Guest & UUFES Lay Speakers

We are blessed at UUFES that—because our minister serves at ¾ time—guest speakers, ministers and lay worship leaders stand in our pulpit throughout the year. As a result, Sunday services at UUFES offer a uniquely broad experience.

We count on our own minister to tell us stories, often punctuated with poetry and current events, that help us see ourselves and the world around us in a new light. Our guest and lay leaders come in many flavors. A lofty intellectual might give your brain a high-powered workout—some people love that. A speaker with a passion for justice might expand your horizons and take you down a road you’ve never travelled—some people love that. A mystical speaker might baffle you in the moment, yet the message then resonates for days.

UUFES has been fortunate to hear varied and inspiring messages from guest and lay speakers, including:

Program Year 2021-2022
03/27/22 a Lay-led service, “Transgender Day of Visibility”
07/25/21 Guest Minister Ariel Aaronson-Eves, “Report From the Frontlines” — ZOOM Recording, Password: #^mL4a.V
08/15/21 A Lay-led Service, “How Does Your Garden Grow” — ZOOM Recording, Password: .6EpxDU1
09/19/21 “Our Faith Calls Us To Peace,” With Guest Speaker Will Hopkins — ZOOM Recording, Password: A8bhxG%r
09/26/21 “Expressing What’s Within,” A Lay-led Service — ZOOM Recording, Password: ^5w**H4@
10/03/21 “In Praise of Plants As Food,” A Lay-led Service — ZOOM Recording, Password: O4!r2.7M
10/24/21 “A Single Glorious Thing,” with Guest Minister Bettina Lehovec — ZOOM Recording, Password: YV109!dy
01/30/22 “Six Words Can Uplift Our Spirits,” A Lay-led Service — ZOOM Recording, Password: 1p&F9zjb

Program Year 2020-2021
08/23/20 Led by UUFES Member Margaret Rieser, “Bring Your Body”
10/04/20 Guest Speaker Donna San Antonio, “Widening the Space for Compassion”
10/25/20 Guest Minister Rev. Marshall Davis, “Christian Nonduality”
11/29/20 Guest Minister James Verschueren, “The Power of Reconciliation”
12/27/20 TEXT “More Than the Sum of Our Parts” Led by UUFES Member Margaret Rieser
02/21/21 “See No Stranger,” with Rev. Joanna Lubkin, Guest Minister
04/25/21 “Honoring the Sacredness of the Earth,” with Heather Augustine
05/16/21 “Tending and Mending the Social Web” With Guest Speaker Aravinda Ananda
06/13/21 “We Side With Pride,” A Lay led service

Program Year 2019-2020
07/07/19 JenDog and Malini, “From Violence & Grief to Justice & Healing”
07/21/19 Annie Patterson and Peter Blood, “Love and Hope in Times of Anger”
08/18/19 Rob Shetterly, “To Stand Up a Stone”
09/08/19 UUFES Member Dick Byrd, “The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence”
09/15/19 UUFES Friend Ed Parsons, “Mountains and Rivers”
10/06/19 UUFES Friends Hope Hutchinson and Jorge Dominguez, “From Here to There”
10/20/19 A UUFES “From Us to Us” service featuring Rod Forsman, Ruth Hall and Kevin Connerton, “Scarcity and Sufficiency”
11/17/19 Tiffany Grade, “To Speak for the Voice of Wilderness”
12/08/19 Amanda Harris, “Real and Imagined Immigrants”
12/29/19 “Wisdom in the Hands” Sunday Services Committee
01/12/20 Jim Verschueren, “Persistence as a Spiritual Value”
02/09/20 Marianne Jackson, “Anything Can Happen”
03/01/20 Rev. Emily Burr, “Faith and Works”
05/03/20 “The Path of Gratitude”
05/31/20 “Pandemic as Portal”

