Ray McGinnis holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Toronto and a Diploma in Christian Education from the Centre for Christian Studies. He has served as national staff for Youth & Young Adult Ministries with the United Church of Canada (1986-95). From 1995-99 he was program staff with the Naramata Centre in British Columbia. Since 1999 he has been a free-lance presenter of journal writing, poetry, and memoir workshops to over 15,000 participants. He has taught at business conferences, colleges, theological schools, retreat settings, churches, synagogues, grief and loss support groups, schools, mental health settings, hospitals, and professional development days including for first responders, and lawyers. He is author of Writing the Sacred: A Psalm-inspired Path to Appreciating and Writing Sacred Poetry (2005), and most recently forthcoming Unanswered Questions: What the September Eleventh Families Asked and the 9/11 Commission Ignored (2021). He enjoys walking, cooking, hiking, reading, history, theatre, literature, writes song reviews, and lives in Vancouver, Canada.