The Café Team

The Episcopal Café is operated by volunteers who give their time to this ministry. Most of our work is done in teams, with teams devoted The Lead (news stories), The Magazine (featured writing), and Speaking to the Soul (daily spiritual reflections).

Managing Editors

Amy Haynie is the Associate Rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in Fort Worth and is the Director of Brite Divinity School’s Episcopal Eucharist services. She has served on the Standing Committee and as a Deputy to General Convention for the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. Amy also holds a Board position and acts as Treasurer for RevGalBlogPals. She holds a B.S. in Nursing from Midwestern State University, and an M.Div. from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. Amy is also a contributor to the All Points Considered podcast.

Tracie Middleton brings a background in journalism, PR, and communications to her role. She earned a BA from Austin College and an MA from Lamar University. She became an Episcopalian while living in southeast Texas, attended the Iona School for Ministry in the Diocese of Texas and was ordained in 2009. I fort Worth she has served on the Commission on Ministry, the Disciplinary Board, and as Diocesan Disaster Coordinator and as a deputy to General Convention. She is passionate about the distinctive call of deacons and the gifts they offer in connecting the church with the world. Middleton is Vice President of the Association for Episcopal Deacons .

The News Team for the Lead

John B. Chilton is an economist, who has taught in universities around the world. He is a pioneer member of the Cafe team. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia and his PhD in Economics from Brown University. He and his wife, Carolyn, recently retired to Orkney Springs home of Shrine Mont where she grew up.

Amy Spagna serves as rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Woodstock, Vermont. She completed an STM at the School of Theology at Sewanee in 2019, with a focus on ecclesiology and church history. Her secular interests include singing, cooking, coffee, sports involving ice and skates, and being staff to a tuxedo cat.

Cara Modisett is an M.Div. student at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria and postulant for holy orders (priesthood) in the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. She has served as music director at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal, Roanoke; communications director at St. John’s Episcopal, Roanoke and Church of the Holy Communion in Memphis, Tennessee; and communications advisor for the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. She holds an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction from Goucher College and undergraduate degrees in English and piano performance from James Madison University, and has worked as editor of the regional Blue Ridge Country, a reporter, producer and on-air announcer for WVTF public radio, staff collaborative pianist at Radford University and English instructor at Ferrum College. In summer 2015 she served as curator and writer for the Prayers of the People for the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church. She tweets at @CaraModisett.

Speaking to the Soul

Rob Gieselmann is an Episcopal priest and writer, also educated in law and economics. Now retired, Rob has served six parishes in Idaho, Tennessee, California and Maryland, and written three published books: The Episcopal Call to Love, A Walk through the Churchyard, and Irony and Jesus: Parables, Miracles & Stories. The father of two grown children, Rob experiences God most when he finds his bare hands digging in black soil.

Kimberly Knowle-Zeller is an ordained ELCA pastor, mother of two, and spouse of an ELCA pastor. She lives with her family in Cole Camp, MO. You can read more at her website: http://kimberlyknowlezeller.com or follow her work on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimberlyKnowleZeller/

Leslie Scoopmire is a retired US history and English teacher, active as a musician and priest in the Diocese of Missouri. She is a fourth generation Okie and first generation Episcopalian, both by the grace of God. Leslie is rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Ellisville, MO. She posts daily prayers and other writings at her blog Abiding In Hope, and collects spiritual writings and images at Poems, Psalms, and Prayers.

Maria Evans is a board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologist that, a quarter century into what normally would be a perfectly good adulthood, decided to have a second one. That second adulthood turned out to be a call to ordained ministry, and she presently serves as Priest Associate at Church of the Good Shepherd, and Chaplain of The Community of St. Brigid, both in Town and Country, MO. Pushing the envelope on defining “bivocational”, she also spends part of the week as laboratory director of two small hospitals in northeast Missouri. She is also a lover of long-eared equines (donkeys and mules), partly because she understands what it’s like to be “as stubborn as a Missouri mule.” (Psalm 32, verse 9 makes her visibly wince.)

Laurie Gudim works is a religious iconographer and writer in Fort Collins, Colorado. You can view some of her work at Everyday Mysteries.She has recently published her novel, Loving the Six-Toed Jesus, available from Amazon.

Rosalind C Hughes was baptized in the Church of England, Confirmed in the Church in Wales, and ordained in the Episcopal Church, where she serves as Rector of the Church of the Epiphany in Euclid, Ohio. Rosalind is the author of A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing (Upper Room, 2020), and writes regularly at www.rosalindhughes.com. She loves poetry, prayer, the ocean, non-violence, and cats.

Linda Ryan is a co-mentor for an Education for Ministry group, an avid reader, lover of Baroque and Renaissance music, and retired. She keeps the blog Jericho’s Daughter. She lives in Avondale. Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. She lives with three cats who consider her to be staff, available at all hours to supply whatever they think they want or need at any given time.

Book Reviews

MB (Marybeth) Mitcham holds undergraduate degrees in the biological and human development sciences, a MPH and certification in plant-based nutrition, and is working on her dissertation for her Ph.D. When not working as a public health professional or adjunct professor, this former PK and married mom of two incredible humans can be found hiking and climbing, writing odd things, or munching on eggplant bacon.

David Gilliam is a M.Div student at Brite Divinity School and pastoral intern at Trinity Episcopal in Fort Worth, TX. He recently moved to Texas when his wife Katie accepted a position as a professor. David has spent most of his adult life in Central New York where he’s worked as a hospice chaplain, oversaw formation programming at the Episcopal cathedral in Syracuse, and did a M.A. in Theology at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. In his free time he likes to explore trails with his black lab Brümmer and baking sourdough and pastries.

Podcasts

Jon White is the Cafe Podcasts Editor and From All Points panelist. Jon is Rector of St Luke’s Episcopal Church in Camillus, NY and was formerly Rector at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Beckley, WV. He is a graduate of Portland State University in Oregon and Bexley Hall Seminary in Columbus, Ohio.

The Magazine Editor

Charles Wilson is priest at large in Columbus, Ohio. He is a graduate of Bexley Hall (Columbus) and a native of Holyoke, Massachusetts. He and his wife have two children in middle school and live in Columbus. Fr. Charles has served in diocesan leadership roles and is a member of The Gathering of Leaders.