First Existentialist Congregation
An independent member of the Unitarian Universalist Association
The human race has long viewed the spring equinox as a time of celebration and life. Join us as we explore our connection to the ancient ways of marking the beginning of spring and the spiritual hold it still has on us in the modern world.
There are so many verses from the Bible that have been used to bash women over the head, keep them in patterns of abuse, and shut out their voices. But what are the liberating examples of the Divine Feminine in the Bible? In her talk, Bec desires to dismantle the hurt some biblical texts have caused.
Kathie has worked in nonprofits since 1974. She will share a little of what she’s learned about organizational conflict over those nearly 50 years.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Abe Partridge is a heralded musician, singer/songwriter, visual artist, and podcaster based in Mobile, Alabama.
Since the release of his debut, Cotton Fields and Blood For Days, in 2018, Partridge has toured relentlessly, including several tours of the Netherlands and the U.K. developing a reputation for moving, passionate, and sometimes comedic, performances at prestigious songwriter festivals and a regular at Nashville’s Bluebird Café. He has performed on the syndicated radio programs, Mountain Stage and Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. 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 of Tyler Childers, Mike Wolfe (American Pickers),
and Rick Hirsch (Wet Willie). His artwork was featured in Stephen King’s 2019 sequel to The Shining – Dr. Sleep.
He painted the cover art for Charlie Parr’s, Last Of The Better Days Ahead (Smithsonian Folkways). He also
created art for Tyler Childers ’2022 release, Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven? Facebook: https://fb.me/e/2AyFTTckC
Artist Statement
I left Mobile when I was 18 in pursuit of a theological education. I attended 4 bible colleges in 4 years… partly
because I couldn’t follow rules, partly because I knew better. I became a pastor of a small Independent Baptist Church in the Appalachians of Eastern Kentucky at 25 years old. When I was 27 years old I became acquainted with a horrible depression. I left the ministry and turned to Art. I have written songs and made paintings like these for years. Only after joining the military and going to war did I decide to begin sharing my art with the world. I never took a songwriting class, nor have I ever had an art class. I always just thought I was weird…
“Rethink preconceived notions.
Question authority.
Create new methods of survival.
See beauty.”
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.
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
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