Archives: Services

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.

Becoming Braver Angels: Depolarizing the United States

Tired of all the “us vs. them” dialog surrounding the recent elections? Come listen to a brief talk by Braver Angels Ambassador Mary K. Dennison. Braver Angels is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to address the political polarization that exists in our country

Things That Don’t Go Together: How Religion and Politics Don’t Mix

This Service will discuss how religion, especially fundamentalism, has come to dominate politics and why that is a recipe for disaster in a democratic society that upholds the principle of the separation of church and state.
Rev. Dr. Kenneth Langer is currently the Minister at the First Church in Barre Universalist Church in Barre, Vermont where he was ordained. Before becoming a Unitarian Universalist minister, he was a college music professor for over twenty years. He is a composer and the author of several books on spirituality and the arts.

Unsettled

In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day, Rev. Nicoline shares how the process of truth and reconciliation currently underway north of the US/Canada border has transformed how she thinks about concepts like identity, citizenship, and the country she calls home.

A lifelong Unitarian Universalist, Rev. Nicoline Guerrier has served the UU Fellowship of Plattsburgh, NY as minister since 2018. Previously a “bi-vocational minister” who combined ordained ministry with social work, she is also biracial, and almost bi-national, as she resides in Montreal and commutes to the US for work.

A Safe Barn and a Brave Barn

How do we create a fellowship that is both a space of belonging where people feel comfortable expressing themselves without judgment, while at the same time, encouraging challenging conversations and a diversity of thought? Kristen Hayden-West will host a discussion where we explore what it means for our fellowship to be both a safe and a brave environment.
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.

Gathering the Waters

The Sunday Service committee is ready for another Fellowship Year! This service will incorporate a tradition we started a year ago. At the last service in June, we handed out index cards to the Fellowship and asked them to write what they hoped to do or see during the summer. At this opening service, we will ask people to share what they wrote and if it came true, in addition to “sharing the waters” from a special place. The index cards were attached to everyone’s name tags and will be waiting when people enter the Barn. We also invite everyone to bring a small container of water from your home or a place you visited to combine into a community bowl as a symbol of our joining together again. All water is sacred. Folks attending via Zoom can share their water virtually and also share what they wrote on their cards at the last service.
Please note that there will NOT be RE for this service.

Passages: Welcoming New Members and Celebrating a Successful Year

Join the Sunday Service Committee for a service of reflection, gratitude, and celebration of our fellowship year. This will include reflections from members and friends on services, songs, discussions, or activities from the service year. There will also be a time during the service when friends of the fellowship can join our community as members by signing the Book of Members.