Madness fold (not that the veteran bloggers have stale faces, mind you). Maria Kane is excited to be part of the Madness in 2014 and we're excited she allowed us to twist her arm. Plus we told her she wouldn't really have to do anything. We might have lied just a little bit but it's okay since Lent hasn't started yet.

The Rev. Maria Kane

Maria Kane is an Episcopal priest, historian, and proud native Texan. Her favorite role, however, is being godmother to Cal (6) and Leila (4). She has served as a parish priest in Virginia and boarding school chaplain in New Hampshire. Among other things, boarding school life dramatically increased her knowledge of pop culture and internet lingo, for which she is immensely grateful (as are her friends). Maria is a contributor to Weavings and Alive Now! magazines, and like a true mad woman, she's completing final revisions of her dissertation, "Pretty Girls & Fascinating Boys," a study of race, sexuality, and adolescence in late twentieth-century evangelicalism. In her free time, Maria loves reading, cooking, gardening, and finding grammatical errors in the New York Times. She can be found on Twitter @mariaconchia.

How has Lent Madness transformed your life?
For starters, it has nurtured my often unrequited love of history. It's also been a fun conduit for meeting people and making new friends (but keeping the old, 'cause you know, one is silver and the other is gold). It's expanded my sense of community, as well.

Did I mention I love any excuse to talk about history?

What do you hope the Lent Madness public will learn from the lives of the saints?

I hope people will see that being a saint isn't about perfection or surrendering to a formulaic life. From the saints' lives, I want the Lent Madness public to see the grace, sacredness, and possibilities in their so-called "ordinary" lives. I hope people will embrace the idea that they, too, have a place in God's family of faith. Of course, if they develop a passion for history that would be fantastic, too.

Someday, when you become the answer on Jeopardy, what will the question be?

Among other things on this person's bucket list are cocktails & dinner with her closet friends and the hosts of NPR's Morning Edition& All Things Considered at the home of the subtlety  pretentious, yet talented Ina Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa. There will be plenty of orange flowers, of course.

While not technically a Celebrity Blogger, Maple Anglican nonetheless has become the official video blogger of Lent Madness. Since the Supreme Executive Committee is generally benevolent, we have included the mysterious Maple Anglican in Celebrity Blogger Week.

You can find Maple's videos featuring Archbishop's John Chrysostom and Thomas Cranmer on the newly created YouTube channel, Lent Madness TV. They'll be providing commentary throughout the saintly smackdown -- commentary you won't want to miss. Ever.

Maple Anglican is the nom de plume of the mysterious Anglican Vlogger living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Very few know his true identity. Supposedly he is married with two young children, a son and daughter, attends All Saints’ Cathedral, Edmonton, has really bad grammar, and is very proud that he is Scott Gunn’s “Canadian Nemesis.” Last year in Lent Madness he was able to collaborate with the late Archbishops John Chrysostom and Thomas Cranmer  (@LMArchbishops) using a special device called the “Clairvoyatron,” a device even more mysterious than Maple Anglican himself.  Some say that he’s really a plant by ACNA, while others think he’s a complete git. Either way we still watch his videos. He can be found on Twitter @MapleAnglican,Facebook, or YouTube.

How has Lent Madness transformed your life?
I would say it has gotten the chance to bring out Church Geek in me a lot more and meet a lot more Church Geeks.

Obviously being a Celebrity Blogger is your greatest lifetime achievement. What perks have you enjoyed as a result of your status?
Well, it seems that I have become a bit more mysterious than I previously have been.

What do you hope the Lent Madness public will learn from the lives of the saints?

Maple in a ball pit

All competitiveness aside Lent Madness is a great way for people to learn about the Saints, and more importantly, the history of the Church. In the modern so-called "Post-Christian" society there is definitely a lack of knowledge about Christianity and I think that Lent Madness helps to educate people. At the same time this isn't just for Anglicans/Episcopalians; we have Roman Catholics involved. We have Lutherans involved. It is something that is ecumenical.

