Week 1:  December 2 - 8, 2007

Isaiah 2: 1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13: 11-14; Matthew 24: 36-44

Paula McKenzie   is the Director of Pastoral Care at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin.  She has an M.S. in Communicative Disorders and an M.A in Religious Studies.  As a certified chaplain, Paula has worked with people of many different faith traditions since 1994.  She practices contemplative prayer and enjoys writing and reflecting on the spiritual life.  She loves to read and travel.  Paula is married to Rod McKenzie, and they are each active in two Madison congregations: the Blessed Sacrament Parish and Bethany United Methodist Church.  Paula is an associate of the Sinsinawa Dominicans.  Paula and Rod have four adult daughters and two grandchildren.   

Week 2:  December 9 – 15, 2007

Isaiah 11: 1-10; Psalm 72: 1-7, 18-19; Romans 15: 4-13; Matthew 3: 1-12

John Kruse   is a retired ministerial member of the Wisconsin Annual Conference. 

He is the former director of the Wisconsin Methodist Student Movement and the Wesley Foundations at UW-O, UW-Stout and UW-Eau Claire.  He has served Wisconsin Conference churches in Oshkosh, Lake Geneva, Green Bay, Edgerton and Madison and also the Eliot Church (UCC) in Newton, Massachusetts.  John enjoys developing UMW School of Missions courses; last July he taught “Music and Ministry” in Wisconsin and Minnesota.  He is one of the founders of the WUMFSA, a former WUMFSA Board member and a 1996 recipient of the WUMFSA Perry Saito Award.  He is active in the Madison Savoyards and Opera Props, and his deep bass voice can be heard in two choral groups.  John has appeared in all thirteen Gilbert & Sullivan operettas and sung roles in Fiddler on the Roof, Amahl and the Night Visitors, A Christmas Carol, Pinocchio and Narnia.  

Week 3:  December 17 - 22

Isaiah 35: 1-10; Luke 1: 47-55; James 5: 7-10; Matthew 11: 2-11

Rev. Amy DeLong is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church.  She is the Executive Director of Kairos CoMotion, a non-profit organization which brings together a community of progressive Christians for networking, solidarity, theological education, spiritual growth, and advocacy for social justice.  Amy shares a home in Wisconsin with her partner, Val, and their two cats, Saze and Kirby.  Val and Amy’s two grown children live in Wisconsin and Colorado.

Week 4:  December 23 - 29

Isaiah 7: 10-16; Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19; Romans 1: 1-7; Matthew 1: 18-25

Jim and Marianne Cotter are ordained United Methodist clergy serving in Columbus and Marshall respectively.  They both grew up in Madison, but didn’t meet until the first week of their Old Testament class at Boston University School of Theology.  Marianne began her ministry in the Unitarian Universalist church.  They have shared equally in the raising of Samuel (20) and Carl (17).  Jim’s hobbies include making and refurbishing musical instruments. Marianne likes to walk and enjoys watching movies.

Week 5:  December 30 – January 5

Isaiah 63: 7-9; Psalm 148; Hebrews 2: 10-18; Matthew 2: 13-23

Charles Strong:  I am a Wisconsin boy.  I grew up in Chetek, the second of four boys. 

I graduated from UW-Eau Claire in 1970 with a major in US History and a minor in Piano Performance.  Linda and I married in 1970, and she enrolled in a the Master of Arts in Teaching degree at Northwestern while I began studies for an M. Div. at what was then Garrett Theological Seminary.  In 1974 I accepted my first appointment in the Wisconsin Conference.  I am still here!  Linda and I have two children:  Kirsten is the High School Orchestra teacher in the Wausau schools, and Michael is Associate Director of Residential Life at Akron University in Ohio.  In place of hiding the wise men from Lin's homemade creches at Christmas, they have taken to advising me about priorities for my ministry in the new millennium.  If you look closely enough, you can still see evidence that early on I found comfort and good example in the approaches to ministry of Reverends Chris Everson and John Kruse.  Of all the hobbies tried and tossed over the years photography seems to have been the most consistent.  I enjoy reading biography and watching Book TV on CSpan, riding my bicycle, and attending student piano recitals at UW-EC.  Recently I adopted a Springer Spaniel, named her Eve, and now spend time every day laughing at her antics and enthusiasms. MFSA helps me maintain my balance and direction in ministry.

