Archives: Services

Poetry Service: Personal Faith and Spirituality in Hard Times

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 “Poetry Service: Personal faith and spirituality in hard times” with Ann Bonanno and Danielle Thierry
For the past 2 years, MMUUF has held annual poetry services focused on bringing our community closer together. As we share poems that are meaningful to us, we learn more about each other. As we co-create community poems in the moment, we weave our stories together. In this year’s service, we’ll focus on the ability of poets to capture our fears and help us find our strength through faith and spirituality in difficult times. In this interactive service, fellowship members will share poems relevant to this theme. Our choir will share reflections on spirituality through song. And if time allows, we may even write a poem together. All are welcome.

Danielle Thierry is a member of MMUUF, where she’s active in the choir, religious education, and cares and concerns committee. Danielle is a lifelong writer and musician who often finds strength in words and music in hard times. She currently focuses much of her writing work on helping to make federal government benefit programs more accessible through clear language and people-centered design. She previously served as the community organizer and executive director of the Burlington Writers Workshop, co-founded Vermont’s community-led literary journal Mud Season Review, and has taught writing in community college, workshops, and other settings. 

Ann Bonanno is a member of MMUUF, and has chaired the Sunday Service Committee for the past decade or so. Ann’s spirituality is based in the natural world and the connections between all living things, and she can often be found in the woods talking to the trees and any other being that catches her eye. Ann spends some time each day grateful for her community and the beautiful state of Vermont.

A Tribute to the Celebration of Holi

While the holiday is Hindu in origin, Indian people in all regions of the country and of many faiths enjoy it together, so it fits well with our UU spirit of inclusiveness. This service will be intergenerational, so no RE classes will be held. Rather than merely delving into the holiday intellectually, we will practice its customs together. Weather permitting, we’ll begin with a Holika Dahan bonfire, continue with an indoor portion of music and dance (yes!) and end with the traditional throwing of gulal, or colored powder. IMPORTANT: If you would like to participate in the color throwing, please wear old clothes or, even better, a white tee shirt that will show off the colors. Celebrators of Holi typically wear white. (You can buy white tees at Michael’s or JoAnn’s for a couple of bucks; I have a few for people who forget or don’t receive this message in advance.) The powder generally washes out, but please don’t wear silks or fabrics that can’t be washed.
 
Beth Esmond has been a member of MMUUF for more than 25 years. She and her husband own a communications firm and live in Jericho with their very tiny dog. Beth previously led a Holi service about 10 years ago with Friederike Keating and both of their daughters, Josie and Katerina, who were celebrating their Coming of Age that year.

Finding Calm in the Midst of Chaos

Most everyone is feeling unsettled these days. What can be done to not be swept away in the mania? Mary Kintner will explore ways to keep your balance.

Mary Kintner has an undergraduate degree in social welfare and nursing, and is a doctor of Chiropractic. She has been meditating and teaching yoga since the 1970s. Mary is coasting into retirement but still doing chiropractic, massage, teaching yoga and educating people about diet and nutrition. She loves to be outdoors and lives with her polydactyl cat, Polly.

 

What exactly happened to the UUA Principles and what do the new Values mean for our Fellowship?

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A year ago, the UUA approved changes to Article II of the UUA bylaws including the creation of new Values in place of the Principles. Confused? Come to the service to learn more about the changes and join us in a discussion about our individual thoughts about the Values and how our Fellowship might incorporate them.
 
Catherine Stevens lives in Jericho with her husband and their two dogs. She recently retired as a resource development director for non-profits and is looking for an opportunity to continue helping on a project basis. She and her husband like to travel, to learn about other cultures and history. Closer to home, she travels to Mills Riverside Park almost daily to enjoy nature with her dogs. Catherine is a member of the MMUUF and has served on the Sunday Service Committee for 15ish years.
Kristen Hayden-West is a member of the Mt. Mansfield Unitarian Fellowship where she serves on the Membership and Sunday Service committees. Beyond her work as a Curriculum Designer for the State of Vermont, and her side hustle flipping thrifted items on eBay, she enjoys being active outside and getting together with friends and her two adult children.

Gratitude, Meditation & Movement: Finding focus when everything feels like too much!

