Giveaway Ceremony and Top Ten Gratitude List for a Challenging Year:

The Native American giveaway ceremony honors abundance, gratitude, and relationships by bringing together family and friends for gift giving and celebration. If you’d like to participate in our give away, please bring a small item representing your gratitude to give away at random to someone present.

Dr. Sharon Mathis is a recently ( gratefully) retired psychologist, who practiced psychotherapy for thirty plus years. She is a founding member of First E.; a theatre performer, director, and writer; and a gardener. She looks to the natural world to teach and nurture her spirituality.

Dr. Sharon Mathis is a recently ( gratefully) retired psychologist, who practiced psychotherapy for thirty plus years. She is a founding member of First E.; a theatre performer, director, and writer; and a gardener. She looks to the natural world to teach and nurture her spirituality.

Facilitator:  D. Patton White

Musician:  Kathy McGuire

Still Active:

“How the use of silence can help us mediate conflict via intentional action.”

Angela Denise Davis, M.Div., M.S., is an ordained minister, writer, public speaker, and digital media creator interested in the life tasks of work and spiritual issues located at the intersection of race, class, gender, sexual identity, and disability. Her call in life is to facilitate conversations and theological reflections along the fence line of those differences. She is a black, blind, lesbian clergywoman who understands how all of her identities gift her presence in the world. She wants to share what her presence in this world brings, and celebrate the gifts of others as we hold space for the emergence of peace and grace in the world.

In May 2010, she founded a spiritual collective called Sister Harriet. This was a spiritual landing pad for “holy rollers, heretics, heathens, hell raisers, and all other persuasions.” In addition to monthly gatherings, Sister Harriet offers listeners inspiring messages via a weekly podcast. Angela is also the creator, host, and producer of the ZAMI NOBLA Podcast, a bi-weekly digital offering targeted at black lesbians 40 years and older.

Angela speaks to educational institutions, communities of faith, conferences, and organizations on topics ranging from personal motivation, career development, spiritual reflection, spiritual activism, social justice, LGBT and religion, Black lesbian health and well-being, and disability awareness and advocacy. In addition, she will wax poetically on all things related to the ukulele if given the chance.

She is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University where she earned a B.A. in Art. She also holds a master of divinity from Vanderbilt University Divinity School, and a master of science in rehabilitation counseling from Georgia State University.

Facilitator:  Robert Stewart

Musician:  Jez Graham

The Light in the Tattoo Shop:  

This is a sermon about the heritage of the Enlightenment and how the principles of that 16th -17th Century movement are still relevant to the values which undergird our liberal religious congregations today. This Sunday service comes just days after the 2018 mid term elections and, therefore, it also affords us the opportunity to explore how we deal with the outcomes of that election, looking for what it has to teach us and the ways forward which can bring hope and healing for ourselves and others. 

Reverend Joan Armstrong Davis is a parish based Unitarian Universalist minister, having served congregations in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Wisconsin. She is a 1989 graduate of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University where she returned in 2003 for a residency in
pastoral care at Emory University Hospital.

Joan currently serves the Northwest Unitarian Universalist congregation in Sandy Springs, GA as their Affiliated Community Minister where she facilitates the work of their lay led pastoral care ministry team.

Facilitator:  Barbara Van-Helsdingen

Musician:  William Chelton

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Resilience: 

“We have so many examples of people who have personally and collectively overcome decades if not centuries of oppression.  I am an optimist and believe that the Blue Wave will sweep across the country.  I am also a realist.  There is a deep and abiding fear of difference and progress.”

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.

Facilitator:  Rev. Marsha Mitchiner

Musician:  Aviva and the Flying Penguins

Day of the Dead Celebration:

Please join our Day of the Dead Celebration this Sunday when we remember those loved ones who have passed from this earth but not from our hearts and memories.
There will be an altar table for you to place pictures and memorabilia of those loved ones, pets included.
Also, bring a sweet or snack that was a favorite of/or has special meaning to your loved ones—jelly beans, M&Ms, cheese and crackers, etc—to share after service while we share stories with one another about those who, although no longer with us in body, are still very present in our hearts.

“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Facilitator: Jan Lister

Musician: Kathy McGuire

Scruples in Any Language:   Culture, Class, or Personality?

Paula Larke is a storyteller, motivational speaker, spoken word/vocal innovator, bassist and percussionist.

She has used her music, passion, and humor nationally, for over 38 years, to unite, chide, inspire, and restore faith in the human potential for harmony. Her primary work is in community – schools, churches, state fairs, businessmen’s luncheons, workplace employee training – every kind of community gathering allowing her access.

Most recently, Paula has been teaching artist in Eastern Kentucky and Clarkston, GA, adapting her delivery for Appalachian and international refugee audiences. “It has been an enriching experience, seeing through eyes so different from my own” she affirms.

Her CD, “ UNITY IN THE COMMUNITY”, produced with activist/percussionist Kim Nimoy, is a performance libretto, designed for use in schools and colleges.

Facilitator:  D. Patton White
Musician:  William Chelton

Existentially

Rather than a speaker addressing a topic this week, Reverend Marsha Mitchiner will read selections from members and friends.

We invite You to bring in a short poem, quotation, paragraph, or similar writing, that is meaningful to you.  If possible please print and bring your selection. If you don’t have a way to print it out, please send it to Robert Stewart or to the Office (office@firstexistentialist.org) and Robert will print and bring it (if received by 9 AM Sunday morning).

Rev. Marsha will choose selections to read and comment on, as time allows. (Note that there may not be time to read every selection.)

Our Celebration of Life will be on Sunday, October 7 from 11 – 12:15. Come and hear words that are meaningful,

Facilitator: Rev. Marsha Mitchiner
Accompanist: Alan Dynin