July 1st, 2018

Amanda Aikman

The Rev. Amanda Aikman served OUUF from 2001 to 2005 as our Consulting Minister. Amanda retired in Spring, 2016 after 23 years in UU parish ministry. She lives in Everett; Amanda has won over a dozen national sermon contests. She is a playwright and a spiritual director.

July 8th, 2018

George Lindmoore

Stalking the Inscrutable Equanimoose: The Buddhist Ideal of  Equanimity. 

Honored as one of the Four Divine Abidings of Buddhism, the practice of equanimity is very liberating, but it is often misunderstood. Using the ideas of several notable Buddhist teachers, George will present a consensus view of what equanimity really is and how to attain it, ending with a summary of what recent scientific research has discovered.

Who Is George?

In his youth, he aspired to become a mathematics professor, but by the time he had completed all his doctoral work except the dissertation, George had been seduced by computers. After a 42-year career in Information Technology, he enrolled at the Emerson Theological Institute, where he was ordained as a New Thought minister in 2006 and earned a doctorate in religious studies in 2011. His primary interest is world religions, which began when he was an undergraduate student in the 1950s, and he is also an accomplished musician (keyboards and trumpet; classical, sacred, and jazz). His appreciation of other religions and cultures has been intensified by lecture tours and periods of work and study in China, England, India, Japan, and Thailand.

George grew up in Marietta, OH, and his wife Annette in Woodsboro, MD. They moved to Sequim in 1995. Between them they have three children, eight grandchildren, four granddogs, and three grandcats, spread among Alaska, California, Minnesota, and Utah.

July 15th, 2018

Bridget Laflin

Bridget Laflin is a seminary student at Seattle University pursuing her Master of Divinity degree.  She lives in Shoreline, WA with her husband and two children.  She enjoys hanging out with friends, playing board games, and performing with her comedy improv troupe.  After she completes her education, she plans to become a Unitarian Universalist minister.

July 22nd, 2018

Joseph Bednarik

Title:  Religious Rodeo: Bull Whips, Throwing Stars, and a Volunteer from the Audience

Description:  The traveling showman was larger than life: A world-record knife thrower, a Vietnam vet with a wooden leg, and fresh from a weekend at the legendary Gerry Rodeo. This summer evening, he and his wife were saving souls under a vast billowing tent in rural New York. Three UUs sat in the front row and raised their hands when he beckoned, “Are there any volunteers in the audience?”

Joseph Bednarik serves as the Pulpit Assistant at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Port Townsend, Washington. He studied philosophy at Haverford College, and has worked in literary publishing for over twenty years. He is currently the Co-Publisher of Copper Canyon Press, a nonprofit dedicated to poetry.

July 29th, 2018

Joe Rettenmaier