The Daily Office West

We actively seek volunteer subdeacons, including women, persons of color and non-Episcopalians. If you feel a little call to help here, please e-mail the Vicar.

The Vicar
Josh Thomas
CONTACT: joshtom at mediacombb dot net

Josh Thomas, a Commissioned Evangelist with a national preaching license in The Episcopal Church since 1977, founded dailyoffice.org in 2004, in thanksgiving after buying his first house. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati (social work) and the National Institute for Lay Training at the General Theological Seminary in New York; his mentors were Robert Ervin Faulkenberry, Howard E. Galley, Jr., the Rev. Sr. Brooke Bushong and Capt. Tom Tull of the Church Army, as well as Fr. Bill Coulter of the Diocese of New York. Josh has spent much of his career in journalism and Gay advocacy; he is the author of two novels. He lives in Northwest Indiana and is a member of St. John’s, Lafayette, his boyhood parish, where he fell in love with The Hymnal 1940 and The Book of Common Prayer 1928, and has never been the same since.

Subdeacon for What’s New
Dinah W. Danby

Dinah lives in Seattle and is currently a postulant with the Little Sisters of Saint Clare, a dispersed Order of Franciscans. She is a fledgling grant writer and also teaches English to refugees. A cradle Episcopalian and granddaughter of four missionaries, she has also been a Methodist, a Presbyterian, a Pentecostal and a Mennonite. She is a US Coast Guard veteran who freely admits to still getting seasick. Dinah works with a list of Episcopal/Anglican and ecumenical religious orders for whom we pray in rotation once a week. Any additions to this list are eagerly sought. Dinah also lobbies the Vicar about occasionally including an alternate version or translation in the Prayers; the Vicar counters by reading the Prayer Book even louder.

Subdeacon for Development
D. Andrew Eddy

D. Andrew Eddy is in charge of fundraising for our websites and maintaining our Prayer List. Andrew is a mainstay of St. John Baptist Episcopal Church in Thomaston, Maine, where he serves as acolyte, Lay Eucharistic Minister and Visitor, and is a member of the Education for Ministry class. A graduate of Bowdoin College, Andrew spent three years as a Roman Catholic monk in the Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia. He has business experience as a bookbinder and owner of a successful art gallery. Divorced, he is the father of a daughter, Alissa, who’s 13 and gorgeous. He currently serves as a peer support counselor in local mental health facilities. He is a trained grant-writer and is the Vicar’s administrative consultant. He makes a mean fish chowder with Maine potatoes and no Boston thickeners.

Subdeacon for Interesting Stuff
Clint Gilliland

Clint Gilliland, an Episcopal layman from Texas, conducts Morning Prayer five days a week for a small but growing congregation at St. Peter’s, Pasadena, using printouts from our website so the People don’t have to flip books. He’s retired from Data General Corp. and SAP Americas, where he was involved in the internet from its infancy; he helps us with technology issues, but has two additional items in his Office portfolio: military and veterans’ affairs, for whom he complies our They Have Names feature every Tuesday, a listing of those killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan; and he selects and posts music and other Church videos for your edification and enrichment. Clint and wife Jena are the parents of grown twin daughters often mistaken for movie stars.

Subdeacon for Spirituality
Cody E. Maynus

Cody Maynus, an Evangelical Lutheran from Minnesota, is our Subdeacon for Spirituality. He has extensive Benedictine experience and includes hospitality in his backpack. His job is to greet new blog subscribers and Facebook members, reply to blog comments, assist with the Vicar’s correspondence, write and compile prayers and be a companion on the Way. He’s a student at the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University in Collegeville, where he serves as Faith Communities Minister for the CSB Campus Ministry.

Verger & Acolyte
Luke Thomas

Luke is a rat terrier, six years old, who has lived at the Vicarage since 2008 after being rescued from the streets of Kokomo, Indiana, thanks to the Humane Societies of Kokomo and Indianapolis. He has a sweet character and loves to romp and play. His favorite day in the Church year is the Feast of St. Francis, not because of his piety but because of the extra treats he gets. But he is diligent about herding God’s creatures that day and leading them into the virtual cathedral, prancing proudly down the center aisle. When he leaves the nave and trots up the chancel to the Sanctuary, he always sits before the Altar like a good Episcopalian. He’s kept on a leash so he doesn’t persecute rats, mice, squirrels and rabbits; he doesn’t much care for altar wine, but as long as his bread gets sprayed with beef juices, he happily communes. To every human he’s ever met, he jumps and wags his tail, “Doggie ‘Piskies Welcome You!” He’s annually voted the best evangelist on our staff; the poor Vicar’s usually last.