Category: Celebrations of Life

“Joy and Inspiration”

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.

“Mending Day”

A founding member of Alternate ROOTS, a service organization for community-based artists in the South, deNobriga served as ROOTS’ executive director and planning/development director for ten years. She continues to serve on the working on various committees as needed, and sharing the institutional memory of 40 years of continuous membership.

Raised in Kingsport TN, deNobriga holds an M.A. in Theatre (Directing) from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, and a B.A. with honors in Speech Communications and Theatre Arts. Her early employment included directing and managing community theatres in Smithfield and Sanford, NC and performing with The Road Company, a professional ensemble in Johnson City, TN.

DeNobriga was a Visiting Artist for two years for the NC Arts Council, and a Fellow in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Next Generation Leadership program and in the Rockwood Leadership Institute.

She is now a consultant, specializing in strategic planning, building organizational capacity, designing staff/board retreats and guiding creative conflict engagement. She trained as a mediator at the Atlanta Justice Center and is a board member for Arts & Democracy and Alternate ROOTS. She served two terms as Councilmember and one as Mayor for the City of Pine Lake, where she lives with her wife Alice Teeter, published poet and bon vivant.

“Life is a Risk Worth Taking”

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, coordinated events and memorials. He and First E founding minister Lanier Clance were close friends and co-hosted an eclectic existential radio program on WRFG for over five years in the mid- ’80s. His current project is a double CD of 44 original poems and 14 original songs titled Don’t Go Back to Sleep.

“Hidden Lights – Past and Present”

Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of Lights,, began early this year, at the end of November. Nonetheless the theme resonates beyond the holiday week. An exploration of the seemingly simple act of lighting candles which has been both dangerous and courageous.

Rev. Marti Keller has been a parish, community and social justice minister for more than 23 years. Her “Jewnitarian” involvements include co-editing “Jewish Voices in Unitarian Universalism,” and other UUA publications around the Jewish source of our living tradition. She has been the President of UUs for Jewish Awareness and is currently a member. She is part of a ministerial team launching an online Mussar Jewish values program in 2022. She is also past vice president of the Society for Humanistic Judaism and serves on the advisory team for the international Secular Synagogue.

All Musical Program

Craig will perform four original works plus he will be leading the Congregation in songs to sing along with.

Craig Rafuse is a master carpenter, a musician, and an activist who has been involved in performing music and theater for 50 years. He’s wandered through this country and through Europe and the Middle East. He’s influenced by Chet Atkins, the Beatles, Phil Ochs, the Grateful Dead, Woody Guthrie, Thelonius Monk, and Pig Iron and the Back Bayou Band, not to mention Bertholt Brecht. He’s sung for politicians in the statehouse (powered by hot air) and anti-nuke activists (powered by solar energy). He’s especially proud of his involvement with community-oriented musicial efforts such as those of Joyce Brookshire, Amanda Perdrew and Brenda Boozer.
Craig’s music is eclectic and incredibly beautiful. Harmonies and accompaniment are rich and varied, showing a jazz influence here, a folk/traditional influence there. Chord changes and rhythms are complex. Space is everywhere, providing delightful opportunities for the listener to catch up and sink in.
In addition to being a fine instrumentalist, Craig writes attention-holding lyrics. By turns, charming, witty, and satirical, his eclecticism takes him from the frustrations of the small businessman to political greed, to youthful waywardness, and to finding time for love and life in a world beset by hurry.

Atheist Spirituality

If one’s spiritual and religious life is not based in theism, where might one find transcendence? What spiritual practices are available to an atheist? Join us as we explore atheist-accessible spirituality and spiritual practice. 

Bio: Rev. Kim Palmer is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister serving as an affiliated community minister with the Unitarian Universalist Metro Atlanta North congregation. She is also a board-certified chaplain and has most recently been serving Emory University in the dual role of chaplain and spiritual health researcher, although she recently transitioned to a very part-time contracting position as she and her wife Marty stepped into retirement.  

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.

“Constitutions, Founders, and Poets: the Unacknowledged Legislators of the World.”

H. Robert Baker is Associate Professor of History at Georgia State University and is the author of Prigg v. Pennsylvania: Slavery, the Supreme Court, and the Ambivalent Constitution (2012) and The Rescue of Joshua Glover: A Fugitive Slave, the Constitution, and the Coming of the Civil War (2006). His scholarly articles have appeared in the Law and History Review, Common-Place, and the Journal of Supreme Court History. He holds a Ph.D. in History from UCLA, where he studied with Joyce Appleby. He also writes about food and wine for the blog Tropics of Meta.

“From Emergency Living to a New Way of Life: Mutual Aid and Safety for All.”

Dr. Elizabeth Corrie teaches at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Her teaching draws on commitments to both peace with justice and the education of young people, particularly the development of teaching and ministry that empower people for global citizenship.

Having focused her doctoral work in 19^th century philosophy and theology, Corrie became increasingly interested in practical theology as her work with youth and in peace and justice activism deepened. Her research interests include transformative pedagogy, theories of nonviolence, and conflict transformation. Her current book, Youth Ministry as Peace Education: Overcoming Silence, Transforming Violence (Fortress Press, 2021), focuses on creating a new approach to youth ministry that teaches young people how to overcome disempowerment and transform violence in their communities.

As part of her commitment to anti-racism, Corrie became involved with the Metro Atlanta Mutual Aid Fund (MAMA), a project that arose out of the emergency needs of the COVID crisis, with a specific commitment to funding Black, Indigenous, and other peoples of color. MAMA’s long-term vision of building the infrastructure for a post-capitalist system through a “solidarity not charity” model of mutual aid inspires Dr. Corrie’s reflections for this talk.