This summer, we gathered together in Wisconsin for the first ever Ancient Faith Podcasting and Writing Conference. There’s a whole community of wonderful people who contribute to Ancient Faith Ministries, from our brilliant behind-the-scenes business people and editors and producers to the writers and podcasters we have all grown to love, and yet — we exist as a community in isolation, each working from a different home base. Most of us have never met outside of virtual conversations on facebook and email exchanges.
Spending a few days together was rejuvenating and inspiring. I met people whose writing has shaped the way I think about God and whose voices are as familiar to me as my own family’s — and I had coffee with them, and laughed with them, and we came up with all sorts of ideas for projects we could do together. I arrived as a person who writes what she loves, and is lucky enough to have a place to post it, and I left as a part of a supportive community, a loving web of wonderful friends. Ancient Faith Ministries is a collection of fascinating and delightful people, and I am honored to be included.
See for yourself: Ancient Faith has posted video of the main speakers at our conference — watch Fr. Stephen Freeman, Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, Christian Gonzalez and Steven Christofouro dazzle us with their wit and wisdom!
One of the delightful people I met was Fr. Ted Paraskevopoulos of FrTEDTalks, a wonderful new Ancient Faith video podcast. Fr. Ted takes questions via email from his listeners, and produces short videos that provide real, candid answers to those questions. I was honored to join him on an episode called, “Raising Kids in the Church”, recorded right there at the conference, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
