The Universalist Society of Strafford is fortunate to have Rev. Dr. M'ellen Kennedy serving as half-time, year-round minister. She also serves part time in the summer at the Washington, Vermont Universalist Society. She was ordained in September, 2007 by both the Strafford and Washington congregations.
Ministry is a second career for M'ellen. She lived in Vermont in the 80’s, working in social services. She became convinced of the power of small groups to help individuals grow, heal and find meaning through life’s challenges, so she embarked on a self-designed PhD program at the University of Illinois to research how small groups work. Her doctoral dissertation in community psychology was on world-view transformation for members of small groups — lay-led small groups, not therapy groups. During her years in Illinois, she also served as coordinator of the Self Help Center in Champaign, Illinois and as president of the National Network of Mutual Help Centers.
M'ellen's interest in working with small groups was part of the reason that she decided to attend seminary. She received a Masters of Divinity degree in 2003 from Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. She also did about half of her class work at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. This gave her the best of both worlds — a strong UU education and a full immersion in a Christian seminary.
While in seminary M'ellen served part-time as Director of Lifespan Religious Education at All Souls, a mid-size UU Church in Kansas City. She did her internship at The Veterans’ Administration (VA) Medical Center in Kansas City. After the internship she was hired as a chaplain at the VA. Her assignments included working on the in-patient substance abuse unit, the day treatment program for dual-diagnosed patients, oncology, the ICU, and the locked psychiatric ward. She loved the work, but was distressed that so many of our veterans are homeless, drug addicted, and/or suffer from mental illness.
During her 20 years in the Midwest, M'ellen longed to return to Vermont. She finally did so in 2003 with her husband, Lance Thompson (photo, below left.) Just before returning, she co-founded the UU Small Group Ministry (SGM) Network, a non-profit dedicated to helping create healthy congregations by promoting Small Group Ministry. She served as coordinator of the SGM Network for four years, and she founded and edited the SGM Quarterly. (M'ellen still works about half-time as a community minster promoting Small Group Ministry in our denomination.)
Our Strafford congregation hired M'ellen in 2006 and ordained her shortly after that. In addition to preaching on the first and third Sundays every month, she has designed and taught Adult Religious Education classes on a variety of topics. She facilitates our "Soul and Cinema" documentary series and is leading a summer meditation group
M'ellen preaches that God is Love — she is a Universalist. She says God is too big to fit in one religion, and she is a student of the world’s religions and common wisdom. Indeed, she is a Sufi minister as well as a UU!
As part of her social justice work, for about two years M'ellen has been volunteering as the Interfaith Chaplain on Tuesday afternoon at the Vermont State Hospital (VSH) in Waterbury. The VSH is where the most severe psychiatric patients in the state are housed.
With the support of the Washington congregation, M'ellen founded an organization called PeaceBridge dedicated to cultivating friendship and understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims. On September 11, 2010, she organized an event, “Let’s Read the Qur’an Instead of Burning It.” Since then, she has preached on Islam at various congregations around New England, and is building relationships with folks at the mosques in Colchester, Vermont and Dover, New Hampshire.
M'ellen's ordination A great moment in the rebirth of our historic church
A Message from M'ellen
Dear Friends,
We live in transient times and many of us feel isolated. We long for connectedness. We have access to mountains of information, but what does it all mean? We long for meaning and coherence. As minister, I’m dedicated to building connectedness through friendship and community; to the search for meaning and coherence through spiritual growth. To this end, when I was hired by the Universalist Society of Strafford in 2006, I made a commitment to do three things and asked the congregation to make the same commitment. In a ritual of New Beginnings, we all agreed
To treat each other with respect. This includes respectful listening. When we get comfortable with folks, we often stop really attending. Learning to be present is key to an authentic relationship. And what happens when we do pay attention and hear things with which we disagree? We learn to be stretched and to keep the heart open. Spiritual growth happens, not in coercion and abrasiveness, but in an environment of respect and love.
To stay at the table. Given that we’re human beings, we will disappoint and hurt each other. It’s the reality of our imperfect nature. The only way to have authentic community is to stay at the table when these things happen. This is the work of forgiveness and reconciliation without which true community (and world peace) is not possible.
To pay attention to our spiritual lives. We live in an era when the spiritual is treated disrespectfully by some, yet spirit is the wellspring of our lives. Without due attention to this essential part of ourselves, life is an overwhelming, meaningless array of activities and obligations -- perhaps even burdensome and joyless. In our community, we affirm the importance of the spirit. For most of us, this means learning to slow down and become still. In doing this we find spiritual grounding and strength we didn’t even know we had.
It’s inspiring to witness us growing together in harmony and love as we support each other; as we challenge each other to think again, to go deeper, to align our convictions and our actions; as we root ourselves in the wisdom of the world’s religions and sacred traditions; as we share moments together in the sanctuary, out in nature, at a potluck, during a class, or in a concert; as we sing, and sit, and wait, and laugh and talk and cry together. This is the stuff of congregational life. It’s utterly ordinary … and it’s sacred. This is love in action: the Universalist message, “God is love.” You are welcome to join us.
Warmly,
M’ellen Kennedy