Someday, when you become the answer on Jeopardy, what will the question be?
I would want the "Answer" to be "This anonymous Canadian video blogger was part of the Social Media Evangelization movement of the early 21st Century."

[Yes, this should be in the form of a question but we'll cut MA a break. He's Canadian after all.]

Celebrity Blogger Week (or however long it takes) kicks off today! We'll introduce you to our fabulous stable of writers who will help make Lent Madness 2014 happen  (please note: by "stable" we're not implying that they're all horses although Laurie Brock actually does own a horse named Nina).

We've asked all of our non-equine CBs to answer a few questions and provide a photo that somehow reflects or sheds new light upon them. While we did this in alphabetical order last year, in 2014 we're getting loopy and mixing things up. In other words, we're posting these in the order we receive them, which also offers subtle motivation to those Celebrity Bloggers who haven't yet submitted their answers to the SEC to get them in ASAP.

As the pre-Lent Madness frenzy ratchets up, we hope you'll enjoy spending some time with the men and women (not horses) who will bring our 32 saints alive for us this year. We think they're all pretty amazing and not just because they work for carrots, er peanuts.

But before you read about our first CB, don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Thanks -- it's good for our self-esteem.

Canon Heidi Shott

Heidi Shott, entering her third year as a Celebrity Blogger, is Canon for Communications and Social Justice in the Episcopal Diocese of Maine. She is a member (and past Vice Chair) of the Standing Commission on Communications and Information Technology and served as Chair of the Episcopal Life Board of Governors. She worked on the Office of Communication’s video news team at two General Conventions, hosting “The Daily Wrap” in Anaheim in 2009. In Indianapolis she hosted an interview blog atwww.indy300.net. Praised widely for her writing about faith in daily life, Heidi writes for a variety of publications and blogs. She keeps the blog Heidoville. With the departure of their twin sons for college, she and her husband Scott are milling aimlessly around their home in mid-coast Maine where they root for the Red Sox even when they lose. Follow her on Twitter @heidomaine.

How has Lent Madness transformed your life? 
I never thought of myself as a competitive person until Lent Madness came along. I haven't won anything since my third place ribbon for the triple jump in the Holland Patent Central School 6th grade track meet in 1974. There's something about looking at those vote totals when one of my saints is up that lights a holy fire in my heart. In the first round last year Frances Perkins was neck and neck with Damian of Molokai. As it approached midnight East coast time, I was worried she might lose and that all the people who had never heard of her life and witness would go on with their lives without hearing about her life and witness. That's when I decided to take action and vowed to keep tweeting photos of Graceland to the Lent Madness twitterverse (I happened to have a lot of Graceland photos on my phone) until Perkins took the lead. It paid off. She won the first round and never looked back all the way to the Golden Halo.

Obviously being a Celebrity Blogger is your greatest lifetime achievement. What perks have you enjoyed as a result of your status?
The executive director of the Frances Perkins Center bought me a cup of coffee at the Maine Coast Bookshop and Cafe last year. That was sweet. I'm still waiting for the letter from Social Security Administration to announce that they will double my lifetime benefits because of my relentless support of Perkins, not to mention the free trip to Hawaii for helping Queen Emma get to the Golden Halo Round in 2012.

After a brief hiatus for a bit of national media attention, Celebrity Blogger Week both continues and ends with the Rev. Adam Thomas. While not technically a Celebrity Blogger this year, Adam Thomas is a former CB (2012) who enjoys the lofty title of "Bracket Czar." Adam's one of the unsung heroes of Lent Madness who quietly goes about creating and updating brackets from his Czar-like lair.

The Rev. Adam Thomas, Lent Madness Bracket Czar, was a 2012 Celebrity Blogger (most closely identified with upstart Philander Chase) who has morphed into our keeper of the bracket. He is associate rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Cohasset, Massachusetts, which is about ten minutes away from the church of our illustrious leader, the Rev. Tim Schenck. Adam is the author of Digital Disciple: Real Christianity in the Virtual World (Abingdon 2011), which you should read since you are using the Internet right now and you are more than likely a Christian. Adam just celebrated his second wedding anniversary with his wife Leah, who is wonderful and lovely and every other good adjective you might think of. He is busy being married, serving God at his church, and writing a novel, which is winding its way through the editorial process right now. Check out his website WheretheWind.com, for nearly five years of content. You can fan Adam on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @RevAdamThomas.

