Rev. Robert Lee (Skip) Ellison
Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution’s religious liberty provisions (www.au.org).
In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues.
An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's “NewsHour,” NBC's “Today Show,” Fox News Channel's “O'Reilly Factor,” ABC's “Nightline,” CNN's “Crossfire,” CBS's “60 Minutes,” MSNBC’s “Buchanan & Press,” Fox News Channel's “Hannity & Colmes,” ABC's “Good Morning America,” CNN's “Larry King Live” and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS.
On the radio, Lynn served for two years as regular co-host of "Pat Buchanan and Company" and more recently did a weekly syndicated radio program, "Review of the News," with Col. Oliver North. He is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's “All Things Considered,” “Morning Edition” and “Talk of the Nation,” as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio.
Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union.
In 1995, Lynn co-authored "The Right to Religious Liberty: The Basic ACLU Guide to Religious Rights." His most recent book is Piety & Politics: The Right Wing Assault on Religious Freedom. He writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation.Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the Knight-Ridder and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. His daily talk show, Culture Shocks is heard on radio stations around the country.
A member of the Washington, D.C. bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973.
Lynn, a native of Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.
Selena Fox is a psychotherapist, teacher, writer, photographer, ritual performance artist, and priestess. She is founder and co-executive director of Circle Sanctuary, an international Nature Spirituality resource center headquartered on a 200 acre Nature preserve in southwestern Wisconsin, USA. Selena received her M.S. in Counseling from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She graduated cum laude with a B.S. in psychology from the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1971. She received additional training in psychology at Rutgers University, Parkway Hospital, and various conferences and training programs. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, American Counseling Association, Association for Transpersonal Psychology, and American Academy of Religion. She is a spiritual counselor in private practice. She also is a staff psychotherapist at Wellspring, a mental health outpatient clinic in Madison, Wisconsin. Selena has been a Wiccan priestess and Pagan artist since 1973.
Selena's approach to spirituality emphasizes Nature communion and blends together ancient and contemporary European and American folkways, Wiccan traditions, multicultural shamanism, and transpersonal psychology. She is one of America's best known Pagan elders, networkers, and civil liberties activists. She is founder of Circle Network, Lady Liberty League, and the Pagan Academic Network. Over the years, Selena and her work have been covered by various regional, national, and global media, including Time Magazine, Wall Street Journal, CNN's Larry King Live, NBC's Today Show, and various radio networks (NPR, BBC, ABC, CBC). She has spoken at a variety of international and multicultural conferences.
Selena's writings and photographs have been published in a variety of periodicals, anthologies, and other publications. She is author of Goddess Communion Rituals and Meditations and When Goddess is God. She also has created several music and guided meditation tapes. She is founder of the quarterly journal, Circle Network News, and sourcebook, Circle Guide to Pagan Groups. She was a consultant for Time-Life Books' Mysteries of the Unknown series.
Selena has traveled widely in connection with her work. She has presented workshops and facilitated community ritual experiences in many types of settings, including colleges and universities, festivals, churches, conferences, and healing centers. She lives with her husband, Dr. Dennis Carpenter, and nine cats... at Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve. Her avocational pursuits include archaeology, genealogy, herbology, and ornithology.
Diana L. Paxson is well known in the pagan community as a writer, the author of twenty-six novels with strong pagan themes, beginning with the Westria series and her historical fantasies, including the books in the Avalon series begun by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Her most recent works are "The Golden Hills of Westria" and the upcoming "Ravens of Avalon". More recently she has had considerable success with several non-fiction works, such as "Taking Up the Runes" and "Essential Asatru". She also writes a regular column on goddesses for "Sagewoman" magazine.
The religious and magical scenes in Paxson's books are based on many years of practice. She was consecrated as a priestess in 1982 in the Fellowship of the Spiral Path, a eclectic pagan organization in Northern California, and served two years as First Officer of the Covenant of the Goddess. In the early 90's she began working in the Asatru tradition, studying the runes and pioneering the reconstruction of Oracular Seidh. She leads Hrafnar kindred, and has served on the High Rede and as Steerswoman of the Troth, an international Asatru organization, whose journal, _Idunna_, she still edits. She also has over 14 years of experience with the Afro-Brazilian tradition of Umbanda. In addition to runes and seidh, she teaches classes and workshops on trance-work and folk magic.
