Below are some of the people who have joined the Ecunet meeting, "People Who Care."

Name: Elizabeth W. Bennefeld
Vocation: Freelance Editor and Writer
Denomination: Religious Society of Friends
Favorite Meetings: Women in Ministry Online, Defining the Church, A Passion for Books, Hackers Kitchen

I've found the conversations on Ecunet to be personally helpful in examining my relationship to God and society. It's a place where I can raise issues that are important to me and learn the views of others who are dealing with the same or  similar issues.  My husband Al and I live in Fargo, North Dakota.

Name: Michele Rae Biery
Vocation: Retail Management
Denomination: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Favorite meetings: I currently belong to several prayers lists, and the fantasy book chat.

My name is Michele Rae Biery, and I belong to Redeemer ELCA in Columbus, Ohio.  A lifelong Lutheran, I am concerned with the direction the church is taking in an effort to bring the unchurched in.

Name: Timothy D. Bonney
Vocation: Pastor, First Baptist Church of Rushville, Indiana
Denomination: American Baptist Churches, USA
Favorite meetings: ABNET Chat, PC Users Group, and (dare I admit it) a humor meeting called PIGS.

Over the years I have made many friends on Ecunet/ABNET, learned more about my faith, gotten help with my computer, participated in book studies, sermon discussion, theological debates, and numerous other venues.  I have gained far more from my participation in Ecunet then I have ever paid.

Name: Bob Brannon
Vocation: Retired Presbyterian Minister
Denomination: Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A)
Favorite meetings: Prayer Chapel

I bought my first computer as my 65th birthday present in 1992. I'm on my third.  In 1993, I joined PresbyNet.  I have found this to be an invaluable way to staying in touch with our Christian world. I know much more about all sorts of folk than I did 9 years ago. I belong to over 200 other meetings and read in all of them. I know what is happening in the Middle East and Pakistan from people there. Would that I had such a contact in India. There is a world of Christian folk available in PresbyNet-Ecunet.

Name: Peter Chynoweth
Vocation: Chairman of the Board of St. Stephen's and St. Andrew's College
Location:  Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies

I've been around Ecunet since 1985.  The level of my involvement with Ecunet seems to ebb and flow. It mostly depends on how busy I am in other aspects of my life. I think it's teetering on the edge of flow right now, primarily because of some opportunities I see for Ecunet as a way of connecting students in theological school programmes.  In a web saturated world, it continues to be a struggle to get people to try Ecunet, but I remain convinced that once people are able to truly connect not only with the technology but the community, that they too will come to appreciate what Ecunet is.

Name: Forrest Clark
Vocation: Pastor
Denomination: United Methodist
Location: Wisconsin

I've been on Ecunet for over a decade now.  I don't remember when I first joined. I use a variety of Internet connections but come back to Ecunet for some of my basic church connections over and over. Sometimes I have been active on Ecunet, at other times I have been pretty quiet.  I've started a few meetings and participated in quite a few. Whether I've been busy or quiet, I'm here for the long haul.  This connection is important to me.

Name: George Conklin
Vocation: Project Director, Worldwide Faith News (Berkley, CA)

My love affair with Ecunet goes back more years [to 1984].  It is unique, wonderful, un-paralleled in the openness and diversity of discourse.

Name: Neil Cowling
Vocation: Pastor, Kirk of Our Savior
Denomination: Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.)
Location: Westland, MI
Favorite meetings: THE TRINITY  (It is interesting to me to notice how certain folks gravitate to the same meetings that I frequent which for me is about 20 at any one time.)

I can't remember how long I have been cruising in here, but I think it was around 1993 or 1994 when a friend of mind gave me the Convene software and introduced me to PresbyNet and I made the happy discovery that more than just we Presbyterians were here.  I am a fairly regular contributor of notes to various meetings and I suppose I enjoy those that engage in theological reflection as much as any. 

Name: Jeffrey Dick
Vocation: Sr. Pastor at First Congregational Church
Denomination: United Church of Christ
Location: South Haven, MI
Favorite meetings: PIGSKIN, TOYS AND GAMES, UCCHRISTCHATTER, DOWNLOAD TO MURDER

I've been with Ecunet for 6 or 7 years.  My favorite meeting throughout the years has been PIGSKIN.  Football talk and all of that.  I believe a real strength of Ecunet can be the low cost.  More and more church related sites are charging large fees.  A sharing of ideas like Ecunet should be embraced widely.

Name: Paul Edison-Swift
Vocation: Director for Resource Information and Networks in the ELCA, Department for Communication
Denomination: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Location: Chicago, IL
Favorite meetings: TABLE TALK is an interesting window into Lutheran congregational life.  ELCA COMMUNICATORS ONLINE is an important link with my communication colleagues in ELCA regional offices.

As a churchwide staff member of a Lutheran denomination, and as a member of the Ecunet board of directors, I have a keen interest in how Ecunet can help us all to create a "connected church."

