Morning Theme Talks

Morning Theme Talks

Monday - The Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker

Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love for This World for Crucifixion and Empire
For a thousand years, Christians did not produce images of Jesus suffering and dying on the cross. Instead when they gathered to worship they were surrounded by lush and beautiful images of this world as paradise. But beginning in the 10th century, western Christianity shifted to images of crucifixion. This talk will examine the legacy of Christianity’s turn to crucifixion and empire, and explore the positive possibilities buried in Christianity’s more ancient spirituality of love for life.

Rebecca Parker is President and Professor of Theology at Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, CA. An ordained minister in dual relationship with the UUA and the United Methodist Church, she is the author of Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now (Skinner House Books, 2006) and co-author with Rita Nakashima Brock of Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us (Beacon Press, 2001). Their newest book, Saving Paradise, will be released by Beacon Press in summer, 2008. (rparker@sksm.edu)

Tuesday - Rev. Alison Miller

Spiraling into the Center

The greatest journey we can make is the sojourn to the center of our being. It is here we come to know our deepest selves, our purpose and call, and our sacred source. There are many roads that can be taken. There are the intentional paths of spiritual practices or the tumultuous and disorienting twists of illness, loss and transition. These paths offer to reveal terrors and delights, limits and unfettered possibilities, the voices of our false idols and the whispers of the divine. We can then wind back outwards and bring to life all that is in harmony with our heart’s true longing.

The Rev. Alison B. Miller has been serving as the minister of the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship since fall 2005. She holds an A.B. from Bryn Mawr College and a Masters of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School. She is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist who was raised in an interfaith Jewish-Christian family in New York City. Alison has been very involved over the years in congregations, in our association, and in the communities in which she serves around the issues of youth ministry, young adult and campus ministry, and anti-racism and diversity work. (amiller@muuf.org)

Wednesday - Rev. Gail R. Geisenhainer

Pilgrimage: Tourism or Transformation?

The art and discipline of religious pilgrimage feeds the human hunger for meaning, purpose, connection and ultimacy…., or not.

The Reverend Gail Ruth Geisenhainer was raised in Concord, MA and lived in Maine and New Hampshire before entering the Unitarian Universalist Ministry. She holds graduate degrees from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA and Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine. After her Internship in Reading, Massachusetts, she served as an Extension Minister in Los Angeles for five years. Since 2002 she has served the UU Fellowship of Vero Beach, Florida. Currently she serves as Treasurer for the UU Ministers Association. Rev. Gail’s life-partner of 24 years, Celeste DeRoche, writes and teaches US History for Barry University. They share a passion for books, road trips, and the company of their dog Waldo. (GGeisenhainer@uuma.org

Thursday - The Rev. Chip Roush

A Long Strange Trip It Is

Each life, each day, each relationship might be seen as a pilgrimage--to greater understanding, if not to an actual place. Using the lyrics and the experiences of the music group, “The Grateful Dead,” we’ll explore how to find more meaning and more joy in our lives.

The Rev. Chip Roush serves the UU Congregation of Grand Traverse, Michigan as its Senior Minister. He has preached on the liberal humanism of the Grateful Dead over a dozen times, and he danced to the band many more times than that. Besides the Dead, he lists Ken Wilber, the Rev. Dr. Thandeka, and his wife, Becky, as his chief influences. (revuucgt@charterinternet.com)

Friday - Rev. Anthony David

Seasons of Life

In his classic work Let Your Life Speak, Parker Palmer introduces a metaphor that helps us integrate and name the stages and cycles of our spiritual journey through life: the turning seasons. That’s what we will explore in Friday’s theme talk. I have found Parker Palmer’s metaphor to be profoundly helpful, and perhaps so will you.

The Rev. Anthony David is Senior Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta. Before this, he was Senior Minister of Pathways Church, the experimental rapid-start large church in Dallas/Fort Worth. His most recent publication is an article in Wrestling With Adulthood: UU Men Talk About Growing Up (Skinner House Press, ed. Rev. Ken Beldon). (adavid@uuma.org)