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| MINISTERS |
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| Gary Smith, Senior Minister |
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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:
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| Jenny Rankin, Minister |
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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:
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| Margie King Saphier, Associate Minister for Pastoral Care |
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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:
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| Becky Blodgett, Affiliate Minister for Pastoral Care |
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CONTACT:
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STAFF
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| Pamela D. Howell, Director of Religious Education |
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Pam Howell has been the Director of Religious Education since 2005. She and her family have been members of First Parish for 8 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 the last 19 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:
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| Beth Norton, Director of Music |
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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 is an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network, the professional organization for UU musicians.
CONTACT:
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| Mary-Wren vanderWilden, Youth Director |
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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:
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| Mary Elizabeth Wheeler, Wright Tavern Director |
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Mary Elizabeth is an improvisational vocal and performance artist, songwriter, song leader, and teacher with 23 years’ experience in Authentic VoiceWork. She was co-creator of the SpiritSong process, the SpiritSong Institute and the “Mystic Soul” CD, and is creator of Indigo River, an organization dedicated to bringing the authentic voice to life. She has taught locally and nationally at Interface, Omega Institute, New York Open Center, Paul Winter's Living Music Village, Art & Soul, Cambridge, MA and Art & Soul, Nashville, TN. Mary Elizabeth conducts a private practice in Cambridge, where she offers sessions for individuals and couples in authentic voice and spiritual awareness. She has studied meditation for many years, and has a profound interest in spiritual teachings and their purpose, practice and benefits. Before joining the First Parish staff in September, 2006, she co-led the Wright Tavern River Blessing Ceremony at RiverFest in Concord for five years. Mary Elizabeth is committed to creating quality programs to serve the ever-evolving and deepening spiritual needs of the First Parish community, and reaching beyond Concord to build relationships with the surrounding communities.
CONTACT:
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| Jane Barnes, Religious Education Administrator |
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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.
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| Carol Duane, Toddler/Preschool Coordinator |
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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:
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Caroline McCloy, Membership Director |
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Caroline McCloy has been a member of First Parish for 21 years. She is committed to bringing the message of Unitarian Universalism beyond the doors of First Parish.
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| Dan Holin, Executive Director, Jericho Road Project |
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Following his parents’ divorce at an early age, Dan began what is now a life long commute between Israel and the United States. This commute was not easy, with many tolls and now the high price of gas. Nevertheless, Dan persisted, and managed to get a BA from Bowdoin College, hold on to a few jobs in the arts and mechanics, marry and have two kids. One day in 2002, Dan, an unemployed Jew, was handed the Jericho Road directorship job opening by a friendly UU neighbor. Desperate, but seeing a job that could help him get paid to bring his disparate worlds together again, Dan applied for the job and entered a church for the first time. He may now be found there, bridging Concord and Lowell and having the time of his life.
CONTACT:
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| Leslie Koplow, Asst. to Executive Director, Jericho Road |
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Leslie graduated from Vassar College( B.A. English) and SUNY-Binghamton(M.A. English) many years ago, before derailment into a career in information technology. She worked for 14 years in various IT roles as a Unix systems administrator, systems integration consultant, program manager and Director of Information Systems until 2002, when her interests turned to non-profit work. Most recently employed at Harbinger Partners, a non-profit specializing in strategic technology planning and volunteer matching for Boston area non-profits, Leslie joined Jericho Road this past summer, and is delighted to be working locally at Jericho Road with fellow Concord and Lowell citizens.
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| Jane Johnson, Office Manager |
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Jane has been a resident of Concord for about 25 years, and was previously an administrative secretary for Concord Public Schools. She has been at First Parish for seven years. She has three children and two granddaughters, and loves to spend time with her family.
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| Peggy Gallo, Collector & Financial Secretary |
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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.
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| Douglas Baker, Sexton & Curator |
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| Eric Huenneke, Organist |
| Martha Goodman, Handbell Choir Director |
| Anderson Manuel, Gospel Choir Director |
| Gail Carey, Children's Choir Director |
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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:
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