How long have you been a CB? What do you like about doing this or what have you learned along the way?

Celebrity Blogger Week winds up with the Rev. Chris Yaw. Actually that's not entirely true since we're sticking in Bracket Czar Adam Thomas tomorrow -- we need to keep him happy. But Chris is our eighth and final Celebrity Blogger this year. He's so busy that he kept his answers brief; however we have read through the lines to determine that he won't be giving up chocolate for Lent.

The Rev. Chris Yaw lives in Detroit, where the weak are killed and eaten. He serves the good people of St. David's in Southfield, Michigan who have yet to figure out his three-year-old actually writes his homilies. Chris is thrilled to be entering his second year of celebrity blogging (sure, he writes those too...) and is actually quite enthralled with online Christian learning. Visit the experiment at churchnext.tv

(Editor's note: Chris is too humble to mention that he won an Emmy Award in a previous life as a TV journalist, writer, and producer. We translate this to mean that Lent Madness has won an Emmy. Take that, Susan Lucci!).

How long have you been a Celebrity Blogger? What do you like about doing this or what have you learned along the way?
I love this job! And since I'm in my second year, Tim has doubled my pay. The best part of this job is being around some of the most gifted and energetic voices in the church who have a deep love for God despite her obvious bias for female saints.

Celebrity Blogger Week continues with our penultimate CB, Neil Alan Willard. Besides being the only Celebrity Blogger with four (count 'em!) "L"s in his name, Neil is related to most of the clergy in the Episcopal Church. Also, we like to use the word "penultimate" whenever the opportunity arises.

The Rev. Neil Alan Willard, one of the original Celebrity Bloggers and an early adopter of Lent Madness, is Rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Edina, Minnesota, a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. His study there overlooks beautiful Minnehaha Creek on its way to the Mississippi River. He’s married to Carrie, also beautiful, and they have two sons and a Labrador Retriever in the household. Outside the house are chipmunks, raccoons, and coyotes. No kidding. Last bit of trivia: his father-in-law and his sister-in-law’s husband are both Episcopal priests at different congregations in Aiken, South Carolina, and his brother-in-law is also an Episcopal priest, previously in Wasilla, Alaska, and now in Kapolei, Hawaii. No kidding. Follow him on Twitter @neilwillard and be sure to check out his blog Laughing Water.

How long have you been a Celebrity Blogger? What do you like about doing this or what have you learned along the way?
As someone who was raised on “Tobacco Road” and attended Wake Forest University, I know a little about ACC basketball and religious devotion to a favorite team. I’m not only a Demon Deacon but also the Rector of a church named for St. Stephen, and a member of the Martyrs, our men’s group. I really got into the first tournament of Lent Madness as soon as I realized that our patron saint, the first martyr and one of the first deacons, needed a boost in the second round. While that was a tough loss for us, we had made a strong, last-minute effort. So the next year I gladly accepted an invitation to become one of the original Celebrity Bloggers. I took C.S. Lewis all the way to the Golden Halo in 2011 and Dietrich Bonhoeffer to the Faithful Four in 2012. I’m proud of that record (but not too proud, of course, since that would be unsaintly). What I’ve learned is that birds of a feather do indeed flock together. Last October, for example, I had the opportunity to meet Garrison Keillor backstage at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul after a live radio broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. It may take a moment for you to connect the dots, but it seems obvious to me that this gathering of celebrities in the Land of Lake Wobegon was a direct result of the blessings of Lent Madness.

