“Blown away by JD’s Seven Candles presentation
tonight at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury!
I would highly recommend him to DREs looking for Neighboring Faiths content AND to ANYONE seeking to broaden their view of our world!
My personal feelings about spirituality have certainly been expanded thanks to JD!”
~Darlene Anderson-Alexander, DRE, UUCD Danbury, CT
Click here for a list of service topics.
JD Stillwater is a UU Lay Speaker
JD Stillwater is a past President and Trustee of the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg (UCH); frequent speaker and preacher at UCH and other UU congregations in the region and around the country; active in UCH music ministry; Transition Team; father of UU Minister and Navy Officer Robin Stillwater. As President of UCH, JD shepherded the congregation through the process of purchasing a second campus in inner-city Harrisburg.
A veteran science educator (24 years), JD speaks on topics of science, spirituality, and cultural change. JD is listed at the UUA’s Guest In Your Pulpit site, and his work is encouraged and supported by UU living legends Michael Dowd, Connie Barlow, Peter Mayer, and Jim Scott. Below is a list of past UU hosts.
Is it a talk, a sermon, or a lecture?
Every experienced UU worship leader knows that there’s no difference between a great UU sermon and an engaging and heartfelt talk—both have “soul” and both take diverse audiences to someplace new, someplace inspiring. All JD’s talks and workshops are designed to do this, not in a preachy “sermonizing” way, but as a passionate sharing from the heart, enriched by science, filled with personal stories and reflections that invite the audience in.
In a UU context, they are sermons. Anywhere else, they are “talks”; “sermon” is still a loaded term, especially for refugees from traumatic traditional church experiences. [new word—Traugmatic: when dogma hurts]
To see what JD offers churches, the Talks and Workshops page is the right place. Just keep in mind that except for the flagship workshops, all the other offerings were first created as 20-minute sermons, embedded in one-hour UU services. They still are, and they have been expanded into deeply-involving personal growth workshops and RE offerings for youth and adults.
For leading a service, JD asks $300, but will accept your usual honorarium. He never wants limited budgets to prevent a connection; we’ll make it work.
For workshops and RE presentations/discussions, there are lots of options for compensation.
The info page for hosts.
Past UU venues:
Those gorgeous cast-bronze chalices you see at so many UU gatherings were created by beloved old friend Mordecai Roth who, with me and dozens of others spent 1986 walking from Los Angeles to Washington DC, on The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament.
Mordecai was already retired; I was a naive young man.
To me, Mordecai was a friend, mentor, and emergency dentist. He and his loving spouse Lenore still serve as role models for Ann and me. I miss them.
Seeing Mordecai’s chalices in UU gathering places all around the country always brings both joy and tears. A UU World article about Mordecai.
[If you’d like one of Mordecai’s bronze chalices, his son and granddaughter have a few still available. Call or email Danielle Byerley for more information.]