Operating as a spiritual guide and facilitator to the local pagan community, Rev. Akins is a High Priest of the 'Coven of the Earthly Oak Spirit' and an associate Priest for the 'Circle of the Emerald Phoenix' in Woodbridge, Virginia. He is associated with the Circle of the Crystal Grove, a CUUPS chapter of the Bull Run Universalist-Unitarian Church. He also serves as a Point-of-Contact, the Army Service Advisor, and Advocacy Affairs Manager, and most recently, as the Executive Director fo r the Military Pagan Network (MPN) {www.milpagan.org}. This service to the military pagan community is a direct follow-on to his nine years as a Chaplain Assistant Supervisor in the United States Army, from which he retired in 1999 as a Master Sergeant E8.
This retirement culminated a distinguished service of more than twenty-four years, with combat support tours in Viet Nam (twice) and Operation Desert Shield/Storm. During his military career, Master Sergeant Akins received numerous decorations and ribbons, the highest being a Bronze Star Medal and Meritorious Service Medal, along with Commendation Medals from both the US Army and the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Reverend Akins received his ordination through the Universal Life Church, which is based in Modesto, California. This ordination was a formalization of his practice of the Celtic-Wiccan path for over eight years, and a comparative self-study of dominant western religions for many years prior to that. During his military service he had multiple opportunities to witness the practices of many faith groups in their native lands.
For the past two years, Rev Akins has been the Director of The Interfaith Alliance of Northeast Virginia, working to bring individuals and groups of differing faiths together in an exchange of knowledge, and the realization that all have more in common than real differences.
Rev. Akins resides in Woodbridge, Virginia with Marie, his wife of 39 years. He has been a resident of the Northern Virginia area since 1970. Rev. and Mrs. Akins have two married daughters and three grandchildren, also residing in the Woodbridge, Virginia area.
As the ministry of Rev. Akins is not a full-time effort, he works as a Senior Systems Analyst-Engineer for a major defense contractor, located in Northern Virginia. He has been associated with computers, engineering, and the defense industry for more than 25 years. He currently serves as the Regional Systems Administrator for the Caribbean and Central American areas of the United States Southern Command.
Steve McNallen has followed the religion of the Northern European peoples, commonly called "Asatru," for almost forty years. For thirty-eight of those years he has worn a small piece of jewelry - a representation of the hammer of Thor - around his neck.
Since 1972, Steve McNallen has founded a series of Asatru organizations with 501(c)(3) status from the Internal Revenue Service. In the years that followed, he helped lay the foundation for the rebirth of this faith by composing a set of rituals, establishing a religious calendar, issuing various publications, and holding national events. Today, Steve continues to serve the movement as head of the Asatru Folk Assembly. From 1972 to 1976, Steve served as an officer in the United States Army, winning his parachutist wings and the coveted black and gold Ranger tab. He also served many years in the Army National Guard. Steve is proud of his military service, and most who know him would agree that it has largely shaped the person he is today.
In addition to his work in Asatru over the years, he has been a classroom teacher, a corrections officer, and a freelance journalist reporting from global hot spots. Currently he is employed in a juvenile detention center where he works with troubled youth.
Wiccan Credentials: Graduate and Credentialed through Our Lady of Enchantment Seminary of Wicca, Lady Sabrina, Nashua, NH Graduate of the Deaconry Training Program from Sacred Well Congregation of Wicca, Converse, TX Emissary and Reverend of SWC Director of Military Affairs, SWC Mentor for Deaconry Training Program, SWC Started the first Wiccan Open Circle in Iraq, 2003 Started the first Wiccan Open Circle at Fort Bragg, NC 2001 Currently leading the Tidewater Open Circle in Southern Virginia.
