"Wilderness Abbess"

Frances Smathers (Cutshaw) is a Universalist follower of The Way. As a "Panentheologian," everything she learned about God in her early years came from the wild beauty of the Blue Ridge mountains first - the tribal lands of the Cherokee Nation. She believes that The Order of Hildegard develops leaders as antidotes to disconnection (from each other, Spirit and the wild) - disconnection caused by shame, power-over toxicity and the abuses of the patriarchal systems. As the founder of OH, her background includes pastoral ministry, social work, non-profit executive leadership, entrepreneurship, music, the study of Appalachian folk life/art, reconciliation (including formative months with Archbishop Desmond Tutu) and poetry. She loves to cook, spend time outdoors, write and travel. Frances is an Appalachian, Ukrainian-Jewish and French-English descended white cisgender queer Mama of beautiful adult kids.

"I will always be recovering from church trauma, and I will always live life to the fullest, loving the beauty of a wild God weaving her way through each of us, connecting us all, and all of our creation kin in a golden, breathing web of life.".

https://francesscutshaw.substack.com/

Rev. Ladale Benson (Dale) is a Buddhist-Christian mystic, martial artist, spiritual teacher, spiritual coach, fitness trainer, activist, thinker, and writer. His work is grounded in spiritual awareness, reflection, and paths into liberation. He focuses on co-creating space for men to do their healing work and reimagining the inner workings of relationships towards liberation. Rev. Dale holds 2 black belts in martial arts (Kung fu and Shotokan Karate) and has advanced training in Krav Maga, Jeet Kune Doe, Wing Chun, and Military Combatives. He has obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies/Religion (Greensboro College), Master of Divinity (Hood Theological Seminary), Master of Theology (Duke University School of Divinity), and is completing his Doctor of Ministry (Payne Theological Seminary). Rev. Dale is an ordained minister in the Baptist and United Church of Christ traditions. He was also an authorized teacher in an independent Buddhist tradition. Rev. Dale has recently returned from living in Lesotho, Africa, for over a year, where his commitment to communal living was reignited. He enjoys working out, reading, writing, traveling internationally, sci-fi, and aggravating his amazing 10-year-old son. He knows his son is his primary spiritual teacher.

"I, Lerita Coleman Brown, am an embodied spirit, author, speaker, heart and kidney transplant recipient, former psychology professor and I consider each day to be a walk of gratitude, trust, and hope. A graduate of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, I serve as a *spiritual director/companion, retreat leader and encourage the pursuit of a spiritual life. I believe forgiveness is an extraordinary healing force in the world and an essential tool for experiencing the Peace of God.

In 2008, I completed the Spiritual Guidance Program at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. It was the perfect spiritual direction training program for me because it led me to the discovery of the life and writings of mystic and spiritual leader, Howard Thurman.

I live in Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA, with my husband and our family. I savor reading, sitting in nature, gardening, sewing, watching college football, writing, viewing the visual and performing arts, telling stories, and laughing a lot."

Armandee Drew is an Inner Healing Maven, world traveler, retreat facilitator, and Trauma-Informed Coach. She is on a mission to transform toxic relationships, eliminate isolation, and clear trauma. Her coaching is client lead, body centered, and goal oriented.

Armandee relentlessly listens with a persistent tenderness, mining for the roots of your false story.

She fights for your inner freedom and highest good!

Armandee has a master's degree in Global Leadership and is certified in advanced NLP, Trauma Informed Life Coaching, and Inter-Cultural Intelligence. She has most recently studied with the founder of the Trauma Clearing Method out of Ireland and is coaching leaders on their healing journeys.

She loves meeting friends for tea, deep talks, and long walks by the sea.

armandeedrew.com

Pastor Mallory Everhart is a graduate of Iliff School of Theology and was ordained in the United Church of Christ in May 2021. She is trained as a movement chaplain and abolitionist spiritual director and brings those skills to companioning the activist and organizing community in Colorado Springs, especially supporting the work of Southern Colorado Black and Pink. She is a published poet, aspiring weaver, herbalist, energy healer and guardian of a houseful of plants.

Heidi was formerly called to ministry and academics.

Now they're a servant leader in the world of lost, forgotten, ignored and suppressed history and family stories.

Heidi is an appalachian neuroqueer. A visual and theatre artist. A relationship alchemist. An enneagram practitioner. A granny witch, social worker and teacher at heart. A ritualist and a librarian, historian and genealogist. Heidi returned to the landscape of the nomadic indigenous lands in the Potomac Highlands where she was raised and labor now is largely expressed in the context of mutual aid and bartering or is freely gifted and includes intersectional community care, activism and transformative justice-- specifically within neurodivergent, queer and Black led spaces. In a long ago and far away life, they trained for ministry and taught rural first year college students world religions and the history of xianity. Bless them.

Matt's goal is deeper intimacy with God, self, others, and creation. His interests are varied- ranging from religion and psychology to food, drink and sports. Matt served as a professor of Christian Spirituality and as a Campus Pastor at Southeastern University of the Assemblies of God for many years before his deconstruction/reconstruction dictated his leaving the denomination and University and relocating to western North Carolina in 2016.

Matt and his wife Nicole both work at and live on the campus of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem in the Department of Residential Education.

"I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Self-Trust Coach, and Podcast Host. I help people who feel and care deeply to reconnect to their inner wisdom, learn to trust themselves, heal from the pressures and traumas they have experienced, reclaim their playfulness, and liberate through collective care.

I am a cis-gendered, white, able-bodied, thin, neurodivergent female in a heteronormative relationship. I am a reformed people-pleaser and exvangelical. I am an advocate for needs-based, anti-oppressive well-being, particularly in the realms of psychology, sociology, and spirituality. My office is located in Pensacola, FL on the unceded land of the Muscogee. You can find me at cqcounseling.com and @catherinequiring on IG.

Cindy is a queer Scottish pagan mystic, community interfaith chaplain, and political activist. Her aim is to serve all people regardless of their chosen faith. Her community work has a focus on individual empowerment, trauma and addiction recovery, inclusivity, social and environmental justice, and the intersectionality of all beings. She enjoys writing guided meditations and developing rituals for individuals, groups and families, especially for life events that are not typically celebrated or acknowledged. She finds joy in the small things, has a deep connection to animals, and is forever a student of universal mystery. As a free spirit, she feels most at home near a creek in the woods. She loves being playful with her family, singing and dancing,  going on travel adventures, diving into a good book, and curling up to watch a hair-raising horror movie. She walks daily in awe of the multifaceted brilliance of the experience of life.