Ministers & Staff
Ministers
Gary Smith, Senior Minister
A native of Maine, Gary came to Concord in 1988 after serving congregations in Middletown, Connecticut and Bangor, Maine, as well as a stint at our Unitarian Universalist Association headquarters in Boston. He has been President of the national Ministers Association and is currently teaching a seminar in Preaching at Harvard Divinity School. Gary and Eliz have two children: Jonathan, who teaches fourth grade at Willard School, and Hannah, who is the best darned web designer anywhere.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Jenny Rankin, Minister
Jenny was born in Boston and grew up attending King's Chapel, a Unitarian Universalist church in the heart of Boston. After graduating from Princeton University, she spent time living and working in Paris before returning to the U.S. to do community organizing and peace work. She received her MDiv from Harvard Divinity School in 1988 and served in several interim ministries, including the chaplaincy at Tufts University and congregations in Hingham, Hopedale and Cohasset. Jenny was called to First Parish in Concord in 1997. She loves the vitality and diversity of the people at First Parish in Concord as well as its rich history and transcendental past. She helped Jericho Road get off the ground and has an enduring interest in "social entrepreneurship," a field where social justice and business come together. Jenny serves the wider UU movement as a board member for the UU Pension Society, the UU Society for Ministerial Relief, and the President's Roundtable in metrowest Boston. She and her husband Rich live in Concord and are the parents of three children. Jenny enjoys gardening, reading, country music, classical music, the ocean, sewing, writing and having fun with family and friends (in no particular order).
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Margie King Saphier, Associate Minister for Pastoral Care
Margie grew up in Brooklyn, NY and in Haddon Township, NJ. (outside of Philadelphia). She graduated with honors from Andover Newton Theological School in 2000 and was ordained by her home church, First Religious Society of Carlisle. For the next six years Margie served as affiliate minister offering pastoral care, preaching, and religious education at United First Parish Church in Quincy, MA; while she simultaneously pursued her community ministries as chaplain at Hospice Care of Rhode Island for one year and at Emerson Hospital Hospice for 4 years. Margie also studied “Being With Dying” with Roshi Joan Halifax at the Upaya Zen Center, Santa Fe, NM. On a volunteer basis since 2002 Margie has served on the Board of Directors of Partakers, Inc, a non-profit multi-faith organization that recruits congregations to sponsor prisoners in the College Behind Bars Program. She has also taught classes on spiritual/emotional awareness at Shirley prison and at Billerica House of Correction, and Alternatives to Violence at Concord MCI and at “The Farm.”Throughout her professional life, Margie has been committed to those who are disenfranchised, helping them to "find their voice" as they struggle to meet their needs. This was true in the late 1960's, when she was a public health nurse in Schenectady, NY; as well as when she was a pediatric nurse practitioner in Boston, MA in the 1970's. For fifteen years, as editor of the Children In Hospitals Newsletter, she advocated for the needs of families when their children were hospitalized. Margie is presently a student at the Shalem Institute of Spiritual Formation and offers spiritual direction. As a spiritual director she brings the lessons of the dying to the living and serves as a midwife to the birthing of the true self. Her multi-ministries have her affirmed her faith in the transformative power of compassion.
Margie and her husband, Jon, have been married for 35 years and have lived in Carlisle for 24 years. They have four adult children and one granddaughter.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Becky Blodgett, Affiliate Minister for Pastoral Care
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Staff
Pamela D. Howell, Director of Religious Education
Pam Howell has been the Director of Religious Education since 2005. She and her family have been members of First Parish for 9 years. Pam grew up in Massachusetts, went to school in Boston and is happy to be raising her children in the land of the sox. Pam has been working with children for over 20 years. She has taught in all three of Concord’s elementary schools and has been active in coaching town soccer. Pam loves kids. She is committed to helping them know they have a spiritual home and a caring community at First Parish.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Beth Norton, Director of Music
Beth Norton has been Music Director at First Parish since 1994. Beth believes in the power of music to express what is beyond words, to deepen our spiritual experience and to build community. As a singer, conductor, violinist and folk musician, Beth enjoys making music in a wide variety of styles with people of all ages and abilities. She received her BA in Music from Smith College and her MM in Choral Conducting from the Hartt School of Music. Beth has served as the president of the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network, the professional organization for UU musicians and remains an active member.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Mary-Wren vanderWilden, Youth Director
Mary-Wren vanderWilden loves working with young people. Before she was Youth Director at First Parish she taught math and social studies to middle and high school students and coached tennis and soccer. When she is not working with youth she is busy raising her 3 boys with her husband, Philip. In her free time she enjoys reading (especially historical fiction), gardening playing sports and piano. Mary-Wren grew up in Santa Barbara, California, but after 12 years in New England she is happy to call Concord her home.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Cassy Bosworth, Assistant to the Ministers
Cassy graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a BA in psychology. After college she moved to Seattle, Washington, where she met her husband Greg. They returned to Massachusetts to be with family and raise their daughters, Ellie and Grace. Cassy has enjoyed many years of volunteer and part-time work. Aside from time with her family, Cassy loves to bike-ride, bake and read books.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Jane Barnes, Religious Education Administrator
Jane and her family have been members of First Parish since 2002. After 10+ years in financial services she is pleased to have transitioned to religious education here at First Parish. Jane enjoys playing sports with her sons, volunteering in the school, reading good books and making music with her family.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Carol Duane, Toddler/Preschool Coordinator
Carol’s love of children brought her to work with the youngest members of First Parish in 2003. She has a B.A. in psychology from U. Mass and an M.S. in Family Studies from Wheelock College, and has worked extensively with families for more than a decade with a dual focus on young children and parents. Her experience has included being an infant-toddler teacher at Nagog Children’s Center, and a parent educator at First Connections (in Concord) and Families First Parenting Programs.