THE ARTIST 

Robert Hodgell (1922 – 2000)  Bob earned his undergraduate degree and an MS in Applied Art from the University of Wisconsin where he was Steuart Curry’s studio and mural assistant for six years.  While at Wisconsin he was a Big Ten high jump champion (1942, 1943) and he received NCAA All-American Honors, as well. He subsequently studied at the State University of Iowa and Dartmouth. Eleven years after leaving Wisconsin, he became Art Director of the University of Wisconsin Extension Division, and he maintained a studio in Waunakee. In 1960 he joined the Art Department at Florida Presbyterian College (now Eckerd College) where he taught for seventeen years. Bob was a painter, etcher, engraver, illustrator and sculptor.  His works can be found in many collections, including the Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Des Moines Art Center, Joslyn Art Museum, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Kansas State University, Bergstrom Museum, Ringling Museum of Art, St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts, and in private collections.  About being a printmaker, Bob once stated, “I try to develop a meaningful image in terms appropriate to the process and the medium. The print succeeds to the extent that it can be perceived and appreciated at both levels – as the art object it is and the concept it may suggest. I find the blockprint to be an effective medium for portraying and conveying notions I feel are important. The graphic impact of the image and the actual physical energy it takes to produce the work minimize the schmaltz that's so apt to compromise work in this genre."  Bob’s friend and Eckerd colleague Jim Crane said, "I asked Bob a question: 'What keeps you going when no one is buying your work, writing about it or maybe even seeing what you are doing? What keeps you going through neglect, when no one cares if you make art or not?’  Bob looked at me as if that haunting question had never occurred to him.  He answered simply 'It is what I do.’  It was what he did and who he was.  It was his vocation in the oldest religious sense.  It was his calling."

The artwork here is from several of Bob’s personal Christmas greetings and also from the Christmas cards he was invited to create during the 1960s for the Wisconsin Methodist Student Movement.

THE CO-EDITORS and PRODUCER

Ginny Moore Kruse credits her commitment to peace and justice to the influences of the Oshkosh Wesley Foundation, the Methodist Student Movement and motive.  She claims that John married her because of her motives; apparently he wanted to complete his collection of this theologically progressive, aesthetically stimulating journal once published by the former Methodist Bd. of Higher Ed.  Their motives have moved with them from home to home, and so have Bob Hodgell’s Christmas cards.  For her service on the Wisconsin Conference Bd. of Higher Ed. & the former United Ministries in Higher Ed. Bd., Ginny received the Frances Asbury Award for Leadership in Higher Ed.  She is a member of Orchard Ridge UCC in Madison.  Ginny is a children’s literature specialist with a secondary specialization in Intellectual Freedom concerning youth access to books.  In 2002 Ginny formally retired as director of UW-Madison’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center.  She spearheaded the ACLU/Wis. 2007 Banned Books Week event; and she has participated in literacy projects with early childhood workers in South Africa, Bolivia and Peru. Her recent articles are in  School Library Journal (3/07) and Sojourners (11/07).

Wesley White is an Intentional Transition/Interim Ministry Specialist working in congregations with specific transition needs or conflictual issues. In his 36 years in the Wisconsin Annual Conference he has been a pastor in each of the eight districts. Wesley has held positions of President, Secretary, and Treasurer within the WUMFSA. Communication within congregations and conferences is one of his special interests.

He is a past chair of the Wisconsin Conference Communication Committee and has participated in international conferences on electronic communication within the church. He currently facilitates the WUMFSA website and listserve and can usually be reached at wwhite@wisconsinumc.org.