June 18
“Good Inside” with Rowan Van Ness
The first principle of Unitarian Universalism is about respecting the inherent worth and dignity of all people, and yet sometimes it’s hard to believe the best about ourselves. Neuroscience has highlighted how the brain is like teflon for positive experiences and velcro for the negative. What would it take for us to actually believe that we are enough? What might happen if we use what parenting expert Dr. Becky Kennedy calls the “most generous interpretation” of other people’s actions?
Rowan Van Ness is a fellowshipped UU minister and also a credentialed religious educator. She has served several UU congregations, including the First Parish in Cambridge, MA, the First UU Society of Newton, MA, the First UU Society of Burlington, and the Unitarian Church of Montpelier. She is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and Smith College. Rowan lives with her partner, Caitlyn, and their toddler, Seneca, in South Burlington and enjoys poetry, ice cream, and spending time outside whenever possible.
June 25
“Re-examining Values: What Hidden Priorities Guide Your Decisions?” with Ginny Sassaman
Kick off the summer season by examining the values that consciously — or more frequently, sub-consciously — guide our choices and decisions. From our backyards to saving the planet, from the founding of the United States to contemporary decisions, and more — let’s reexamine our hidden priorities in an engaging and provocative service with returning guest speaker Ginny Sassaman.
Ginny Sassaman left the D.C. fast track in 2001 with her husband Bob and moved to Vermont. In 2006, Ginny returned to school, earning a Master’s in Mediation and Applied Conflict Studies at Woodbury College in Vermont. Since then, she created the position of staff mediator for Home Share Now, co-founded Gross National Happiness USA and created The Happiness Paradigm Store and Experience in Maple Corner. Today she works as a mediation coach, artist, workshop facilitator and writer/advocate for happiness at Happinessparadigm.wordpress.com. She also logs many happy hours as a grandmother. Ginny is a member of the Montpelier, VT Unitarian Church.
July 2
“Bardic Blessing: Song as Prayer” with Simon Ruth de Voil
According to Greek mystic Pythagoras, “The highest goal of music is to connect one’s soul to their divine nature.” More than mere entertainment, music is a powerful agent for transformation, both personal and collective; song can call us into opening, attune our hearts to a shared rhythm, and stir us to deepen our connection with self, other, and the divine. In this service, Rev. Simon will explore the power of breath and voice to awaken the soul and foster deep connection with the sacred.
Simon Ruth de Voil is an ordained interfaith/interspiritual minister, trained to be a sacred presence outside the conventions of traditional religion. As a sacred musician, spiritual mentor and worship leader he incorporates chant, ritual, storytelling and mindful practice to create a space for profound connection and sacred witness. Simon provides music for worship, ceremony, and prayer in a wide variety of churches and non-religious spiritual communities. He particularly loves to create music for meditation, healing services, and rites of passage.
Simon is also an experienced workshop and retreat leader, drawing on 15 years of study, training, and practice that grew from his time living and working in Iona Abbey. Although influenced by many traditions, Simon’s spiritual path and teaching is deeply rooted in Celtic Christianity, the wisdom of the earth, and in the Scottish land where he’s spent most of his life.
July 9
“Independence Day? For Whom?” with Verdis LeVar Robinson
On July 5, 1852, Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a famous speech in Rochester, New York, entitled, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” With recent assaults to liberties and freedoms, what wisdom can we glean from one of our activist ancestors?
Verdis LeVar Robinson (he/him or they) is a minister in preliminary fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association. He serves as Assistant Minister for Growth at First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York. From 2020-2023 he served the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, Vermont, initially as Ministerial Intern, then as Ministerial Coordinator of Worship Arts Production and Adult Lifespan Spiritual Exploration. His last year there, he was also the Artistic Director of the Montpelier Community Gospel Choir. Welcome back to our congregation, Verdis!
July 16
Service was canceled due to flooding and the church being inaccessible. Rev. Joan Javier Duval’s service was rescheduled to August 6.