Name: Robert Hempel
Vocation: Pastor and Communications Broker
Location: LaGrange Park, IL
Favorite meetings: SERMONSHOP, UCCHATTER

I have been a part of Ecunet a long time before it became Ecunet. I have been supported and given support. I have a sermon that was dying on the vine and found an idea that sparked new juices into the sermon. I hope that I have helped others with ideas about many things.

I use the mostly. I have become cyber-friends with many folks across the miles and around the world.

I serve a 200 member church on Chicago's East Side, by the Skyway and Indiana border. It is a caring and supportive group who has started showing new life in the past years.

Name: Houston Hodges
Vocation: Retired PCUSA minister
Location: Huntsville, AL
Favorite meetings: BOTTOM DRAWER, HARRY POTTER DISCUSSION, PRESBYNEWS, FEMINISM AND THE CHURCH, and ELDER CARE

I've been part of PresbyNet since 1985, with my first Macintosh 128 and a 300 baud modem. Was part of the development of Ecunet, as one of the cyber voyageurs who investigated various networks for hosting an ecumenical computer network.

Like others, the main benefit to me from Ecunet is the community.

Name: Pamela June Webb
Vocation: Intentional Interim Ministry
Denomination: Disciples of Christ
Favorite meetings: PC USERS GROUP, SERMONSHOP, INTERIM MINISTRY

For my ministry I have served congregations in high conflict or following clergy sexual misconduct.  In this specialty I've had to move almost every other year if not more often.  Ecunet has been one of the key parts of my life that has remained stable.  People have often heard me say, the only thing that doesn't change in my life is my Ecunet e-mail address.   One of the things I really like about Ecunet is the fact that if I need to know something, I can simply create a meeting and ask for input. 

Name: Kristin Knudson Harris
Vocation: Director of Communication Services and Resources for the Iowa Conference of the UMC
Denomination: United Methodist

I met my husband here on Ecunet.  When I met him he was a Presbyterian pastor then living in Montana, and I was a United Methodist Lay person working for the Annual Conference in Wisconsin.

Name: Nick Knisely
Vocation: Priest
Denomination: Episcopal Church, U.S.A.
Location: Bethleham, PA
Favorite meetings: SERMONSHOP, BETHLEHAM OF PA

Name: Gordon Laird
Vocation: Pastor, retired
Denomination: United Church of Canada
Favorite meetings: NORTH OF SIXTY, LIFE WRITING

My involvement in Ecunet goes back to the days when it was just a twinkle in the eye for a few people.  A few of us from the United Church of Canada started a group on a primitive e-mail system in Canada.  This was November 1984.  We called our group UCHUG - United Church Computer Users Group.  That group was ready to join with others from the United Methodist Church, United Presbyterian Church and the Disciples of Christ, and others, to found Ecunet in 1985.

Name: R E LANGFORD JR
Vocation: Pastor, Saint John Lutheran Church
Denomination: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Location: Lancaster, PA
Favorite meetings: PIGS, ECUMENICAL LUTHERANISM

Name: Bob and Louise Meeks
Vocation: Missionaries
Denomination: American Baptist Churches - USA
Location: Iloilo City, The Philippines
Favorite meetings: the ones which allow us to stay in touch with news and views within our denomination.

My husband and I are missionaries serving with the
American Baptist Churches.  Bob is a program consultant with the Convention of Philippine
Baptist Churches and I am a computer specialist and resource person in the women and children's crisis program with Central Philippine University (CPU).

Name: Ron Miller
Vocation: Priest, retired
Denomination: Episcopal Church, U.S.A.
Favorite meetings: ANGLICAN NEWS SERVICE, TEC, PC USERS GROUP, QUEST COFFEE HOUR

Values here include the friendship, mutual support, the honesty in faith, and the timely news. I believe it was an Ecunet message which alerted me to World Trade Center attack. The support and prayers shared during the Oklahoma City bombing and its aftermath impressed me with the kind of folk found here.

Name: Christy Ramsey
Favorite meetings: ECULAUGH, BOTTOM DRAWER, COOL SITES

PresbyNet [on Ecunet] is to Internet Chat as a church family fellowship dinner is to singles bar full of strangers. We know and care for each other across the miles and years.  Serving four churches in three states, PresbyNet has been a source of resource recommendations, news updates, polity guidance, technical advice, worship aids, humor, fellowship, and emotional support.

Name: David Reed
Vocation: Retired Episcopal Bishop
Favorite meetings: DAILY OFFICE SCRIPTURE STUDY

I was very excited about the potential for ECUNET when I first joined and still find it useful.  I am disappointed that my church has not embraced the potential of this platform, but recognize that too many other options have caused us to lose the focus we might have had, both for the Episcopal Church and for the ecumenical community as a whole.

Name: David W. Schmidt
Vocation: Mental Health Therapist, and ordained Episcopal Priest
Favorite Meetings: SERMONSHOP, GOSPEL NOTES FOR NEXT SUNDAY, SERMONSHOP SERMONS, DIOCESE OF SOUTH DAKOTA, ECULAUGH, AND BOTTOM DRAWER

As a clergyman who has been involved in ecumenism for thirty years, I think Ecunet is invaluable in binding our various denominations together and I hope it will continue and grow.