Letters from Samaria

LOUIE CLAY (né Louie Crew), Ph.D., who took his husband’s surname upon their marriage in 2013, was born in Anniston, Alabama, in 1936. He founded Integrity, a group that has taken leadership in transforming The Episcopal Church’s stance towards LGBT people, in 1974 and has remained an active campaigner for this and varied other causes since that time. He earned a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Alabama (1971), and is professor emeritus of English at Rutgers University. He is the author of four published volumes of poetry. He died in 2019.

Phyllis Tickle (1934–2015) was an authority on religion in America and a much sought after lecturer on the subject. Founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly, she has been frequently quoted by media sources including USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, PBS, NPR, the Hallmark Channel, plus innumerable blogs and websites. In addition to lectures and numerous essays, articles, and interviews, Tickle is the author of over two dozen books in religion and spirituality, including The Great Emergence, How Christianity is Changing and Why, and The Words of Jesus, A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord.