Our Fellowship Minister, Rev. Marsha Mitchiner, has served the Congregation for over two decades, since ordination by us, following her study with Lanier Clance. She counsels, connects, and contacts members and friends, and for those who need it, performs the laying-on of hands in her role as a massage therapist. Many of us can vouch for the quality of her work, and appreciate the wisdom, restraint, and compassion she brings to the job of caring for our Congregation.
Marsha speaks once each quarter, and helps smooth the functioning of the Congregation innumerable times in between.
“This is the Moment You Are Created For: Finding Our Political Strength”
Rabbi Joshua Lesser leads the dynamic Congregation Bet Haverim as a place dedicated to celebrating all aspects of Jewish life and creating a spiritual home that balances the needs of a diverse community. He served in the first Teach for America Corps in New Orleans, founded the Rainbow Center, a Jewish response to LGBTQ people and their families. He is the co-editor of the groundbreaking book Torah Queeries: A Weekly Commentary on the Hebrew Bible. He was named one of the 36 most influential rabbis in North America in 2013 and listed as one of the 100 most notable LGBT clergy in America by the Huffington Post. Throughout his tenure at Bet Haverim, Rabbi Lesser has worked with a wide variety of groups and coalitions to build a better community for Atlanta by focusing on building bridges between diverse communities as demonstrated through being a founder and past president of the Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta and serving as the co-chair of Georgians Against Discrimination. Serving as the chair of Reconstructionist movement’s Tikkun Olam Commission, on the board of Georgia Equality and the Chair of the City of Atlanta’s Human Relations Commission, he is dedicated to human rights for all.
Rev. Marti Keller is a self-identified Jewish Unitarian-Universalist, who looks often at the Jewish source of our living tradition for inspiration and aspiration. She co-authored “Jewish Voices in Unitarian Universalism” (Skinner House 2014). She has served on the Board of the Society for Humanistic Judaism. She has served for the past 20 years as both a parish and community minister. Her own grandparents passed through the Golden Door before it was mostly shut tight.
Dr. Jean Heinrich, passionate human being, licensed clinical psychologist, musician, is nourished by existential philosophy in these times. Believing her knowledge of existentialism and the human psyche/mind/body/spirit make her a better musician and her music makes her a better clinician, and, both her knowledge and music make her a healthier/more vital human being, she invites you to join us as she speaks on: “Existentialism: Choice, Change, Courage”.
“100 years of celebration of voting rights for women; Still fighting for voter rights for all”
Pauline Rose Clance, Ph.D.
Pauline Rose Clance, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Psychology at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia where she taught in the Doctoral Clinical Program for 28 years and was the first Senior Faculty Associate for the Task Force for the Advancement of Women. In 2012, she received an Honorary Doctorate in Science from Lynchburg College in Virginia.
She has been in private practice in Clinical Psychology for over 33 years and was a co-founder and faculty member of the Gestalt Institute of Georgia, President of the Southeastern Psychological Association, along with being a national and international speaker.
In 1978 Dr. Suzanne Imes and Dr. Clance wrote an important academic article on the Impostor Phenomenon which continues to gain world-wide attention.
She is one of the Founding and a long-term member of the First Existentialist Congregation. Pauline believes that the First E is needed more now than ever at this time in our country.
“Finding Our Way Back to the Positive Aspects of Black Culture & Heritage”
Dianne Valentin
Dianne
Valentin is the mother of four, grandmother of ten, and has over
thirty years of experience assisting small businesses and nonprofit
organizations with their business needs and working directly within
the community, private industry, and public education sectors. As a
political scientist with training in the areas of international
affairs and national defense, Dianne has used her training and
education when advocating grassroots and progressive issues on
Capitol Hill. She has had issues related articles published in a
major news outlet.
Dianne
is the founder and CEO of the Black Heritage Museum & Cultural
Center, Inc. (BHMACC) Founded in 2005 and established as a nonprofit
organization with federal tax-exempt status in 2006. Whose mission
is to document and preserve Black heritage, culture, and scholarship
and use it to encourage, empower, and uplift current and future
generations through scholarly engagement, art, and artistic
expression, while cultivating critical thought. Our vision is to find
our way back to the positive aspects of Black heritage & culture.
Since
its inception, the BHMACC has help over 3,000 marginalized and
low-income students get into college. It does its work in the areas
of arts, culture, education, social justice, environmental justice
and stewardship.
Dianne
works with national, state, and community nonprofit organizations
providing strategic advice, technical assistance, program
development, community outreach, and community organizing support.