Program Year 2018-2019
07/15/18 Andy Izenson and Cal Trumann, “Pray for the Dead and Fight Like Hell for the Living: Bringing Ancestral Healing to the Struggle”
08/12/18 Jackson Gillman, “Songs & Stories for a Small Planet”
09/02/18 Charlot Lucien, “We Share More Values and Aspirations Than Eyes Can See”
09/23/18 Rev. Marshall Davis, “What We Can Learn From The New Atheism”
10/21/18 Bonnie Hurd Smith, “What We Were Born to Do and How Shall We Do It”
10/28/18 Rev. Dr. Wendy von Courter, “We Just Disagree: How to Get Along When We Don’t Agree”
11/18/18 Henry Katzman, “Extreme Circumstances and Morality, Thoughts from the Imperfect”
12/16/18 Cheryl Suchors, “Finding Home in the Wilds”
12/30/18 UUFES Member Roderick Forsman, “Remembering and Anticipating: Two Faces of Time”
01/13/19 Regi Carpenter, “Recovery, One Step at a Time”
01/27/19 Donna San Antonio, “Becoming a White Ally: Stories of Mentoring Toward Social Justice”
03/17/19 UUFES Members Kathy Burnell, Ingrid Albee & Barbara Lubin, “In the Flow”
04/14/19 Gary Strichartz, “The Marriage of Reason and Faith”
05/05/2019 Richard Posner, “We Pilgrims, Through the Ages”
06/02/19 Milbre Burch, “Stories at the Border”
06/09/2019 “Gently into the Morning” – Presented by the Sunday Services Committee
06/23/2019 Susan Bruce, “Speaking Up and Taking Action”

Program Year 2017-2018

07/09/17 Mikhail Horowitz and Gilles Malkine, “’Tis a Gift To Be Complex”
07/23/17 Beryl & Vernon Domingo, “Advocating for Transgender Rights–A Family Story”
08/27/17 Arnie Alpert, “Restistance and Resilience”
09/03/17 Ernesto “Eroc” Arroyo-Montano, “Holistic Liberation: Healing Justice as Political Warfare”
10/08/17 Caya Simonsen, “Defending Water and Life: Reflections on my time in Guatemala”
10/22/17 David Paige, “Risking Honest Talk in Public Spaces”
11/05/17 Andy Davis, “Surfing in La Libertad”
01/21/18 James Verschueren, “A Humanist Considers the Holy”
01/28/18 Julie Lanoie, “The Inheritance of What We Hold”
02/18/18 The Monday Book Group, “Reflections on Waking Up White by Debby Irving”
03/18/18 “The Cosmic Maple”
04/08/18 Chris Crass, “Renewal and Revival for Collective Liberation”
04/22/18 Rod Forsman, “Celebration of Earth Day 2018”
05/06/18 Andy Davis. “White Sands to Black Lives: A Reflection on Rage, Privilege and the Possibility of Redemption”
05/27/18 Marianne Jackson. “Expecting the Unexpected”
06/24/18 Magdalena Garcia Domingo, “Indigenous Education in Guatemala”

Program Year 2016-2017
06/26/16 Roberta Barry of NH PFLAG (Parents and Friends of LGBTQ People)
08/14/16 M’Ellen Kennedy, UU and Sufi minister speaking about her love of Islam
09/04/16 Greg Greenway, folk singer and civil rights activist
11/06/16 Ray Stineford, member of North Sandwich Society of Friends
11/27/16 James Verschueren, member of South Church UU in Portsmouth
01/08/17 Aaron Jafferis, hip hop singer, poet, ARTS Tamworth artist in residence
02/05/17 Douglas Rooks, journalist and author
03/05/17 Dr. Gary Strichartz, chaplain and medical school teacher, researcher
03/26/17 Peter Stevens, writer and architect
05/07/17 Maggie Fogarty, Co-Director of NH Program of AFSC
05/14/17 Eva Castillo, Director of NH Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees
06/11/17 “Ravens v. Chickens . . . Birds v. Farmers?” Lay Worship Leader Margaret Rieser(/span>
06/25/17 “Encountering Paul Tillich” Professor Robert Dole, Guest Speaker

Links to written copies of their messages are highlighted above, when provided by the speaker.