What should the Lent Madness faithful know about you?
My congregation is located in Edina, which is the childhood home of Ric Flair (a.k.a. “The Nature Boy”). Fake-sports-oriented Episcopalians will surely remember him as the most stylish “pro wrestler” of the 70s and 80s. My family, however, lives in neighboring St. Louis Park, hometown of the Coen Brothers, Senator Al Franken, and Nordic Ware, which produced the original Bundt Pan in 1950. So when members of the House of Bishops choose the Nordic Ware Cathedral Bundt Pan as a gift for their clergy, they are indirectly helping to ensure that snow-covered streets are plowed between my house and my church throughout Minnesota’s harsh winters. I would tweet my thanks to them, but the mitred ones tend to react to that sort of thing like Mr. Carson did when he first saw an electric toaster at Downton Abbey: “Is it not enough that we are sheltering a dangerous revolutionary, Mrs. Hughes? Could you not have spared me that?” *sigh*

After a brief hiatus for the Donne vs. Eliot Play-In round (Donne moves on) and the Super Bowl (Ravens!), Celebrity Blogger Week continues with the Rev. Laura Toepfer. If you think of Lent Madness from an Electoral College point of view, Laura is critical as she hails from California. She claims to be "boring" but her unofficial photo proves otherwise.

Oh, and Maple Anglican has just released a new video recapping the final Play-In -- don't want to miss this one!

The Rev. Laura Toepfer, entering her second year as a Celebrity Blogger, is the Managing Director of Confirm not Conform, an organization devoted to creating confirmation programs that celebrate questions and authentic faith. After seven years in college, youth, and parish ministry, in 2008 Laura became a Kiva Fellow and worked with microfinance agencies in Uganda before returning to her native California. She is the author of the curriculum Eat, Pray, Grow, produced by Every Voice Network—a program that is remarkably well-suited to a church Lenten series. She preaches regularly throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and often has snarky things to say about church on her blog The Infusion. She also has a thing about obituaries.

Celebrity Blogger Week continues with our third and final Lent Madness newbie. We've enjoyed hazing David the past few months and look forward to surprising him with the official Lent Madness ankle tattoo.

The Rev. David Sibley, while living in Brooklyn, does not craft artisanal cheeses. Instead, he serves as Priest-in-Charge of Saint John’s Church, Fort Hamilton, where six of the saints featured in this year’s bracket stare back at him every time he celebrates the Eucharist. Raised right in the middle of South Carolina, David studied and did research as a chemist before being whisked away to seminary in New York City. When he’s not in church, David enjoys travel, hiking and camping, all things food and music related, and praying for the yearly resurrection of the Chicago Cubs’ World Series hopes. When the ideas are forthcoming, he’s been known to blog at Feeding on Manna, and holds forth much more often with his partners in crime on Twitter at @davidsibley.

What are you most looking forward to about Lent Madness 2013?
I'm looking forward to getting to know a few saints better than I knew them before. One of my favorite authors, the Jesuit priest James Martin, notes in his book My Life with the Saints that "It's funny -- the way you discover a new saint is often similar to the way in which you meet a new friend. Maybe you hear an admiring comment about someone and think, I'd like to get to know that person… perhaps you're introduced to a person by someone else who knows you'll enjoy that person's company, or perhaps you run across someone, totally by accident, during your day-to-day life." The saints have been great companions in my spiritual life, and I'm looking forward to making a few more friends.

I'm also looking forward to see what dark-horse candidates will emerge on the strength of good grass-roots campaigns this year. I think many of us were quite surprised by the upstart campaign that Philander Chase made through last year's competition. Are we going to see a relative unknown make a no-holds barred run for the Golden Halo? The only way to find out is, as they say, to "stay tuned…"<

What should the the Lent Madness faithful know about you? (quirks, interests, hobbies, etc.)
While in most things I'm the epitome of a church nerd, I do manage to have a few other interests…

Before I was ordained, I did undergraduate and graduate studies in chemistry, and still can't quite understand why everyone seems to have hated that subject during high school and college. In many ways, I still consider myself a scientist at heart. Like most of the Episcopal Church, I managed to get hooked on watching Downton Abbey; I also remain a huge fan of Mad Men, Arrested Development, and The West Wing. I'm a huge sports fan -- my passion for college football (South Carolina Gamecocks) and professional baseball (Chicago Cubs) could be charitably described as "addictions." With fellow Celebrity Blogger Laurie Brock, I experience a bit of a twinge in my gut when Scott and Tim refer to "the other SEC" when referring to my college football conference of choice. I'm also pretty sure that being a Cubs fan makes me a better Christian, because you have to believe in resurrection when your team hasn't won a World Series since 1908. So don't be surprised if a few sports references make their way into any hagiographies I write.