Military Credentials: Retired US Army Warrant Officer 4 with 23 years of active duty service. Combat Veteran, Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, 2003-2004 Assistant Battalion Operations Officer, 10th Military Police Battalion, US Army Criminal Investigation Command (Forward Combat Operations Officer, Baghdad, Iraq) Theater Level Logistics Security Officer for Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom Oversight Officer for all Mass Graves Missions in Iraq, 2003-2004 Oversight Officer for all High Value Detainee interrogations for the War Crimes Tribunal Team, 2003-2004 Set up the Criminal Investigation Command office at Abu Ghirab Prison Complex, oversight of prison atrocity investigations 2003-2004 Oversight of operations concerning Cpt Speicher, MIA from Gulf War I Member of the Re-Patriation Team for all POWs recovered from the Iraqi War in 2003-2004 including Jessica Lynch, two US Army Warrant Officer helicopter Pilots and members of the 507th Maintenance Company. Subject Matter Expert in DOD level Major Procurement Fraud Investigations Former Commander and Special Agent In Charge of the 87th Military Police Detachment, Criminal Investigations Command, Airborne, Fort Bragg, NC Holds a Combat Bronze Star.
Graduated from Idaho State University with a BA in Park and Recreation Management with a Minor in Sociology
Most recent work: SME for Dr. Phillip Zimbardo, Head of the Psychology Department at Stanford University for his new book: The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil, assistance was with the Abu Ghirab Prison Atrocities.
Personal: Works in the field of Intelligence in the DC area and commutes weekends home to a 40 acre farm in Southern Virginia. Lives with her husband Will, 6 cats, 5 horses and one Aussy Shepherd. Raises wine grapes, fruit trees, and nut trees. Gardens, rides Civil War Cavalry as a re-enactor, writes, paints and plants trees as hobbies.
Rev. Robert Lee (Skip) Ellison
Rev. Robert Lee (Skip) Ellison has served as Archdruid of Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF) since 2001. He was initiated into a Wiccan coven in 1982. In the fall of 1990, he attended a workshop presented by Isaac Bonewits on ADF, and was so impressed by Isaac's vision of a religion that would be open to everyone, public and that, some day in the future, would have groves and temples in every city, that he joined the organization shortly after.
He was the organizer for a grove near his home in Syracuse, NY in 1991 and then became its second Senior Druid, a position that he held until August of 2001 when he stepped down due to becoming Archdruid of the International organization.
Within ADF, he has served on its Mother Grove, the board of directors, since being appointed by Isaac in 1992. Over the past nine years, he has held the positions of Registrar, Scribe, Vice-Archdruid and now finally, Archdruid.
He is a retired industrial electrician and spends his time now traveling around the US, Canada and Europe attending festivals to talk about ADF and present workshops on a variety of subjects. In his free time, he has a little over 17 acres of land he tends. His web site at Dragon's Keep Farm, has more information about the workshops he teaches and his books.
Caroline W. Casey is a Visionary Activist Astrologer, devoted to the principle that Imagination lays the tracks for the Reality Train to follow. Therefore the cultivation of imagination whereby to spin the irresistibly eloquent unifying story is a strategic art for personal and collective change. As the late great Native American activist, Ruben Snake, used to quip, "Here's a little bit of Native American wisdom for you - if we don't change our direction, we're likely to end up where we're headed."
A native of Washington DC Caroline is the last of five children born to an Irish-Democrat-New-Deal Congressman, and a politically active Yankee Swede. She has a degree in Symbol Systems (semiotics) from Brown University, and has studied magic, mythology and social activism all over the world.
Based in Washington DC, Caroline broadcasts her live weekly radio show, "The Visionary Activist Show", wedding spiritual magic to ingenious social action to Pacifica station KPFA (94.1) in Northern California , replayed on L.A.s KPFK (and can be heard live on the web, by going to www.KPFA.org at 2pm PT on Thursdays).
