2018
In December we looked ahead to Advent and Christmas with a discussion of the traditions of the history, music and traditions of Advent and Christmas. Ghislaine Miller explained the meaning of the Advent wreath and the liturgical colors. Ed Miller and BJ Chandler led the group in songs appropriate to the season, as well as a group recitation of the famous Christmas poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” also known as “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
Father Jim Chamberlain, the co-director for Education and Outreach at the WaTER Center at Oklahoma State University, Norman, Oklahoma, presented a program on the mysticism in Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the environment, Laudato Se, at our November meeting. Father Chamberlain lived in East Tennessee from 1994 to 1999, working as an environmental engineer in Knoxville and Oak Ridge. He received his doctorate in environmental engineering and earth science at Clemson University in 2011. His dissertation research explored the life cycle environmental and economic impacts of a bioenergy crop, switchgrass, in the Southeastern United States. His current research interests are the incorporation of socioeconomic impacts into a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) of water system options in emerging economies. Click here to for a link to a PDF outline of Father Jim’s presentation.
Our October program, “Paul Robeson’s Jewish Fellowship: An American-American Celebrates His Jewish Friends,” presented by Jack Love, featured recordings of the famous African-American bass singing many of his most famous songs, including “Ol’ Man River” (music by Jerome Kern; lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II) from the 1927 musical Show Boat. The presentation was based on Jack’s 2017 collaboration with the UT School of Music and Tabernacle Baptist Church in presenting a program at the historically African-American church on Robeson’s life and music and especially his renditions of Jewish songs. Jacob Love is a lecturer in Biblical Hebrew, Department of Religious Studies, University of Tennessee. He teaches the Hebrew Bible in the original language as well as topics in the literature of the early Medieval rabbis, and the history of the Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman period.
Dr. William J. “Bill” Toth spoke on “Doing Life or Being Alive: A Contemplative Approach to Everyday Stuff” at our our meeting September 8. Bill has lived in the East Tennessee area for most of his life. He was raised in Oak Ridge and went to the University of Tennessee where he met his wife, then Cathy Paulus, 35 years ago. They have three children, all grown and out of the nest. Bill and Cathy live in Oak Ridge, working directly for, and contracted to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Bill’s day job is work with global security initiatives and has traveled extensively to many parts of the world. Bill has been a member of St. John XXIII Catholic Parish, first as a student in the 1980s and, since the mid-’90s as one of the sustaining family members. He is currently supporting the music ministry at St. Mary’s Parish in Oak Ridge; the parish of his childhood. Bill and Cathy have actively supported the RCIA program for initiation of new Catholics, contributing talks on marriage, prayer, and ecumenism.
Will Pye, cancer survivor and author of Blessed With a Brain Tumor, spoke on “The Gratitude Miracle” at our August meeting. His talk discussed how the power of gratitude can shift our personal experience and also our neurological functioning. Will describes himself as a Transformational Awareness Coach, a spiritual teacher, speaker, author and social entrepreneur “lucky enough to work with great people and be born with gifts in communication and leadership such that I have created successful companies contributing to the greater good, despite my flaws.”
Our June meeting was the annual SOS Bookshare and Roundtable Discussion at which participants reported on books or other religious media that have inspired them and discuss them as a group. Those who don’t report come to listen and participate in the discussions. Click here to see a list of the books discussed.
The Rev. John Gill, pastor of Church of the Savior, spoke on “Silence and the Written Word” at our May meeting. Here’s how he described his talk:
“Beyond the everyday words of our lives, we are called to listen for the unspoken longings of our world and our hearts, and for God’s Word which still speaks in the silent depths within us and within all creation. In scripture, spiritual writing, poetry, and other forms of literature, we come across forms of the written word that both contain that silence, and awaken that silence within us. As a local church pastor and teacher, I am called to listen deeply to the words of scripture, the words alive in the world, the words within my own heart, and the silent words of the Spirit; to listen deeply in order to have something to say, some words to offer to my congregation each and every week. Through the years, this process of listening and writing has become one of my primary spiritual disciplines. In addition to talking about this weekly discipline and sharing examples of the written word that speak to me out of the depths of silence, we will take some time to practice holy listening and writing together.”
The Rev. John Gill is a graduate of Yale Divinity School with more than 25 years of experience as a pastor, teacher and community leader in Quito, Ecuador, and Knoxville. He is especially interested in fresh approaches to Christian theology, interfaith dialogue, and environmental ethics. In addition to his work at Church of the Savior, UCC, John serves in leadership positions with Interfaith Worker Justice of East Tennessee, Justice Knox, and the Alabama-Tennessee Association of the United Church of Christ.
Our April program was our annual participation in the worldwide United in Prayer day promoted by the Contemplative Outreach organization. John Prados showed a video featuring Father Thomas Keating titled “Healing our Violence: Growing in Union with God.”
Clifton R. Tennison Jr., M.D., spoke on “An Open-Monitoring Path toward Scatterings of Kindness, at our March meeting. Dr. Tennison, a mindfulness meditation educator, lecturer and trainer, is a native of Texas, transplanted 35 years ago to the mountains of East Tennessee by way of Smoky Mountain vacations since childhood and psychiatry residency training at the University of North Carolina. He studied comparative religions and the history of religions in undergraduate and graduate school at Baylor University in Waco Texas, returned to undergraduate work at the University of Texas in Arlington to complete premedical sciences, and attended Medical School at Tulane University in New Orleans.
He is now semi-retired after a 33-year career with Helen Ross McNabb Center, including service as staff psychiatrist, medical director, and vice president and chief clinical officer. His only professional work in retirement is the continuation of a 10-year experience as psychiatric consultant to University of Tennessee Sports Medicine. He stays involved in a number of community, national, and professional organizations and enjoys his role as advocate and educator. He has enjoyed teaching nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, medical students, psychiatry residents, and physicians, as well as other healthcare professionals and the general public.
Dr. Tennison has provided the notes on his talk for SOS.
Joan Rentsch Hutchison, Ph.D., professor of communication studies in the College of Communication and Information at the University at the University of Tennessee, was our presenter in February on “Learning to be: An Introduction to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.
Dr. Hutchison has completed professional training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction from Duke University Integrative Medicine and from the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Division of Preventative and Behavioral Medicine. She is the first and only certified MBSR teacher in the state of Tennessee. She earned her master’s degree and doctorate in Psychology with a specialty in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Maryland and her B.S. in Psychology from The Ohio State University. She also has served as associate dean of academic affairs and professor of management.
Our January meeting featured Paulist Father Bob O’Donnell, associate pastor of St. John XXIII University Parish and Student Center on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville, who spoke on the life and times of Father Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers order in New York in 1858. He traced the influence the 19th century Transcedentalist movement had on Father Hecker.
Father O’Donnell came to Knoxville July 1, 2016, from Berkeley, California, where he served three years as a campus minister at Holy Spirit Parish/Newman Hall. Previously, Father O’Donnell served as a campus minister at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Connecticut. He was pastor of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, the Paulists’ mother church in New York City, from 2002 to 2005, and he has served the Paulist community in various other posts, including associate director of formation, first consultor, and vice president. He holds a master’s degree in American history from the University of Connecticut and a Ph.D. in religious studies from the Catholic University of America. He is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y.