“Creativity and the Divine: The Sacred Art of Listening to your Soul”

Creativity and the Divine is a topic that is intrinsically linked together in my heart and experience. To be alive demands creativity, which modern life tries to define as a commodity or secret skill set available only to a special few. Yes, there are talented and skillful people in all areas of life but an even more obvious reality is that we are all creating the most important things in the world – ourselves – could there be anything MORE amazing than that? There is but one secret to being creative and enjoying the process.

• Facilitator: D. Patton White
• Musician: Bill Chelton

“Building Relationships with the ‘Other’”

I will speak on the journey of my last two and a half years documenting the music of serpent handling churches of Appalachia. It will center on how love and understanding can bridge cultural and religious divides, and birth powerful relationships. I will also play a few songs.

Abe Partridge is a heralded musician, singer/songwriter, visual artist, and documentarian based in Mobile, Alabama. His 2018 debut, Cotton Fields and Blood For Days earned him rave reviews, with Tony Paris saying in The Bitter Southerner: “He plays guitar the same way he writes lyrics, bashing the strings with abandon until they are just about to come loose, then beautifully picking the notes until every last word falls into place. More to the point, Partridge writes to make you sit up and think. He wants to jar your reality. Sometimes, his lyrics are sly and subtle. Sometimes they come at you with a roar and thunder, as if the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were approaching, and the heavens were
opening up to herald a warning.”

When Partridge is not writing or touring, He is creating his folk art paintings, which now hang in art galleries around the southeast and in the private collections. Partridge is now gearing up for an exhibit of his artwork at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center in Mobile in January of 2023 and the release of his full-length studio album, Love In The Dark, on BCPR label in the spring of 2023.

• Facilitator: Ted Pettus
• Musician: Craig Rafuse

“Courage”

Courage can be surprising and elusive. We will talk about physical courage, moral courage, and spiritual courage.
We will draw examples from the lives of Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Harvey Milk.

Franklin Abbott is a psychotherapist and poet living under feline supervision in Decatur. In the ’80’s, he cohosted
a radio show on WRFG with his friend, First E founder, Lanier Clance. He is recovering slowly from knee replacement surgery and avoiding competitive sports.

• Facilitator: Rev. Marsha Mitchiner
• Musician: Jean Heinrich

“I Need You”

Chris Glaser has enjoyed his silence since ending his blog, “Progressive Christian Meditations.” With so many voices, so much tumult, and such stress in the world today, silence refreshes us, offering mindfulness of what is truly vital, as in “life-giving.” Join Chris in this new life and rebirth meditation as we listen for what truly renews us.

It’s always a good time to be a Unitarian and to be a Universalist, as it helps us view everyone in the same light. But with the “existential threats” to our democracy, to our health, and to our planet, we need all the more to value the moment we have to live, to love, to participate in our community, and to preserve this beautiful earth and all who live on it.

After publishing a dozen books, serving a series of progressive parishes, and ten years writing a blog called ‘Progressive Christian Reflections,” Rev. Chris Glaser retired earlier this year to embrace a kind of spiritual silence. http://chrisglaser.com; http://chrisglaser.blogspot.com

• Facilitator: Jan Lister
• Musician: Kathy McGuire

Legacy and Redemption

We are at a crossroads, whether we acknowledge it or not. Behind us, the ruins of the past, old lies and tortured legacies of war and oppression, of false conquest that managed to enslave the world.  Before us, if we can see past the fog of this moment; before us is a road to redemption – for the person, for our nation, for our world.  This is a time to act, not react. To be bold, not safe. To articulate what we have learned, and pass it on.