Primary astrological consultant for Time-Life Books' 1989 book "Cosmic Connections", she has offered mythological-astrological news analysis on ABC"s "Nightline", CNN's "Crossfire", in "People Magazine ", on Public Radio, the Mutual Broadcasting System, CBS's "Nightwatch", "Fox Morning News", "Equal Time" etc.
In 1980 Caroline was a weekly astrological political analyst on Washington Metromedia TV, with Mark Shields. Subsequently her Astrological Interpretation of World News and Politics has been sought in a full-page interview in The Washington Post, a full length cover feature also in the Post's style section (July 2000), on the front page of the Providence Journal, the New Bedford Standard Times, the London Sunday Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and in an interview with James Ridgeway for the Village Voice. She has written astrological-political essays for Washingtonian magazine as well as an astrological-political column for George Magazine (July '98-February '99). And covered the 2000 election for National Journal's Hotline.
Her audio book,Visionary Activist Astrology is published by Sounds True. She is the author of Making the Gods Work For You - the astrological language of the psyche (Harmony Books/Random House or Random Harmony) The audio version, a theatrical presentation of the material in the book, is also titled Making the Gods Work for You. She offers Visionary Activist Revivals at a wide variety of conferences all over America as well as in South Africa (presenting at the Parliament of World Religions), Sweden, England, is the founder of Coyote Network News (our own mythological news service), and the on-line Compassionate Trickster Experimental Juju Mystery School and New Zealand.
Collaborative by nature, Mz. imani shows up fully to help the heart of humanity awaken, One Fire at a Time. Mz. imani is a visionary woman and a spiritual alchemist. She has been playing the hand drums for more than 20 years and is a gifted shamanic practitioner. She believes that with appropriate acknowledgement and respect for the laws of nature, we can rely on spirit's deep desire for humanity to live in harmony. She feels strongly that with time and talent (something we all have), anything can be transformed into the essential gold that the alchemists of history and herstory have sought through the ages. Given the situations of our time, miraculous interventions seem VERY necessary.
For the past 3 years, Mz. imani has served as shaman for the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (www.cosm.org). Her areas of expertise lie in the development and facilitation of the Full Moon Drum and Dance, CoSM Fire, SoulFire@CoSM, and her intentional support of growing the community surrounding CoSM.
Her optimistic spirit takes action in her work to help the heart of humanity heal. Mz. imani attempts to make the world a better place to be through the SoulFire family of drum and dance events and the collaborations she invests in. Her music, talismanic glass bead making and the shamanic mentoring and consultation services are tailored to the needs of the individuals or communities she is working with. Mz. imani is the mother of 2 young adults, Mica Buchanan and Dawn Overlock and the wife of world renowned Bio-Informatics Scientist, Owen White.
Caroline Kenner is a Washington Witchdoctor. Born and brought up in Washington, DC and Montgomery County, Caroline is a Pagan activist and shamanic healer who also practices the Washington art of advocacy media.
For twenty years, Caroline labored in the propaganda mines of Washington, helping shape media messages for mass consumption. She worked as a media consultant for organizations such as Families USA, The Alzheimers Association, and several unions and advocacy groups for feminism and the environment. During the Clinton administration, she worked closely with the White House promoting health reform. Caroline also worked for National Public Radios Performance Today, a syndicated classical music program.
Caroline has also practiced media arts as a longtime spokesperson for the Washington, DC and Baltimore Pagan community. She has spent years working to dispel the many misconceptions in the public mind about Paganism and Witchcraft.
She is a shamanic healer, trained for twelve years by Michael Harner, Sandra Ingerman and the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. She is initiated into two branches of Wicca: the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, a Wiccan organization based in the mid-Atlantic, and the magical family of internationally famous Anglo-Irish Witches Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone. Caroline is also a proud initiate of La Regla de Ocha de Lukumi, also known as Cuban Santeria.
Caroline holds an A.B. in anthropology from Bryn Mawr College, and an M.S. in communications from Boston University.
This rally and ritual is organized and sponsored by Caroline Kenner and Chesapeake Pagan Community.
For more information, email: caroline@paganreligiousrights.org
