Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/05/2021
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Lovers of life and our Mother Earth, welcome to fall. All of you are invited to Starr King School for the Ministry’s hybrid, 1st Tuesday of the month, multi-faith chapel service. We will gather on Zoom and in person at the Mills College Chapel.
Yes, we SHALL gather face to face AND accommodate social distancing by limiting the number of people in the Chapel to 25. To be on campus and in the Chapel, you MUST be fully vaccinated and wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth. When outside, if you are less than 6 feet from another person you MUST wear a mask. There will be greeters at the entrance to the Chapel to welcome you and to share this information, offering masks, and counting people as they enter.
We continue to explore our monthly theme of PLACE. Please scroll down to see the pictures and bios of the seminarians and our guest musician The Rev. Maddie Sifantus, who co-created this service just for YOU! Our morning homily, entitled “Rooted in the Eternal” will be offered by Doctoral Candidate – Ashley Smiley.
In this service you can sing and be silent; laugh and cry, pray and meditate and experience companionship. Come let us be together in the turning of the season, amid joy and woe.
Reverend Maddie Sifantus
Rev. Sifantus, has served the
Universalist Unitarian Church of Santa Paula in Ventura County since January 1, 2015. She moved West to be settled in a congregation to be near her son Nigel and family who live in Los Angeles.
Prior to their move to Santa Paula, Rev. Sifantus, served two small formerly Universalist congregations in Massachusetts as Parish Minister. She was the long-time Affiliate Community Minister at the First Parish in Wayland and is the Founder/Director Emerita of the Golden Tones, a sixty-member elder chorus which she led for twenty years. Maddie was Adjunct Faculty at Andover Newton Theological School, advising the Unitarian Universalist seminarians and teaching courses and workshops in Community Ministry. She served the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations by sitting on the Ministerial Fellowship Committee (MFC) for a full 8-year term.
In addition, Maddie is a life-long Professional Singer and Founder of TVS (The Vocal Section) with whom she still performs and records when she is back East, as time is available. Her work has appeared on the soundtracks of movies such as Dick Tracy and The Secret of Roan Inish, as well as numerous recordings for other artists. Maddie has performed with many other performers and groups over the years, sings at Weddings, Memorial Service and in Concert, performing music from classical to rock.
Ashley Smiley
Ashley Smiley, PhD Candidate, Historic
and Cultural Studies in Religion with a concentration in Art and Religion – GTU
Ashley Smiley, better known as Smiley, is a native AfroFranciscan with deep roots in the Performing Arts and Technical Production communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently, Smiley wears many hats including Program Manager for the Bayview Opera House in SF, co-curator of the Life is Living Rooted in Resilience Stage, inaugural member of the JANGA’S House collective and playwright/collaborator with the Campo Santo Performance Collective. Currently, Smiley is in pre-production for her first episodic film Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad set to film in the Winter of 2021.
Larkin Flora
Larkin is a third year divinity student
at Starr King pursuing interfaith chaplaincy, with a focus on accompanying children and families. They live near the Salish Sea on Duwamish and Suquamish land with their partner, where they enjoy exploring the tidelands and forests rain or shine. Larkin serves as technical support for monthly chapel and she is honored to support her co-creators by being a point of grounded presence as we navigate these shifting times.
Ron Ahnen
Ron Ahnen is a second year Starr King
student pursuing an MDiv degree. He teaches courses in the Politics Department at Saint Mary’s College in the area of Latin American politics, human rights, international ethics, and the politics of mass incarceration. He lives with his wife and three children in the East Bay of San Francisco and is a member of Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church (MDUUC).
