Category: Celebrations of Life

“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

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.

• Facilitator: Libby Ware
• Musician: William Chelton

“Becoming an Artist”

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: D. Patton White
• Musician: Kristen Hampton

“Cultivating Gratitude in an age of Cynicism“

How do we actively practice thankfulness when it seems our world is on fire? How do we inspire and cultivate gratitude in our circles?

Bio: Bec’s passions revolve around writing, teaching, and speaking.

Her commitment to be a life-long learner and servant leader started early in her career with Americorps, where she led a family literacy project and helped coordinate a rural transportation program for the poor in Eastern Texas.

Bec has taught, guest lectured, and tutored over the years in various academic settings, including colleges and universities, as well as church, parachurch organizations and community outreaches.

She planted Church of the Misfits, the first dually affiliated Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ LGBTQ-affirming church in West Georgia in 2011. She served as the lead pastor and founder from 2011-2015.

She served at Gateway Center, Atlanta’s largest homeless service agency, as a coordinator and then director of community engagement from 2011-2022. She was a coordinator and then director of community for Wildgoose Festival from 2017-2020.

Bec received her B.A. in Biblical Theology and Practical Theology in Missions at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. She received her M.Div. from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in May 2013.

She cares deeply about those that society has rejected, and those that religiosity and systems of power continue to alienate. Bec focuses on ecumenical unity, interfaith justice work, and humanitarian endeavors in her spare time, writing and speaking at many events and conferences. Bec has served with Candler School of Theology since 2015, with a break in 2022.

She currently serves as a community responder at Policing Alternatives and Diversion and in her spare time enjoys getting messy with acrylic with her six year old.

• Facilitator: Wade Marbaugh
• Musician: Craig Rafuse

“Black, Baptist, and Buddhist; My Life and Engagement with Nonviolence”

Using photos and personal life history I will discuss my lifelong engagement with nonviolence.

Jan Willis (BA and MA in Philosophy from Cornell University; PhD in Indic and Buddhist Studies from Columbia University) is Professor of Religion Emerita at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. She has studied with Tibetan Buddhists in India, Nepal, Switzerland and the U.S. for five decades, and has taught courses in Buddhism for over 45 years. She is the author of six books on Buddhism and numerous articles and essays, addressing Buddhist meditation, hagiography, women and Buddhism, and Buddhism and race. In 2001, her memoir “Dreaming Me: An African American Woman’s Spiritual Journey” was published, and in 2008 it was re-issued by Wisdom Publications as “Dreaming Me: Black, Baptist, and Buddhist.” 

In December 2000, TIME magazine named Willis one of six “spiritual innovators for the new millennium.” In 2003, she was a recipient of Wesleyan University’s Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Newsweek magazine’s “Spirituality in America” issue in 2005 included a profile of Willis, and Ebony magazine in 2007 named Willis one of its “Power 150” most influential African Americans.

In 2013, she walked the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. In April of 2020, her book “Dharma Matters: Women, Race, and Tantra– Collected Essays by Jan Willis” was published.

• Facilitator: Sara Drew
• Musician: William Chelton

“What’s Next?”

We live in a world of volatility and uncertainty. How do we cope? How do we continue to build community? How can we make a difference?

Franklin Abbott is a psychotherapist and poet living under feline supervision in Decatur. In the ’80’s, he co-hosted 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: Patton White
• Musician: Alan Brown

Alan Brown

Alan Brown was born in Atlanta in 1965. He is a compulsive collector of schools. Margaret Mitchell Elementary, Christ the King Elementary, Westminster (for junior high and HS), Cincinnati University College Conservatory of Music, Georgia State University (Bachelor of Music), Manhattan School of Music (Master of Music), National Center for Paralegal Training, Berklee College of Music, Boston (Dual Diploma in Film Scoring and Contemporary Writing and Production), City College of San Francisco, Chattahoochee Tech and finally Kennesaw State University (Bachelor of Nursing.) 

He has  been a registered nurse for more than a decade, first at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in oncology and then Grady Memorial Hospital for the last 6 years. He currently serves as the team leader for the outpatient telephone advice nurse team.

He plays the horn professionally on a free-lance basis in the Atlanta area. He also played piano for the Atlanta Ballet for decades, as well as for many other ballet companies and schools. He is proud to be singing with the Atlanta Gay Men’s chorus this year. 

Alan has a house in Smyrna where he loves to garden. His 94-year-old mother, sister and brother live in the Marietta to Woodstock area.

“Stayed on Freedom”

Freedom University is a freedom school for undocumented students in Georgia. Based in Atlanta and connected to the 1960s Atlanta Student Movement and Civil Rights leaders, this institution can teach us a great deal about building collective power for liberation. Come hear about the proud work UUs have done in collaboration with Freedom U, and the results we are capable of when putting our faith in action!

• Facilitator: Cindy Lou Who
• Musician: Charli Vogt