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https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-jmyr7-9f2001

This could have been called “the tenacity of craft” or “lovers of leaving” or “keeping the fire under our feet” … but whatever the title, this conversation with Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout is rich and full and makes me want to come back for more. We talk about creativity, spirit, lessons from other traditions, plurality, drag culture, and French cats.

Bio:

A native of Baltimore, Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout is the Director of Music and Worship at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Ann Arbor, MI.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in voice from Vanderbilt University, a master’s and a doctoral degree in conducting from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Glen Thomas is the winner of the 2013 National Student Conducting Competition. He has conducted the University of Michigan Chamber Choir, the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club, and the Manhattan Chorale—a professional ensemble of New York City. He served as assistant conductor for the University of Michigan Chamber Choir in the Grammy-nominated recording of Darius Milhaud’s opera trilogy, L’Orestie d’Eschyle.

His recent international conducting schedule has included engagements in Perú, Poland, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Russia, Spain, Andorra, and France. Glen Thomas served the University of Michigan Chamber Choir as assistant conductor during its 2014 tour of New Zealand and Australia.

Glen Thomas has served First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor  since August 2007. His essay Prodigal Songs: Reclaiming Our Voice has been published by the Church of the Larger Fellowship. He conducted the GA choir and co-led Sunday morning worship at General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, in 2016.

Glen Thomas’s work as a singer includes engagements with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Mark Morris Dance Group, University of Michigan, the University Musical Society, and the Star-Spangled Music Project. In June 2016, Glen Thomas served as guest vocalist for the investiture of United States federal court judge Judith E. Levy.

Glen Thomas is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network, Chorus America, the American Choral Directors Association, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity.

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https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-vpuj6-9deb8f

In this episode, Suzanne Fast and I talk about presence, what we seek in worship, accessibility and inclusion, and that time the hymn was a little too on point.

Bio:

A cradle Unitarian Universalist, Rev Suzanne Fast traces her call to ministry to the foundational lessons in meaning making learned in Religious Education.  She is particularly interested in the spiritual journeying of adults and children, and the connections we make between our inward journeys, our daily lives, and our shared work for a just society.  The primary focus of Reverend Fast’s ministry is disability-related social justice, advocacy, education, and pastoral ministry in the broader UU community and the public square. She is also a spiritual director in private practice. 

Reverend Fast is a graduate of Meadville Lombard Theological School with spiritual direction certification from the Rice School for Pastoral Theology. Since 2010, she has served in a variety of leadership roles for EqUUal Access, whose mission is to enable the full engagement of people with disabilities in Unitarian Universalist communities and the broader society.  She is a facilitator in the UUA’s Beyond Categorical Thinking Program, and served on the Accountability Group for Justice GA 2012. She is an affiliated community minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fort Myers, Florida

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https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-5829k-9c494f

Tony Campolo writes, “A ritual takes what happened a long time ago and drags it into the present so you can experience it here and now. Rituals keep us from forgetting what must not be forgotten and keep us rooted in a past from which we must not be disconnected.”

In this episode, my friend Karen Johnston and I talk about creating ritual, music that moves us, and fire.

 

Links (refered to in the episode):

article about the Lost Souls Project

Song – Let the Life I Lead

 

Bio: 

Karen G. Johnston is the 7th settled minister at The Unitarian Society, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation in East Brunswick, New Jersey.  A second-career minister, she was ordained in June, 2016 by her then-home congregation, The Unitarian Society of Northampton & Florence and her internship congregation, First Parish Church of Groton.  She earned her Master of Divinity degree through a Cooperative program, starting first at Hartford Seminary and finishing up at Andover Newton Theological School. 

Before becoming a professional minister, Karen was a lay leader in her home congregation.  Professionally, she spent over twenty years in the field of clinical social work, having graduated from Smith College School for Social Work in 1995.  Her focus was home visiting, families with children birth to three, and the prevention of child abuse using strengths-based and trauma-informed approaches.  She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Women Studies from Hamilton College – a very formative experience of opposition and resistance, with echoes of today’s need for engaging the patriarchy around normalized and hidden sexual abuse, as well as how to de-center whiteness and build multi-racial/multi-ethnic partnership, especially among women.

Karen is the adoptive mother of two humans who are now young adults, whom she met for the first time when they were two days past two and just shy of four years old.  She identifies as bisexual, white, able-bodied, cisgender female.  She’s currently married to a man about whom she is not ambivalent, though the legal marriage thing is still something that causes confusion.  She lives a life more financially solid than how she was raised and what she thinks will happen for her children.  Because she believes we have passed the tipping point when it comes to climate chaos, and is deeply troubled by the rise of fascism, she wonders how it might be possible to learn some of the skills of survivalists but to infuse and saturate them with Unitarian Universalist values to create “islands of sanity.”

 Before becoming a minister, Karen spent time as part of a grassroots poetry group in her hometown and sometimes dabbled in performance poetry.  She’s looking forward to taking her first improv class this January.

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https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-vfbrq-9b763f

My guest this week is the Rev. Dr. Michael Tino – my friend and mentor. In this inaugural episode, we talk about hymns, aesthetics, writing – and not writing – sermons, old, aching bodies, and fire. 

 

Bio:

Michael serves the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Westchester in Mt. Kisco, NY. He is a graduate of the Meadville/Lombard Theological School. Prior to coming to UUFNW, Michael served six years as the Director of Young Adult and Campus Ministry at the Unitarian Universalist Association, the national headquarters of our faith movement.

He is the author of several Unitarian Universalist Association publications, including the curriculum Our Whole Lives: Sexuality Education for Young Adults, co-written with the Rev. Sarah Gibb Millspaugh and Laura Stuart and published in early 2008. This curriculum is the latest part of the Our Whole Lives comprehensive sexuality education series.

 

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Starting on September 27th, I’ll be hosting a podcast, cleverly titled The Worship Whisperer!

During each episode, I’ll be having a conversation with a Unitarian Universalist religious professional – we’ll talk about things that engage them in worship, what they’re curious about, and things they’ve done that I find intriguing. Plus, you’ll learn a bit more about them (and me) in our free-form, sometimes funny, usually insightful conversation.

You can find the podcast here, or wherever you find your podcasts.