Officers

Rev. Merrill Ward, Ep. Gn.
Executive Director, Chief Officiant

Rev. Merrill Ward, Ep. Gn., is an ordained Gnostic priest, advisor, counselor, educator, and researcher in the field of entheogenic spirituality. He is a longstanding advocate for cognitive liberty and for the safe, responsible sacramental use of entheogens in support of psycho-spiritual healing, personal growth, and well-being. With more than 35 years of study and practice in comparative world religions and related spiritual disciplines, his focus places particular emphasis on the mystical unitive experience, as well as the practical application of sacred entheogenic practice for the expansion, exploration, and enrichment of human consciousness and deeper connection with Source.

Over the past 18 years, Merrill’s field work has contributed to important scientific and academic research, including studies published through Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, and Harvard Divinity School. He has consulted with the Usona Institute, served as an advisor to Journey Colab, and served as an entheogenic advisor for the XR wellness company TRIPP. As a respected and trusted elder in the field, he is also a contributing educator within the F.I.V.E. network and has participated in retreat and educational offerings with Tandava Retreats. A frequent speaker, presenter, moderator, and panelist, he regularly offers in-depth presentations and talks on sacramental spirituality and related topics at conferences and symposia nationwide.

Merrill is the founder, chief officiant, and minister of Awakening Divinity Ministries. He is also a devoted and loving father and has lived for the past 25 years in Southern Oregon, on the lands of the Shasta, Takelma, and Latgawa peoples. Prior to his present work, he spent more than 25 years in Los Angeles and New York working in film, television, multimedia, music, and advertising as a creative producer, executive producer, and assistant director. He remains dedicated and honored to be involved in this sacred work in service to community and our shared planetary evolution.

Sister Chris Rensfield
Secretarial Officer/Advanced Acolyte

Sister Chris Rensfield has been a devoted member of our Awakening Divinity community since 2015 and has served as ADM’s Secretarial Officer since 2020. In this role, she oversees many of the administrative and organizational functions that support the ministry’s day-to-day operations to ensure that our work is carried out with clarity, consistency, and care.

Chris plays a central role in ADM’s participant intake and preparation process. She manages communications, coordinates essential documentation and scheduling, helps guide individuals through the practical steps leading into ceremony, and supports continuity between participants and the ministerial team. Her attention to detail, discernment, reliability, and steady presence have made her an indispensable part of our ministry’s work.

As an Advanced Acolyte she has also been instrumental in coordinating ADM’s Acolyte Training Seminary program, which she has attended, participated in, and co-facilitated four of the five cohorts offered to date, helping organize training materials, communications, scheduling, and other practical elements of the program. Through this work, she assists our emerging ceremonial practitioners and supports ADM’s commitment to ethical, responsible, and well-prepared ministerial service.

Alongside her work with Awakening Divinity Ministries, Chris brings three decades of professional experience in somatic education and body-centered healing to her offerings. She is a graduate of the Hawaii Feldenkrais Professional Training and has maintained an active practice since 1996. Her additional studies include massage therapy, martial arts, Kaiut Yoga, Pilates, Craniosacral Therapy, Shiatsu, and Aquatic Movement Arts.

Chris’ deep understanding of embodied somatic awareness, human function, and the nervous system informs the grounded and attentive quality she brings to her service. Whether coordinating administrative responsibilities, supporting participants, holding space in ceremony or assisting with training programs, she approaches her work with warmth, wisdom, precision, patience, and a deep devotion to the members of our community.

Azul DelGrasso, PhD
Chief Educational Officer, Officiant

Azul DelGrasso, PhD (Romani), is a multifaceted scholar-practitioner, artist, and ceremonialist with over 30 years of leadership in public health and capacity-building assistance. His distinguished career includes pioneering national programs that advanced HIV prevention, social equity, and trauma-informed care—work now bridged into his current focus on psychedelic consultation, ceremony, and consciousness research.

Throughout his public health career, Azul provided national training and technical assistance in Social Determinants of Health, Community Equity, and Culturally Affirmative Care, supported through Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Capacity Building Assistance programs. He championed sex positivity and harm reduction, spearheading the first rapid HIV testing program in Mexico in collaboration with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and CAPASITS Baja California. In 2010, as part of the Magic Johnson HIV Testing Tour, he tested high-risk individuals across all 48 continental U.S. states. Later, as one of Los Angeles County’s first PrEP Coordinators, Azul helped launch more than fifteen PrEP Institutes nationwide.

Having recently earned his Ph.D. in Transformative Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies, Azul’s research explores 5-MeO-DMT, unitive consciousness, and ecological identity—framing psychedelics as catalysts for collective and personal transformation. His lifelong relationship with ceremonial medicine, rooted in his Romani lineage, has informed his approach to trauma-informed facilitation, ethics, and integrative healing since the age of eighteen.

With dual Master’s Degrees in Latin American Studies (California State University, Los Angeles) and Ecopsychology (Naropa University), Azul bridges public health, consciousness studies, and social justice. After more than a decade in Los Angeles, he now lives in Denver, Colorado, where he is fully dedicated to his consulting practice, ceremonial facilitation, and academic research through his platform, Ascended Voices. His work continues to help individuals and communities reclaim voice, presence, and wholeness through conscious, ethical engagement with altered states and integrative healing practices.

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