Much credit for the energy and timeliness found in its pages belongs as well to its two tireless correspondents, Emily McDonald in the South East area and Nellie McNeil in the Upper East area.

Emily McDonald, who was born in Bristol, Va., is a 1963 graduate of the University of Tennessee’s journalism program. She earned her newspapering stripes working for the Houston Chronicle, the Associated Press, the Nashville Banner and the Methodist Publishing House before hiring on at the Chattanooga Times in 1969. When the Times and Chattanooga News Free Press merged in 1999, she joined its staff until she retired in January.

“I started writing for the Tennessee Churchman while the late Isabel Baumgardner was editor,” she said. “At one point I served on a statewide communications committee for the Diocese of Tennessee.” She recalls two especially memorable events she wrote about: the interim meeting of the House of Bishops in Chattanooga in 1980 and Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie’s visit to Sewanee in 1981.

A member of St. Paul’s Church in Chattanooga, where she is a lay reader, chalice bearer and former vestry member and clerk, McDonald is updating a history of the parish as part of its sesquicentennial celebration. She also serves as editor of Ecsetera, the quarterly newsletter for the Episcopal Commission of Southeast Tennessee.

Nellie McNeil also is a true Southerner, born in Alabama. She says she loves the hills of upper East Tennessee, though she still keeps a house in Alabama, on the river.

She has bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and English – as well as a master’s in English – from East Tennessee State University, and she has studied at the University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, Middle Tennessee State University and King College.

Professionally, McNeil taught high school English for 30 years at Science Hill in Johnson City and at Dobyns-Bennett in Kingsport. She’s coordinated a museum and taught in an adjunct capacity at ETSU, written an opinion column for the Kingsport Times-News for 22 years and served on a variety of boards.

She’s now retired and says she enjoys traveling the world, but she comes home to fill us in on happenings in Upper East and in her home church of St. Paul in Kingsport.

“My reporting on activities of East Tennessee parishes is my ‘brass polishing’ for the church,” she said. “Some volunteers do one thing, others do another. Most volunteer where the service fits.”

And what of the Middle East area, you ask? Your editor currently covers events in the center of our diocese as she is able, but the search is on for a third correspondent.

Volunteers who have some background and a keen interest in writing factual stories and captions and taking crisp, action-oriented photographs are invited to send samples of their work to Sharon Rasmussen, editor, East Tennessee Episcopalian, 814 Episcopal School Way, Knoxville, Tenn., 37932. Please include your name, e-mail address, phone number, home church and availability for assignments.

– Sharon Rasmussen