“Creative Transformations”

Pastor Darci talks about the social justice transformation of a congregation alongside the transition of a pastor

Rev. Darci Jaret is a bi-vocational pastor, advocate, art minister, enthusiast and trans nonbinary human. They journey with the community of Park Avenue Baptist Church in creativity  & non hierarchical community. This ministry centers the work of abolition, artistic spiritual expression, collaboration, anti-racism and recovering from religious and theological trauma. Moving beyond deconstructing harmful theology, Park Avenue seeks to build practices that align and direct us all toward our inner divinity and our one-ness in God. Darci also does case management for a women and children-centered mental health program in Atlanta. Journeying along side people in need, while acknowledging a person’s wholeness and dignity is paramount in Darci’s case management method. Focusing care on people who are experiencing homelessness, who have experienced financial trauma characterizes the other part of Darci’s vocation. Darci and their partner Amy are unschooling their son in East Point, GA. The whole family is committed to welcoming children in foster care to our home.

• Facilitator: Wade Marbaugh
• Musician: Charli Vogt

“​​Responding to Anti-trans Legislation as Spiritual People and Communities”

Rev. Kimble Sorrells is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, with a ministry in contemplative practices focused on equipping us with the peace and resolve to be justice makers in the world. They are also a Registered Yoga Teacher and draw on this and other spiritual traditions to inform their ministry. As a Bi-vocational minister, Kimble also works with Lifeline Animal Project as the Community Programs Manager, guiding caseworkers as they assist pet owners in times of challenge.

Kimble has experience in variety of ministry settings. They have worked in LGBTQ advocacy for many years including as staff for Reconciling Ministries Network and the Atlanta Pride Committee. They currently serve on the Mayor’s LGBTQ Advisory Board and work primarily in advocacy with the Transgender community.

• Facilitator: Cindy Lou Who
• Musician: Jean Heinrich

The Reading Life

At this beach-reading and otherwise leisure-reading time of year, I’ll take a look at  reading as a practice and as an act of human liberation and justice.

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: Jan Lister
• Musician: Craig Rafuse

Reclaiming Patriotism

The term “patriotism” has been usurped by extremists obsessed with American exceptionalism, predatory Capitalism, exclusionary policies and other ideas not conducive to our nation’s stability and sustainability. Progressive-thinking citizens should not let fanatical extremists set the terms of the national debate over what is patriotic and good for the country. Wade Marbaugh has been attending the First Existentialist Congregation with his wife, Stell Simonton, since the early 1990s and has served on the Board of Directors and as its chair. Professionally, he has served in many roles, but his passion is writing and acting. He has written several plays for local stages, a novel, various TV series episodes, screenplays, and short stories. He currently is acting in Indie movies and in a touring play about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, which at some point will come to Atlanta. Wade is an Ohio native who moved to Atlanta in 1986 to write for a local newspaper. He subsequently married the editor who hired him, Stell. They have two adult children, Anna and Olivia Simonton.

• Facilitator: Marsha Mitchiner
• Musician: Kristen Hampton

“Does Wisdom Come with Age?”

The wisdom I sort of expected to come with age did not, and I am still the same person I was. Changes have come to my body and mind, many unexpected. Yet have I become more wise? 

Charlene Ball is a longtime member of the First Existentialist Congregation. She has taught English, writing, and women’s studies. After retiring from Georgia State University, she has been busier than ever. She has written a historical novel, DARK LADY: A NOVEL OF EMILIA BASSANO LANYER. With her wife Libby Ware, she has written two bibliomysteries, MURDER AT THE ESTATE SALE and MURDER AT THE BOOK FAIR, under the pen name Lily Charles. She also sells antiquarian books with Libby’s book business, Toadlily Books. Charlene is a member of the Social Justice Guild and the Indigenous Rights Committee.

• Facilitator: Libby Ware
• Musician: Jean Heinrich

“The Good Father”

Franklin Abbott will talk about the importance of good parenting and how our fathers (and mothers) influence who we become in life.  Epigenetics, the science of how our family histories affect our DNA will be part of my focus along with how our parents are prophets of our future, how their lives give us a glimpse of our destinies.  

Franklin Abbott is a psychotherapist and poet living in Decatur. In the ’80’s, he co-hosted a radio show on WRFG with his friend, First E founder, Lanier Clance. He is working on a new book of poems and stories that he hopes will be ready by Fall. Check out his blog: www.tenminutemuse.wordpress.com

• Facilitator: D. Patton White
• Musician: Craig Rafuse

“An Introduction to Cognitively-Based Compassion Training“

Cultivating the skills of compassion (through CBCT)  can lead to a sense of personal empowerment which supports our own wellbeing as well as supporting our offering of compassion interpersonally and systemically. 

The Rev. Maureen Shelton serves as Director of Education and Director of Compassion-Centered Spiritual Health at Emory Spiritual Health. She is ACPE Chaplain Educator and Senior CBCT Teacher.

• Facilitator: TBA
• Musician: Bill Chelton

“The Dancing Police Officer”

Lynn will speak her truth about being a dancer, police officer, single parent without child support, and stepmother. Her work in domestic violence and mental health continues to dominate her personal and professional life. To be a bridge between conflicting parties and bring peace is her path “less taken.” She strives to empower and inspire young women to show them it’s okay to be you, as Betty Friedan’s book “The Feminine Mystique” showed her at age fourteen.

Lynn Hesse is the award-winning author of the novels: Well of Rage, Murder in Mobile, A Matter of Respect, Murder in Mobile, Book 2, Another Kind of Hero, and The Forty Knots Burn. As a modern ballet dancer and former law enforcement officer, she writes and lives with her husband and his rescue cats in Stone Mountain. 

She was Police Officer Standard Training (POST) certified as an officer at Georgia State University. She was one of the first female officers in uniform in DeKalb County. In 1980 she won the DeKalb County Police Department Academic Award, and in 1997 she won the Larry Quinn Award for academic merit and honorable service. She was also a detective in the Traffic Specialist Unit, handling death notifications, specialized accident scene investigation documentation, and criminal prosecution of offenders.

She was part of a seven-woman coalition that fought DeKalb County to allow women to make rank in the 1980s. She was part of a team who rallied for peer counseling and the Employee Assistance Program. As a sergeant, she developed a squad to answer domestic violence 911 calls in the highest crime area of the county. While a lieutenant, she supervised approximately thirty patrol officers and a Mobile Crisis Unit consisting of a nurse and an officer who answered calls involving the mentally ill. 

Lynn retired from law enforcement in 2003. She is a member of the Atlanta Writers Club, Sisters-in-Crime, Walton Writers, National League of American Pen Women, International Women Police Association, and Crime Writers Association, UK.

• Facilitator: Wade Marbaugh
• Musician: Mick Kinney