Megan McKenna

Megan McKenna, a native of New York City, has lived, visited, and gypsied through North and South America (especially Bolivia/Peru), Europe, and a collection of islands: Celtic, Japanese, the Philippines, Singapore, Haiti, and the Hawaiian Islands, and through Malaysia, India, the Marshall Islands, Thailand, Australia, and China. She works with Indigenous groups, in base Christian Communities, and with justice and peace groups, as well as parishes, dioceses, and religious communities. She has served on the United States National Board of Pax Christi and, in 2002, was appointed Ambassador of Peace for Pax Christi.

An internationally known author, theologian, storyteller, and lecturer, she teaches at several colleges and universities and leads retreats, workshops, and parish missions. She holds graduate degrees in Scripture and Adult Education and Literacy from the Graduate Theological Union and the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s in Systematic Theology from Catholic University, Washington, DC. But foremost, she is a lover of words: the Scriptures, stories and tales, poetry, images and phrases spoken aloud, written down and spun to make meaning, and how these both convert and transform us and bring meaning and hope to the world.

She has authored more than thirty books, including And Morning Came: Scriptures of the Resurrection, Praying the Rosary, Send My Roots Rain, The New Stations of the Cross, On Your Mark: Reading Mark in the Shadow of the Cross, Harm Not The Earth, A Bowl of Perfect Light, and soon to be released, I AM Speaking to You, Becoming Beloved Disciples in the Gospel of John. She resides in Albuquerque, NM.

The Storyteller

In the Southwest, there has always been the tradition of the Storyteller in each tribe, pueblo, and community among the Native Peoples. They held a position of authority and honor, binding generations together, keeping the people’s traditions, beliefs, and practices vital, and asking questions crucial to survival in their area about animals, water, vegetation, weather, and crop rotation. Many were women, though there were male tellers, and they took on apprentices, passing on oral history, knowledge, and wisdom about healing plants, long-ago events, and ways to keep community members acting with respect to the Great Spirit and one another. They often served as bridges between tribes, negotiating for peace and keeping lines of communication open.

The art and craft of pottery was also practiced for thousands of years, and it became the custom to fashion a storyteller usually sitting on the ground, with her head leaning back, her mouth open, telling and letting her spirit mix with the Great Spirit. Originally, only figures of children sat at her feet and on her shoulders, climbing up and down her. The number of children indicated how many stories that particular teller was known for, either telling or creating. In more recent years, animals have been added, or plants held in hands, and other symbols. Some storytelling dolls are life-size and larger than a human being, with hundreds and hundreds of children crawling up and down the figure; they are kept in pueblos in the Southwest and in museums. The pueblo gave them to the Storyteller. It has been a great honor for me to have been given a number of these figures. This symbol, for me, has always been an announcement, a proclamation of good news, of holding the community together, of calling it to its deepest life and spirituality, and of teaching the values and integrity of beliefs from one generation to the next. The Storyteller is good news: faithfulness and enduring grace through suffering and history; remembering and sharing life and hope; a presence among the people, telling the Story over and over again… so everything begins, even in our religion…In the beginning was the word….once upon a time….as the old ones say….did you hear? Come, listen…continue the story, make it come true….as you come true.

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Meet Megan’s Family!

Megan’s family members gather to reminisce as they read her recent book,

Playing Poker with Nana. 

To view Megan’s entire Family Album, click here.   NOTE: Once on the page, if you click on the photos one by one, they will enlarge and the person/s in the photo will be identified.

To order Playing Poker with Nana…a heartwarming memoir and collection of short stories about growing up and spending time with an insightful, resilient grandmother in New York.  You can order the book directly from Megan by emailing her at meganmck44@gmail.com.