Author Profiles

Ken Sehested

Ken Sehested is the editor/author of the online journal, prayer&politiks. Once upon a time he played football at Baylor University, back when few outside Texas had heard of the place (and its sports teams were the ragamuffins of their conference). And a traveling teenage youth evangelist. No longer a teenager, he is still an evangelist, though his understanding of what it means to follow Jesus has changed considerably.

Ken’s closest brush with jobs people understand were as a typesetter and, later, as a stonemason. Being picky about your work means creating your own, as a full-time mendicant with Seeds magazine (1978) when it became a monthly magazine focusing on food security and world hunger concerns; then as the founding director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America (1984); as founding co-pastor of Circle of Mercy Congregation in Asheville, NC (2001); and now as the electronic ink slinger of this site.

An award-winning activist and author, Ken’s greater honor came when a four year-old granddaughter memorized and recited his favorite Mary Oliver poem as a Father’s Day gift. His most recent books are Peace Primer II: Quotes from Jewish, Christian and Islamic Scripture & Tradition (published by the Baptist Peace Fellowship) and two collections of litanies, prayers and poems, In the Land of the Living and In the Land of the Willing (Wipf & Stock).

He and Nancy live in the French Broad watershed of the southern Appalachian mountains in Asheville, NC. Email address: klsehested(at)gmail(dot)com.

Nancy Hastings Sehested

Nancy Hastings Sehested is a Co-pastor of the Circle of Mercy Congregation, an ecumenical church in Asheville, NC, affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Alliance of Baptists. She recently retired as a NC state prison chaplain where she worked in medium and maximum security prisons for men for over thirteen years. During 2013-2014, she served as interim pastor of High Country United Church of Christ in Boone, NC. She is currently at work on a book about her prison experience titled Below Good.

Nancy graduated with a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1978. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Union Theological Seminary in 1992. She is an ordained Baptist minister. She has pastored churches in Atlanta, Memphis and Asheville during the past 30 years. With Ken, they have two daughters, two sons-in-law, four grandchildren, and two grand-dogs.

Abigail Hastings

Hastings’ writing career began in 3rd grade when her first well developed piece was set to music and sung by the statewide Texas Children’s Choir back in her home state. After college, she moved to New York and did graduate theater work but only in recent years has been able to indulge those preoccupations by co-producing two showcases—Scrambled Eggs at the Beckett Theatre and Bonus Army at The Gym at Judson. While working in a variety of non-profits, including theater arts, special events, and social policy reform, most of her work was with the late Judson Church minister, Howard Moody, and she was an editor of his book, A Voice in the Village. Since 2004, she has served as the coordinator of The Coalition for Baptist Principles.

Hastings was a member of the Threadwaxing Writers Group for over 13 years and continues to teach a writing group at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility (maximum security for women). An occasional preacher and frequent liturgy writer at Judson Memorial Church where she has been a member for over 25 years, she is the proud mother of son, Nate.