Category: Celebrations of Life

“Thank Your Lucky Stars!”

Poets and scientists and composers alike have suggested that we–you and I–are composed of “starstuff.” That’s amazing and humbling and inspiring. Lately I’ve been reading and watching a lot more science “stuff” than religious stuff, seeking the “wow” of my and your existence.

As much as I appreciate sacred texts that suggest much the same, watching programs like PBS’s Nova and reading people like Stephen Hawking stirs my spiritual imagination to wonder why me, why now, and how lucky that the universe came into being and “birthed” us! What’s the cosmos up to?

• Facilitator: Cindy Lou Who
• Musician: Mick Kinney

“Lessons from Home, Get the Bandages”

During this month of February we acknowledge African-American history. For some of us that history is about home, too. We will explore that beautiful, painful, existentialist wonder of the lessons from home.

Rev. Duncan Teague and faithful, hardworking friends dreamed of and planted the Abundant Love Unitarian Universalist Congregation in the West End community of Atlanta in 2018. Abundant LUUv is committed the work of healing communities in both the UU and Black church traditions. 

The Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University also employs Rev. Teague in its global health department, where he assists in faith-based projects around HIV/AIDS anti-stigma work.

He is an Affiliated Community Minister for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta. He has served on the UU Ministers’ Association’s Committee on Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression, and Multiculturalism.

His work has been honored in proclamations by the Atlanta City Council. In addition, House Resolution #290 of the Georgia General Assembly honored Rev. Teague for his 38 years of HIV/AIDS and community work.

Rev. Teague resides in Decatur with his husband, David Thurman, a retired CDC researcher. They celebrate 30 years together and 20 years married.

• Facilitator: Libby Ware
• Musician: Craig Rafuse

 “L-O-V-E : Reflecting on the Human Capacity and Need for Connection”

Poets write about it, Singers sing about it. If there is one thing that makes us Human, it might be our ability to give and receive love, and our need to do so.  Together we will reflect on the joys and challenge of human connection and pause to cultivate more warm-hearted concern for ourselves, our loved ones, and for humanity. 

• Facilitator: Sara Drew
• Musician: Elise Witt

Title: TBA

Kodac Harrison is a musician and a poet. He has 19 albums, and a book of poetry and lyrics called The Turtle and the Moon. He founded and ran Java Monkey Speaks, an open mic night in Decatur, GA that lasted for 18 years and out of which came five poetry anthologies. He served as the Visiting McEver Chair of Poetry at Georgia Tech in 2010 and 2016. He won an Atlanta Moth slam with his story about his dog, Rudy. Although Kodac grew up in Jackson, Georgia and graduated from Georgia Tech, he’s also done his fair share of wandering. He earned an MBA at Tulane University in New Orleans, served time in the Army on the West Coast, played gigs in New York, California, Georgia, the Carolinas, and the places in between, as well as in Germany, and other parts of Europe. He considers his heart to be a vagabond, and he follow it wherever it leads.

Facilitator: TBA

Musician: Jean Heinrich

“Leap of Action”

In this month of the MLK birthday and Holocaust Remembrance Day, a  look a civil rights activist Rabbi Abraham Heschel and his Jewish Existentialism.

Rev. Marti Keller describes her Big Life Goal as beholding life and bearing prophetic witness to what she discovers. She has done this through her short verse poetry, her creative nonfiction essays and blogs, her critical and immersion journalism, her justice advocacy for women and girls, and her 25 years of parish and community Unitarian Universalist ministry.

• Facilitator: Patton White
• Musician: Charli Vogt

“Looking Beyond the Mountaintop: Thoughts on the Beloved Community”

A reflection on Dr. King’s belief in the Beloved Community and the reality on the ground today.

Anthony Knight is the President & CEO of The Baton Foundation, a Georgia non- profit organization that serves the emotional, intellectual and cultural needs of Black boys in grades five through nine. Before founding the Foundation, Mr. Knight worked for twenty-two years as a museum educator and consultant.

Mr. Knight has extensive experience with and interest in African-American history and culture, public and living history, informal education and Black youth. Mr. Knight’s work with The Baton Foundation reflects his ongoing interest in the issues and practices related to the collecting, preservation and interpretation of information about and material culture from the African Diaspora.

Mr. Knight’s undergraduate work was in Spanish and English (Ohio Wesleyan University), and his graduate work was in museum education (The George Washington University). Mr. Knight also holds a degree in Spanish-to-English translation from the Núcleo de Estudios Lingüísticos y Sociales, Caracas, Venezuela. Mr. Knight is a New York City native.

• Facilitator: TBA
• Musician: The E-Band

“Calling In Ourselves”

More and more we find ourselves in difficult conversations. In this talk, I will speak to the importance of what I call “integrity intelligence,” how we can prepare ourselves to speak authentically with others across differences and while maintaining our highest integrity.

From 2021: Loretta Ross is a Visiting Associate Professor at Smith College teaching “White Supremacy in the Age of Trump.” She started her career in the women’s movement in the 1970s, working at the D.C. Rape Crisis Center, the National Organization for Women, the National Black Women’s Health Project, the Center for Democratic Renewal (National Anti-Klan Network), the National Center for Human Rights Education, and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Her forthcoming book is Calling In the Calling Out Culture. Her most recent publications are Reproductive Justice: An Introduction and Radical Reproductive Justice.

• Facilitator: Charlene Ball
• Musician: Craig Rafuse

Sara Drew serves as the Outreach Coordinator at First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta. She is a fairly recent graduate of Candler School of Theology where she completed concentrations in Chaplaincy and Justice, Peace building, and Conflict Transformation. She is also a Unitarian Universalist ministerial aspirant and a resident hospital chaplain at Emory’s Midtown Hospital. Sara seeks to continue to develop her abilities in connecting people to their strengths and providing radical hospitality.

• Facilitator: Wade Marbaugh
• Musician: Jean Heinrich

“What We Yearn for at Christmas: The Rebirth of Hope and Joy”

Stell Simonton is a longtime member of First Existentialist. She is a retired journalist who lives in Atlanta with her husband, Wade Marbaugh. She worked as a freelance writer for nearly a decade after spending 19 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Stell spends her time these days gardening, writing, painting and going to improv class. She grew up in Marion Junction, Alabama, and draws a lot of knowledge from her rural upbringing. Wade and Stell have two adult daughters: Anna lives with her partner in Minneapolis and Olivia lives with her partner in Atlanta.

• Facilitator: TBA
• Musician: Mick Kinney