Carol lives in Chelmsford with her husband where she likes to do arts and crafts – especially decorative painting and interior design. Gardening and composting keeps her busy in the warmer months. Carol is the proud mother of a thriving grown son and is looking forward to (hopefully) becoming a grandmother in the future.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Jane Foley, Membership Director
Jane comes to First Parish excited about the opportunity to enhance and grow the membership connection within First Parish, as well as in the surrounding communities. A longtime UU, she is an active member of the Melrose UU Church, where she just completed a four-year term on the board of directors. In 2007, Jane attended the Northeast Leadership School, a week-long training program in religious stewardship for the benefit of our Unitarian Universalist congregations. Jane, her husband Chuck, and their six-year-old daughter Julia reside in Melrose.
Contact: : This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Dan Holin, Executive Director, Jericho Road Project
Dan was hired in January 2003 and has served as a catalyst for the success of the Jericho Road Project to date. As Executive Director he works directly with the JRP Board and staff to manage and network existing sites and identify and launch new Jericho sites.
Dan came to JRP with 13 years of experience working as a coalition builder and project developer with communities, funders, government agencies and organizations both in the U.S. and overseas.
In 2001 he served as the Project Start Director for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and prior to that worked as the Director of the Department of International Cultural Affairs in Israel's Ministry of Culture, Science and Sport.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Leslie Koplow, Asst. to Executive Director, Jericho Road
Leslie joined Jericho Road in July 2005. She worked for 14 years in various IT roles as a Unix systems administrator, systems integration consultant, program manager and Director of Information Systems. In addition to her IT expertise, Leslie has a significant financial background in budgeting and asset management. Leslie has successfully balanced the JRP budget during each year of her tenure, during which time the budget has quadrupled in size.
Prior to Jericho Road, Leslie worked at Harbinger Partners (now Common Impact), a nonprofit specializing in strategic technology planning and volunteer matching for Boston area nonprofits, and was a Jericho Road volunteer before joining the staff. Leslie holds a B.A. degree from Vassar College and an M.A. degree from SUNY-Binghamton.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Jane Johnson, Office Manager
Jane has been a resident of Concord for about 30 years, and was previously an administrative secretary for Concord Public Schools. She has been at First Parish for nine years. She has three children and two granddaughters, and loves to spend time with her family.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Peggy Gallo, Collector & Financial Secretary
Peg worked at UUA Headquarters for 30 years, most of them at Beacon Press. She has been a member of First Parish since the 1960's, and upon retirement from the UUA, assumed the position of Collector and Financial Secretary at First Parish. She and her husband, Victor, a retired optometrist, have lived in Concord for 42 years.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Douglas Baker, Sexton & Curator
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Eric Huenneke, Organist
D. Eric Huenneke, a native Californian,has been organist ofFirst Parish in Concord since January 2001. He is a graduate ofthe University of California at Santa Barbara and Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he also taught and served as College Organist for Douglass College.Active as a church and concert musician for over three decades, his concertvenues have ranged from coast-to-coast in the United States. He is also a Past Dean of the Merrimack Valley Chapter of theAmerican Guild of Organists.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Anderson Manuel, Gospel Choir Director
Anderson Manuel has been a member of the First Parish music staff for seven years. This is eighth year leading our Gospel Choir. A native of Haiti, Anderson is a dad, husband and a teacher. Anderson has been singing since birth and continues to demonstrate to our youngsters the love and power of Gospel music.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Gail Carey, Children's Choir Director
Gail Carey joins First Parish this year, fall of 2008, as the new Children’s Choir Director. Within her music ministry, Gail emphasizes the role of music in helping our children to “discover their voices” within the larger church. From an early age, children are consistently invited into the safety of song circles and ultimately nurtured into worship leadership. Whether borrowing from folk, world music, gospel or our own historic UU tradition, Gail reaches to evoke the prayerful joy that comes with shared song. She has a particular passion for intergenerational song. Gail received her diploma from Interlochen Arts Academy, her BA in music therapy from Emmanuel College, and her MSW from Simmons College. She has worked as a performer, music theatre director, accompanist, music therapist and social worker. She also serves as the UU Children’s Choir Director at the Melrose Unitarian Universalist Church. She is an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network.
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it