June 21
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 28
Eyal Amiel and WUUC Annual Meeting
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. We are delighted to welcome Eyal back to our pulpit!
July 5
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
July 12
“Shaker Hymns” with Rev. Mellen Kennedy
Rev. Dr. Mellen Kennedy is a Sufi minister and a Universalist minister. She has had the great honor and joy of serving as consulting minister of several congregations, including for eleven years with the Washington UU Congregation and eight years with the Springfield Meetinghouse. She enjoys gardening and running and lives in Addison County. We are delighted to welcome Mellen back to our pulpit!
July 19
Rev. Joan Javier-Duval
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.
July 26
Eyal Amiel
August 2
Julie Bond
August 9
Rev. Karen G. Johnston
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 16
Ginny Sassaman
August 23
Music Sunday
August 30
Rev. Joan Javier-Duval
