To handle yourself, use your head;
to handle others, use your heart.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
Our Board of Directors
Jane Webster, President (she/her/hers)
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A longtime member of the Grove and former Chief-of-the-Folk, Jane currently serves as our President from out-of-state. After graduating from the University of Arkansas Honors College in 2011 with degrees in English and Criminal Justice, minoring in Philosophy and Legal Studies, Jane moved to Boulder to attend the University of Colorado Law School, earning her JD and passing the Colorado Bar Exam in 2014. Since finding Mountain Ancestors Grove in 2014, she has been an active participant in the Grove’s rites, classes, and community events until moving out-of-state in 2019. She successfully completed her Dedicant work in August of 2018. Since graduating law school, Jane has worked at a bar prep course, where she creates course materials and helps students master legal concepts and strategies for essay writing. With this experience, she hopes to create digitally archived lectures and materials to supplement the Grove’s Dedicant course, making this program more accessible for those who cannot physically attend our classes.
E-mail our President |
Axel Yantosca, Secretary (they/them/theirs)
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Axel was born in The Woodlands, Texas in April 1991. They completed a Bachelors of Music from Texas Tech University in 2015 and went on to complete a Masters of Music from Bowling Green State University in 2017. Axel enjoyed many years of teaching music students from all walks of life in healthy singing across all genres. Axel also spent extensive time studying abroad in Vienna, Austria, where they found paganism and ADF as a solitary practitioner specifically. With schooling completed and a desire to be closer to family, they moved to Westminster, Colorado in 2017. Within a few months of arriving, Axel discovered the grove, and came to love this community. They have strived to serve in a variety of ways, first as the children’s director, a Dedicant path completed member, a Seer, and a teacher of the Rune Divination course as well as forthcoming community classes. To best serve the folk, Axel has recently accepted the position of secretary (Feb. 2020). Creatively, Axel has some Bardic projects in the works. The MAGpies have brought so much meaning to their life that they are ecstatic to bring forth new growth and insight to the community as well as serve the folk. .
E-mail our Secretary |
Karen Crayk, Treasurer (she/her/hers)
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A product of a military family, Karen has lived in many states and 2 countries (Germany and England). She was born in Oceanside CA near Camp Pendleton where her father was stationed, from then on she moved around from CA to TX to VA and back again..This is what gave her the love to travel and meet new people. After graduating from high school she moved to Ohio and then to LA where she herself went into the USAF and was stationed in Shreveport LA. After a short career in the AF she started her second career in the financial world by starting a job at Commercial National Bank working as a credit checker and vault teller. It was during this time that she went to college at LSU Shreveport and majored in Accounting. She married and continue to travel where she learn more about her faith. She was an honorary member of a Grove in England but was a solitary practitioner for 30 years before she move to Cheyenne WY. She was divorced but almost 2 years later she met her soul mate Paul whom she married and have been together for over 22 years. She works for the State of Wy for DFS Child Support division as an Accountant for the past 20 years. She became a member of Mountain Ancestors Grove where she loves being part of the community in CO.
E-mail our Treasurer |
Our Clergy
Rev. Melissa "Bee" Ashton, ADF-MB, MNM (she/her/hers)
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An Ohio native, Rev. Missy came to Colorado to share her remarkable talents with our Grove. A former editor-in-chief of ADF's international publication, Oak Leaves, a professional medical laboratory scientist, and mother of three, Rev. Missy became the first of ADF's Master Bards, founded the Order of Bardic Alchemy, and served as the national Member's Advocate for three consecutive terms. Her music is the spirit of our Grove. She is the keeper of our tales, the singer of our songs, our Bard… in the most sacred sense of the word. She was ordained in August of 2014, and consecrated in June of 2018. In December of 2017, Rev. Missy graduated with honors with her Masters of Non-Profit Management from Regis University, Denver. In August of 2018, she passed all trials and was welcomed into ADF's Initiate current. Rev. Missy's commitment to polytheist modernity inspires us whenever we're blessed to hear her. An accomplished cook and epicurean, you can find her sharing meals around her table with the folk on a daily basis.
E-mail Rev. Ashton |
Rev. William E. Ashton, ADF (Rev. Badger - he/him/his)
- On Sabbatical ('til September 2020)
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Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Rev. William attended Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado where in 2007 he graduated with a degree in Religious Studies, minoring in Psychology. Currently residing in Longmont, CO, he is one of the Priests and founder of Mountain Ancestors Grove. First joining ADF in 1997, Rev. William shortly thereafter went on religious walkabout for nearly a decade, taking time away from his polytheist practice. After much soul searching, he returned to ADF in 2009 with renewed perspective and awakened passion. On February 8th, 2014 he was ordained as a priest in ADF. He spends his time playing mandolin (and some guitar), writing, engaging in LGBTQIA+ advocacy and education, community service, and sharing a larger vision of how a polytheist perspective can lead to greater human understanding, acceptance, and gods be good, peace.
E-mail Rev. Ashton |