Alice Lovelace is a cultural worker, poet, playwright, and arts administrator who arrived in Atlanta in April 1976 and found it a fertile ground for growth and activism.  In 1978 she worked with Ebon Dooley and Toni Cade Bambara to found The Southern Collective of African American Writers.  In 1979 she joined the staff of the Neighborhood Arts Center as writer-in-residence.  In 1984, with Ebon Dooley, Alice founded the Southeast Community Cultural Center.  Thirty-Eight years later, she continues to serve the organization as President of the Board, and Executive Director for the new ArtsXchange facility in East Point, GA.  Her poems have been published widely in anthologies, in Spanish and Swedish, and written in the sky above downtown Atlanta.  She is a performance artist and has presented her work from New York City to Chattanooga, TN.  In 2011, Alice was co- creator with visual artist Lisa Tuttle of Harriet Rising, a yearlong public arts project at Underground Atlanta.  The project was named one of the 50 most important public arts projects in the nation.   She is co-editor of the Art Changes section at In Motion Magazine, a multicultural, online publication dedicated to issues of democracy

• Facilitator: Charlene Ball
• Musician: C. Jones & the Spirit Bones Band

“Dr. Rachel Remen: The Life Work of a Wounded Healer”

Leon has wandered for 86 years. Good and bad things have happened to him in this journey. The best things have been a wonderful wife of 63 years, three great adult children, seven beautiful grandchildren, and some spiritual and philosophical growth along the way. Leon has had four careers: Christian missionary, pastor, computer programmer, and addictions counselor, but he says that a part-time job of teacher of English to immigrants was the most fun (8 years). He has gone from fundamentalist Christian to evangelical, to liberal Christian, to agnostic/atheist. His goal now is to learn to love more and better.

• Facilitator: D. Patton White
• Musician: Mick Kinney

2022 MacArthur Fellow

Title: TBA

”Not letting success go to my head or failure go to my heart is one of the timeless lessons I hope my life’s journey offers others. What I’ve gone through has been the crucible to prepare me for future challenges. It’s not that I’m never scared; I’ve just learned never to let my fears stop me from becoming more than what’s happened to me. Activism has been the art of making my life matter.” – Loretta Ross

Loretta J. Ross received a BA (2007) from Agnes Scott College and pursued doctoral studies (2008–2009) at Emory University. Since 2019, she has been an associate professor in the Program of the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. Ross has held previous appointments at Hampshire College (2017–2018) and Arizona State University (2018–2019). From 2005 to 2012, she was the National Coordinator for SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Ross is the co-author of Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organizing for Reproductive Justice (2004) and the co-editor of Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, and Critique (2017). Her forthcoming book, Calling in the Calling Out Culture, is due out in 2023.

• Facilitator: Libby Ware
• Musician: Charli Vogt

“Going to New Zealand as metaphor for marriage”

Reading from and talking about a selection of poems that use the idea of traveling to and in New Zealand as a metaphor for preparing for marriage.

Alice Teeter studied poetry at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, with Peter Meinke and has taught poetry to Emory University undergraduates in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to three poetry books, her poems have appeared anthologies and journals including Oberon Poetry Magazine, the Atlanta Review and Per Contra. A Florida native, she lives with her wife Kathie deNobriga in Pine Lake, Georgia.

• Facilitator: Wade Marbaugh
• Musician: Bill Chelton

Now on Zoom due to inclement weather – we will not be meeting in person 12/25 only

“Light One Candle: Winter Holidays, Memories, and Songs”

Originally hailing from San Antonio, Texas, Kathy is a lifelong learner with diverse interests, holding degrees in psychology, biomedical sciences, music performance and public administration. She and her family live on a small farm in the woods in Conyers, Georgia, where they enjoy the company of chickens, quail, ducks, rabbits, cats, and dogs. During the work week, you can find her at Oxford College of Emory University, where she serves as the Director of Institutional Research.

Clint McGuire is a man of many talents. He has been a professional actor, an award-winning photographer, and is a burgeoning podcaster. Born in Louisville, GA, Clint grew up in the mountains of North Carolina before attending college at the University of South Carolina at Aiken, where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. His passions are the arts, history, alternative music, and the intricacies of professional wrestling. Kathy, Clint and their son, Ian, live on a small farm in the woods in Conyers, Georgia, where they enjoy the company of chickens, quail, ducks, rabbits, cats, and dogs

• Facilitators: Clint and Kathy McGuire
• Musician: Kathy McGuire and others