June 15
“What If Happiness Is still the Answer?” with 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. We are happy to welcome Gunny back to our pulpit!
June 22
“Being a UU: A Comfort and a Challenge” with Dawn Evans
Dawn Evans is a retired lawyer. The first UU church she joined was in East Lansing, Michigan. She attended First Unitarian Church of Portland in Portland, Oregon, before moving with her husband, Michael, to Vermont in 2019 upon her retirement. She’s now an active member of the Unitarian Church of Montpelier and also serves as Treasurer of WUUC. Most of her legal career was spent in the areas of ethics, professionalism and attorney discipline in Texas, Michigan, and Oregon.
June 29
Sue Stukey and Steve Finner report from General Assembly 2025
Sue is our congregation’s President and Steve is our Music Director and a member of the board. They were our virtual delegates from this congregation to the annual assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Sue is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist and Steve has been a member of this faith for 50 years. They will be reporting on what happened at the General Assembly. Their presentation will be followed by the Annual Meeting of the congregation.
July 6
“Being Peace” with Rev. Simon Ruth de Voil
Albert Einstein said “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” In order to shift our perspective, we need to cultivate an internal spaciousness and stillness of mind. The spiritual practice of holding witness allows us to listen deeply from that still point within ourselves, from which deep change can begin. But is this enough?
Rev. 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. Welcome back to our pulpit, Simon!
July 13
Our speaker Melissa Battah will share with us how Vermont Interfaith Action is an effective organization in the legislature representing over 70 congregations and people of faith including the Unitarian Church of Montpelier.
Originally from South Florida, Melissa Battah moved to Vermont in 2008 to attend SIT Graduate Institute. She began organizing with Vermont Interfaith Action in the Barre-Montpelier area in 2011 and became its Executive Director in 2024. Highlights of her work include co-leading the successful Raise the Wage campaign, which led to Vermont’s 2020 minimum wage increase, and leading the campaign to pass Prop 2, removing all forms of slavery from the state constitution. Melissa has also worked with the Barre Community Justice Center as a Reparative Board Coordinator, co-founded the Vermont Ethnic and Social Equity in Schools Coalition, and chaired the board of Good Samaritan Haven. She currently serves on the vestry at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Barre. Melissa lives in Barre Town with her husband and two children, and serves as a Justice of the Peace and Treasurer of the Barre Town PTO.
July 20
“Seasonal celebration of Lughnassad” with Eyal Amiel
“At this time in the height of summer, we approach the seasonal celebration of Lughnassadh, the First Harvest festival (traditionally celebrated at the beginning of August). This is a time to honor the abundance of the bounty of the land and offer our gratitude to the Earth before the time of full harvest at the Fall Equinox. The focus of our gathering will be on sacred gratitude to the Earth and honoring the reciprocity of our relationship with the land. If you are called, you are invited to bring an offering from the land (a flower, a piece of fruit or vegetable from your garden, the land where you live, or a local store). We will ceremonially place these offerings on a dedicated altar during our service and they will be offered back to the Earth in gratitude afterwards.”
* If bringing an offering is a hardship for any reason, there will be offerings available to select and place at the ceremony so that all may participate.
Eyal Amiel is a poet, songwriter, immunology researcher and professor, seeker on the mystical path, and devotee of the natural world. The central expressions and ideals of his spirituality are the cultivation of peace, within and without, creative expression as acts of holy devotion, and honoring and working with the cycles of nature as primary teachers for inner growth and transformation. He is a graduate of the Green Mountain Druid School, where he has been initiated into the sacred practices of the Neo Druid tradition according to the vision and teachings of Ivan McBeth and Fearn Lickfield of the Green Mountain Druid Order. Welcome to the WUUC pulpit, Eyal!
July 27
“Exploring Darkness” with Ginny Sassaman
Embracing the paradoxical nature of darkness can provide a spiritual path for better understanding and accepting our own complexities.
August 3
“The Paradox of Duality and the Tyranny of Belief” with Dian Parker
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 10
“Wrestling with Angels” with Rev. Karen G. Johnston
Rev. Karen G. Johnston has been called as Senior Minister of First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, VT on May 7, 2023. She has served Unitarian Universalist congregations in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Rev. Karen attended seminary at both Hartford Seminary and Andover Newton Theological School and was ordained in 2016.
For nearly twenty years, Rev. Karen has been swimming in the Insight Meditation stream of Buddhism, practicing meditation, deepening her spiritual practice of befriending death, and occasionally giving dharma talks and leading spiritual retreats. Trained as an end-of-life doula, she is the founder of Date with Death Club, a curriculum to explore mortality in community. While in New Jersey, out of her commitment to dismantling white supremacy, she co-founded the Lost Souls Public Memorial Project. An adoptive mother of two children (now young adults), a second marriage to Tony brought two stepchildren and now three grandchildren. She and Tony live with their beloved pets, Vera and Riley. Some of her writing can be found at her blog, Awake & Witness.
August 17
Steve Finner leads a Hymn Sing with the Crones.
August 24
“Religious Humanism: Can It Speak In This Moment?” with Abigail Stockman
Religious Humanism is a strong strand in Unitarian history. With a little bit of history and a question of what it might offer us in this time and place.
We are delighted to welcome Abigail Stockman to our pulpit. Abigail is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister who primarily served small congregations. For 20 years she served as an interim and developmental minister facilitating change. She has also worked as a hospice chaplain and as a volunteer prison chaplain. Her work has encompassed outreach with multi-faith colleagues in community programs and facilitating multi-faith dialogues. After volunteering at one of Vermont’s Restorative Justice Center’s for about 10 years, she recently received a Graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice Practices. She is a harpist with the Vermont Philharmonic.
August 31
Join us for an End of Summer Picnic!