Celebrity Blogger Week continues with the irrepressible Heidi Shott. Most closely identified with Queen Emma, last year's Cinderella saint, Heidi has turned down numerous offers of free trips to the Aloha State. Something about being impartial. Plus she's nervous about the chances of Damien of Molokai this Lent.

Heidi Shott, entering her second year as a Celebrity Blogger, is Canon for Communications and Social Justice in the Episcopal Diocese of Maine. She is a member (and past Vice Chair) of the Standing Commission on Communications and Information Technology and served as Chair of the Episcopal Life Board of Governors. She worked on the Office of Communication’s video news team at two General Conventions, hosting “The Daily Wrap” in Anaheim in 2009. In Indianapolis she hosted an interview blog at www.indy300.net. Praised widely for her writing about faith in daily life, Heidi writes for a variety of publications and blogs. She keeps the blog Heidoville. With the departure of their twin sons for college, she and her husband Scott are milling aimlessly around their home in mid-coast Maine where they root for the Red Sox even when they lose. Follow her on Twitter @heidomaine. 

How long have you been a CB? What do you like about doing this or what have you learned along the way?
As the token non-seminary-trained member of the Lent Madness team, I am honored to represent the underrepresented lay order for a second year. No. I really am. It’s not like we should pretend that Lent Madness is a proportional democracy or something. While coping with last year’s copy deadlines and the demands of scrounging up kitsch and amusing saintly anecdotes about people who weren’t always amusing -- think St. Augustine -- was stressful, it was a pleasure to be involved. I learned an enormous amount about these faithful followers of Jesus, with the bonus of discovering a kindred spirit in Enmegabowh’s wife, Iron Sky Woman. Also, I learned how to spell his name without looking it up. That Queen Emma of Hawaii made it all the way to the Golden Halo round was the icing on the cake.

What should the LM faithful know about you? (quirks, interests, hobbies, etc.)
Well, I have a pretty awesome corner office at the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, one floor above the Bishop’s. Since I’m pretty fidgety and my desk is directly over his, I suspect he finds my toe tapping pretty annoying but is too kind to say anything. It’s something we don’t discuss. I’m very fond of my aged mini-rex house rabbit, Hester. I fear he -- Hester’s a he, long story -- will die soon and have contemplated having him stuffed. Members of my immediate family find this prospect disturbing and have taken to buying fake rabbits to offer me comfort in advance of his demise. Recently I’ve been looking at photos of taxidermied rabbits online and confess that, on the whole, they don’t look so good or very comforting at all. In other animal news, I’m an avid scuba diver and take great pleasure in identifying many species of tropical fish and critters whenever I get the chance. Here in Maine I live on a millpond where, hypocritically, I don’t appreciate close encounters with fish or critters while swimming in the pond.

How long have you been a Celebrity Blogger? What do you like about doing this or what have you learned along the way?
As one of the original Celebrity Bloggers, this is my third year here at Lent Madness. I'm a big fan of church social media, and I get all geeked out about the community that has been built and is growing around Lent Madness. Plus, it gives me more people to play with, both IRL (in real life) and online. It was because of our work together at Lent Madness that now-retired Celebrity Blogger Meredith Gould asked me to be in her wedding in 2011.

What should the the LM faithful know about you? (quirks, interests, hobbies, etc.)
I am an avid beachologist. I like to walk for many miles along ocean beaches, particularly national wildlife refuges or national seashores, to watch and photographwildlife and collect shells. The advanced practice of beachology also includes snorkeling, kayaking in tidal marshes (only in a double boat with someone else paddling, so perhaps that's called "being kayaked"), bike-riding on islands with flat beachside roads, having a relative with a beach house, traveling to other states and even other countries to check out their beaches, and eating seafood.