During
her corporate career working for an investment banking and accounting
firm Dianne and her team managed the assets of twenty-six financial
institutions with asset values ranging from $25 million to $10
billion, she managed the staff of asset managers, financial services
and accounting representatives, researched and brought to resolution
federal agency investigations, Congressional Inquiry and FOIA
requests received directly from Congress related to those managed
institutions, developed and initiated uniform training procedures for
the handling of client issues. As a Senior Analyst for a government
agency she was responsible for the analysis of negotiated contracts
to insure commitment integrity and that the negotiated contracts fell
within the guidelines for that financial product.
Dianne
appeared before President Barack Obama’s Blue Ribbon Commission on
America’s Nuclear Future to present her views on nuclear weapons,
nuclear waste, and how they impact environmental and racial
injustice. Dianne acted as editor of a climate report that has been
presented to and accepted by the U.N. and the Pope.
Dianne
is serving as President of the board of directors of a statewide
women-led peace, environmental justice, political empowerment
nonprofit organization, is serving as Chair on a national, women led
United Nations recognized NGO, formerly served as founding President
of an Atlanta based legal advocacy nonprofit supporting girls and
women dealing with sex discrimination and abuses in the education and
workplace settings. Dianne is a former President of the board of
directors of a women’s health center.
Dianne
has been honored with a United Nations’ National Human Rights Award
and a National Grassroots Activist Award by a national organization
comprised of organizations from all over the country.
“Racial Healing: The Next Step in Our Collective Psychological Liberation and Racial Justice”
Anneliese Singh, PhD, LPC
Anneliese Singh, PhD, LPC is an award-winning social justice scholar and community organizer. She is a Professor and Associate Dean of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the College of Education at the University of Georgia, and a program faculty in the counselor education and supervision doctoral program. Her research, practice, and advocacy explores the resilience and liberation experiences of trans people, people of color, survivors of trauma, South Asian immigrants, and social justice and empowerment training. Dr. Singh has co-authored texts on trans and nonbinary counseling (A Clinician’s Guide to Gender-Affirming Care and Affirmative Counseling and Psychological Practice with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Clients), in addition to the Queer and Transgender Resilience Workbook and the Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing. In 2009, Anneliese co-founded the Georgia Safe Schools Coalition to work on the intersection of heterosexism, racism, sexism, and other oppressions in Georgia schools. She also founded the Trans Resilience Project to translate findings from her nearly 20 years of research on the resilience that trans and nonbinary people develop across the lifespan and across multiple identities to navigate societal oppression.
Franklin Abbott has been a practicing psychotherapist in Atlanta for nearly forty years. He is also a poet, musician, community organizer and amateur oral historian. His connection to the Congregation and Old Stone Church goes back more than 40 years to early urban radical faery gatherings held in the sanctuary before First E became its steward. He has spoken at First E many times, performed music and poetry there, and coordinated events and memorials.
In our changing awareness of language, how can we be sensitive to people who are powerless, stigmatized, or marginalized? Where do we draw the line between basic respect and the overreach of political correctness? Come explore these issues around word choice and why it matters.
Kim Palmer serves the Emory University Woodruff Health Sciences Center as the Manager of Research Projects in Spiritual Health. She is a board-certified chaplain with over five years of clinical experience and earned an MSPH in Epidemiology from Emory University as a Transforming Chaplaincy Research Fellow. She is ordained in the Unitarian Universalist tradition and serves as an affiliated community minister for a congregation in Roswell, GA. She is currently engaged in a multi-year, multistudy research effort to investigate the effect of Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) on chaplains and the effect of CBCT-adapted interventions on patient and providers outcomes.
Rev. Mitchiner will be our speaker tor Sunday’s Celebration of Life at the First E Sanctuary.
Rev. Marsha Mitchiner grew up in middle Georgia and was an active
member of her church. In her teen years, she became disillusioned with
organized religion but felt a need to find a community of individuals
seeking answers without dogma. She found her spiritual home when she
came to First E in 1980 and joined Rev. Lanier Clance’s ministerial
training program.
“My spiritual life began as a Christian in middle Georgia . During my
teen years I began to question the concept of “one truth”. Through
personal exploration and with three years of guided study by Rev. R.
Lanier Clance, I have come to believe that there are many paths to
truth, each valid to the believer. Our journey through life is a unique,
subjective experience that is enhanced and supported as we share with
others our authentic self. It is a joy to serve the First Existentialist
Congregation and the greater community.”