July 23
“The Spiral Way” with Simon Ruth de Voil
The Celtic spiritual tradition is a spiral way, one that honors non-linear consciousness and intimately follows nature’s rhythms of rising and falling, fullness and emptiness. When we open ourselves to this way of being in relationship to time’s unfolding, we discover a profound wisdom that honors our own seasons of flowering and fruitfulness, as well as seasons of release, surrender, fallowness, stillness and mystery. This talk will explore the holy days of the Wheel of the Year, and invite us to consider how we might use these touchpoints to live in a way that deeply honors both body and soul.
July 30
“Finding Solace in the Midst of Catastrophe” with Dian Parker
As climate change continues to impact the world, and now Vermont, how do we navigate through our grief and heartbreak, and move beyond our foreboding?
We are pleased to welcome Dian Parker back to our pulpit! Dian’s nonfiction and fiction has been published in numerous literary journals, magazines, newspapers, and nominated for Pushcart Prizes and Best of the Net. She also writes about art and artists, including color essays, for many art magazines. Parker has traveled extensively, sleeping in shepherd huts in Sinai, and in Palmyra, Syria before ISIS bombed the ancient city, and living in the caves of Petra with Bedouins before they were forced into housing developments. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and was a director and teacher for many years in theatre. Currently she lives in the hills of Vermont surrounded by flowers, forests, wildlife, and bird song. www.dianparker.com
August 6
“What Holds Us Together” with Rev. Joan Javier Duval
What is at the center of Unitarian Universalist theology? This is a question UUs have pondered, and even argued about, time and again. As we move forward in considering a major revision to our denominational principles and purposes, we return to this question. What value might we find in naming and claiming a theological center? How might a revision of our UUA bylaws support us in living our UU values in the world? (For more background on revisions to Article II, visit: https://www.uua.org/
The Rev. Joan Javier-Duval has served as Minister of the Unitarian Church of Montpelier since August of 2015 where she finds daily inspiration in the shared ministry of care and transformation at the heart of congregational life. She earned a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School in 2012. Prior to the UU ministry, she engaged in social change work as a community and union organizer and nonprofit leader in Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Washington, DC. In these contexts and through her ministerial training, she developed a passion for creating Beloved Community through collective organizing that centers love, healing, and justice. Joan serves on the board of Vermont Interfaith Action and is a tri-chair of the Vermont Poor People’s Campaign.
August 13
“Unitarian? Universalist? Is There Really a Difference?” with Steve Finner
Our scheduled speaker is unable to be at our church this Sunday. Our music director Steve Finner has volunteered to pinch in and present a service focusing on the historical origins of Universalism and Unitarianism. And what that means for us today, if anything.
August 20
“Reimagining: The Male and Female Forces In Cooperation” with Billy Donovan
The two most potent, and antagonistic forces in Western socio-political life are the Patriarchal and the Feminist, each embodying a gendered persona of male and female respectively. But are they divorced from the Spiritual? Through the Chinese Taoist lens, our situation places the two most powerful forces of the universe, Yin and Yang, in conflict with each other, rather than in the flow and mutuality envisioned in that tradition. How can we reframe our long held assumptions and adopt Eastern and Indigenous ways of thinking, and perhaps find the cooperation, reciprocity and love that we know we must find?
Billy Donovan has a lifelong connection to dissident activism, with solid roots in nonviolent civil disobedience, and the tradition of speaking “Truth to Power.” This foundation has been informed and inspired by the transformational moment of the 1960’s, The American Friends Service Committee, The Catholic Worker Movement, Deep Ecology, early Feminist theory, and by all those with the courage to feel and act from the heart, and who give voice to those who have none. Billy lives in the hills of Washington and practices Tibetan Buddhism in the Nyingma tradition.
August 27
“Why Are We Here?” with Steve Finner
Vincent Van Gogh asked “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?” With the story of my religious journey as the roadmap, I have come to my answer as to why we are here which I will explore with you. You may not agree of course. But I promise you you will not be bored.
Steve Finner is our Director of Music. He served as the volunteer Director of Music and then Minister of Music for 13 years at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of St. Johnsbury.
Steve has composed a number of pieces, some of which have been used in dozens of our congregation. Although primarily retired, he occasionally does a little consulting based on a 50-year career as a union organizer, political consultant and lobbyist. He has worked on a variety of political campaigns. One of his first clients was a New Castle county Delaware county councilman named Joe Biden who Steve tells us never calls and never writes :)
September 3
Hymn Sing