Practicing gratitude in the face of caring for parents with chronic illness, adapting to a new community, and finding time to write, meditate and teach yoga can be challenging at times. Sarah will share some of her favorite readings & tools, teach a short meditation, and offer you ideas to consider bringing a practice of gratitude into your life.
Sarah Ward, is a friend of MMUUUF, and was a member for over twenty-five years.  She now lives in Woodstock, VT with her husband Scott, her mother, Bonnie, and their two dogs, River & Pippin.  Sarah teaches yoga and meditation at Artistree Community Art Center in Pomfret, and writes fiction.  She is currently working on a historical fiction novel about a murder that happened in her home town of Piermont, NH in 1875. She loves writing, reading, swimming, traveling and sharing a cup of tea and a long chat with a friend.

Tending to Home in an Uncertain Time

MMUUF fellowship member Mike Sweeney will share his thoughts on what it means to have a strong sense of home, his experiences of losing and rebuilding a sense of home for himself and his family, and the importance of doing the human work in our spiritual and other local communities to tend to our collective home as a way to cultivate strength and protection during an uncertain time.

Mike Sweeney currently serves as the fellowship’s treasurer and religious education director and enjoys singing in the fellowship’s “Last Minute Choir.” He is also a justice of the peace in Jericho and chair of the Jericho Democratic Committee. Mike has had various jobs through the years, but his most important have been as a homemaker for his family and dad to his two now teenage children.

The Mutual Gifts of Intergenerational Connection

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Marissa Birne appreciates the opportunity to share stories of the older adults who have shaped her life—through their wisdom, humor, traditions, and love—and reflect on how older generations can find meaning in sharing stories and experiences with younger ones. While offering her reflections on the mutual benefits of intergenerational connection, she will invite MMUUF to consider: What have you learned from older people who have made a difference for you? And what are you hoping to pass on to younger people in your life to help them grow, thrive, and develop their own sense of purpose?
Marissa Birne is the Associate Director of Education at the UVM Center on Aging, where she oversees educational opportunities in gerontology and geriatrics, including a ‘Grand Friends’ service-learning program. She previously fostered multigenerational connection among senior living residents and volunteers of all ages as the Program Manager for Youth, Arts, and Volunteer Initiatives at an elder care organization in Massachusetts. In her free time, she enjoys practicing yoga, volunteering as a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and spending time with loved ones.
Molly Jo Krupkin is a senior Human Development and Family Sciences major at UVM. She is from Chicago and she absolutely loves living in Vermont. In her free time Molly Jo plays ice hockey, cooks, plays games with friends and reads. Her favorite book she read this year was called The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Molly Jo is new to learning about aging and the complexities of the topic, and she is excited and eager to continue engaging and learning!

Christmas Eve Service

Our theme for this service of songs and readings is “Coming Together”. We will close the service with our tradition of lighting candles and singing Silent Night so if you are joining us virtually, please have a candle ready at home. All are welcome!

What’s Next?

Ann Bonanno will share her thoughts and musings about what happens to our essence when we die. She will offer a brief overview of various religious beliefs and welcomes the Fellowship to share their beliefs, or wonders, on this topic.
Ann Bonanno is a member of MMUUF and has chaired the Sunday Service Committee for the past decade or so. Ann’s spirituality is based in the natural world and the connections between all living things, and she suspects her life’s goal is to become a tree.  Ann believes strongly in living in gratitude and spends some time each day grateful for the beautiful state of Vermont and the MMUUF community.

My Bag of Worries

Gaye will offer reflections about how practices grounded in UU faith may help us move beyond worrying events and anxious times. How do we carry our pain and fears? How do we take care of ourselves and our communities? She will also reflect on how our lay-led faith community can balance the desire to serve as a place of refuge with also being a welcoming community to all. And while she’s still working on the service, she’s very clear that she will not fully answer those questions and is counting on others to share their thoughts and strategies for moving through anxious times and events, individually and as a community.
 
Gaye is a long-time member of MMUUF. She’s retired from a nonlinear career that included baking, managing mission-focused organizations, legislative service, and leading a grantmaking organization. Now her days change with seasons, but consistent elements include trying to keep up with her 90-something friends and role-models and serving on the board of VTDigger, a nonprofit news organization. She lives in Jericho with her husband, Chuck Lacy, and their two cats.