The Existential Buzz

“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

“Holding Still”

“Anyone who’s changed a baby’s diaper or towel-dried a wet dog or received a vaccination knows how important “Holding Still” can be! This is true of the spiritual life as well, and that’s what I want to talk with you about.” 

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 recently to embrace a kind of spiritual silence. http://chrisglaser.com; http://chrisglaser.blogspot.com

• Facilitator: Charlene Ball
• Musicians: Jean Heinrich and East/West String Ensemble

“Expanding Awareness”

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:  Patton White
• Musician: CJ Jones & Spirit Bones band

“Keepers of the Earth”

“I recently attended a presentation at Standing Peachtree Creek Park and listened to a Miccosukee Creek talk about the non-nomadic, agrarian life of the tribe in this area before they were forced out. She said they considered themselves Keepers of the Earth. For the future of our planet we must embrace this mantle.”

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.

• Facilitator: Wade Marbaugh
• Musician: Charli Vogt

“Refugee Women Economic and Health Empowerment”

Refugee women are a vulnerable group among millions of people who have been involuntarily displaced, are survivors of torture and trauma, and, need special attention and care. Pre- and post-resettlement experiences have profound effects on how these women acculturate in their new home countries 

ABOUT THE FOUNDER – AMANI WOMEN CENTER, INC. 

Doris Mukangu 

Doris is the founder of Amani Women Center (www.amaniwomencenter.org) based in Clarkston, Georgia. She moved to America 20 years ago to pursue higher education. She graduated from Emory University RSPH with the vision of helping women who come from a similar background or with similar experiences like hers. With this passion running through her veins, she founded Amani Women Center in 2007 with the vision to create a safe space for refugee and immigrant women to learn to be self-sufficient and achieve their maximum potential. One of the programs of AWC is the Amani Sewing Academy (ASA). This program is unique in that it teaches refugee and immigrant women sewing skills and life skills to enable them to enter the workforce and earn livable wages. Refugee women who attend and graduate from the sewing program are able to start home-based businesses, join the small-scale manufacturing at ASA, teach at ASA, or work contractually for Johari Africa (www.johariafrica.com) AWC’s social Enterprise. Products made by the women are a celebration of the different cultures that are represented in the program.

• Facilitator: Jan Lister
• Musician: Jean Heinrich