Happy Anniversary, RevGalBlogPals!

It's hard to believe, but it's just a few days short of a year ago that I hooked up with the RevGalBlogPals . And what a year that was!...many "changes and chances" for all of us. What a great circle of new friends with whom to share my life, my thoughts, my prayers.

And in honor of our milestone, here are the Friday Five:

What is your first memory of the RevGalBlogPals?
I think it was Purechristianithink of Rebel Without a Pew -- and I'm trying to remember how I met her -- who first clued me in on this group of women (and, at the time, one fella) supporting one another online as they did ministry. My thought was, "Why would they want me to hang around with them? I'm not a minister." (Sometimes that priesthood-of-all-believers thing doesn't quite sink in.) But I decided, "What the hey," or words to that effect, and submitted my blog to the ring.

Have you met any of the other ring members in real life?
Not yet.

Of those you haven't met, name a few you would love to know in person.
I'd be tickled to meet any of the gang...but it would be a special pleasure to meet Kathryn of Good In Parts , because she's been such a supportive friend and counselor during my recent bereavement...and, if the meeting were on her turf, I could feed my Anglophilic jones wandering around her neighborhood and gaping openmouthed at the English countryside and the historic places. And Dash and Rainbow Pastor are so close, yet so far away...maybe one of these years...

What has Ring Membership added to your life?
I think it's been a very important source of affirmation for me personally and for my training for lay ministry (in some form yet to be determined -- whenever I think I know what it is that I want to do, the Holy Spirit moves the horizon line -- I understand she's tricky that way). I've had the opportunity to contribute to two books, something I've always wanted to do -- a fact that I still can't quite process. (I remember the day my copy of our Advent devotional came in the mail, and what it felt like to see my words in print, in a book. I think I had to be peeled off the ceiling, I was so giddy). And I've made a lot of new friends. Living in a rural area, it's very hard to find people on the same general wavelength as myself, let alone the same spiritual wavelength. The RevGalBlogPals remind me that I'm not alone, and that we're all in this exciting, challenging ministry thing together, soli Deo gloria.

Describe a hope for the future of the WebRing.
Well, I'm still militating for a cookbook...seriously, I'd like to see more avenues for smaller groups of RevGalBlogPals to get together, get to know one another more and support one another in a more focused manner. I don't even know what that means, or what that might look like...but it sounds good, doesn't it? So maybe someone reading this will get an inspiration and run with it. And -- I do hope we can pull off another devotional book for another season in the Church year.