Speakers

Rev. Alicia Leslie, Interim Minister

October and November 2020

Reverend Alicia was ordained as a Unity minister in 1992. She served churches in Indiana, Virginia, and Texas, and pioneered a church in Connecticut. In 2012, she retired from pulpit ministry and moved her ministry online. In addition to her online ministry, Rev. Alicia shares the Unity principles through writing. She has written two novels, "Sour Grapes on Silver Platters," and "The Secret of Sweetwater Stream," and a nonfiction book, "Rise of the False Gods."  She also enjoys writing campfire stories which she shares around campfires at the campground her sister and brother-in-law own. 

Our Spiritual Leader:

Rev. Carolyn Swift Jones

Reverend Carolyn Swift Jones, our Spiritual Leader, is an ordained minister with The United Metaphysical Churches, a spiritual organization that shares the same theological principles that the Unity Church holds dear. Reverend Carolyn is also a professional Spiritual Counselor, a practice she has been involved with for over thirty years working with many people around the globe to help bring them into closer resonance with their Higher Selves. Believing fully in the words of the Great Master Teacher Jesus when he referred to our ability to do the things that he did, she facilitates a meditational group called "Many Hands Make Light Work", the focus of which is healing for our sweet planet earth. She is thrilled to be the Spiritual Leader of Unity in the Foothills and beholds the Christ in each and every dear soul of our loving and growing community. Reverend Carolyn is on sabbatical October and November, 2020 in order to further her Unity studies.  We look forward to her return on Sunday, December 6, 2020!

Guest Speakers:

Deacon Samantha Dennison

As a seeker of truth, Samantha is passionate about helping others to embrace their Divinity.  Always compelled to write, teach and counsel others allows her to share her personal healing with the knowing that if we want to heal our world, we must first heal ourselves.  Creativity, patience and compassion are some of the energies that will be ignited as we walk together in love & light while affirming the best & highest good for ALL.  Samantha is a devoted member of Unity in the Foothills, currently serving as an Advisor to the Board of Trustees after many years of sitting on the Board as Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer.  She is active in many other areas of the Peace Center such as the Healing Ministry, the  bookstore,  and the  Fundraising Committee.  Actively pursuing Spiritual Truth and ongoing healing, Samantha is enrolled at the United Metaphysical Church Seminary in Roanoke, VA and is in the Ministerial program.  As a Certified Reflexologist, Reiki Master/Teacher and Angelic Liason, Samantha's Healing Ministry ripples far beyond Sunday services.   Currently residing in Winsted along with her beloved feline, Lynx, allows her to remain close to her family.  Her passion and purpose revolve around spending time with her amazing children, Michael & Sabrina and her beloved grandbabies – Zoe, Liam, Nathan, & Madison. 

Deacon Weechie Baker

Deacon Sharnetta "Weechie" Baker, is a self proclaimed metaphysical evangelist and dedicated mother. She holds an MA in Professional Mental Health Counseling, and is an adjunct professor of Sociology & Human Services at Post University.  She is a seminary student with the United Metaphysical Churches.  Weechie is a certified healer in the Schonhardt Integrative Healing Method, a spiritual counselor, medium and tarot consultant. She is currently establishing her healing ministry, in hopes to use her spiritual gifts, abilities and personal experiences, to assist others in fulfilling their destinies, as she fulfills hers. Born and bred in South Carolina Weechie prides herself in being a "country girl" and hopes she is making her ancestors proud. Deacon Weechie is a friend and former classmate of our beloved Rev. Carolyn Swift Jones and "loves Unity principles."

David Young

David Young is an award winning abstract artist, author and musician well known for playing two renaissance flutes in harmony. He’s recorded 60 albums and sold over one million copies. David's music, revered for its soothing sounds and healing properties, is a staple in hospitals, healing centers and spas throughout the country. 

Charley Thweatt

Charley Thweatt brings his gifts of warmth, humor, presence and ease to any gathering. He has been a favorite with Unity groups since the early '80s, when he took a leap of faith from his budding architecture career into touring full time with his spiritual concerts, talks and workshops. Charley has a talent for turning a room full of strangers into connected family, by sharing his original music, his angelic voice and his insightful workshops. He has been a presenter for spiritual organizations and metaphysical conferences for 38 years, throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Fiji and Japan.

Rev. Brian Vaugh

Rev. Brian is a Buddhist Monk from the New International Buddhist Temple and meditation Center in New Hartford, CT.  He has been a Spiritual Leader for 50 years.  He has served as a Hospital and Prison Chaplain.  As a Hospital Chaplain, he provided spiritual guidance for both hospital staff and hospital patients.  However, being a grandfather to 7 and 3/4 grandchildren is the most rewarding job he has ever had.

 In his spare time he likes to teach folks about meditation.

Greg Tamblyn

Greg Tamblyn, NCW (No Credentials Whatsoever), has been a successful singer, songwriter, speaker, and humorist for over 20 years. He combines outstanding audience rapport with an irreverent sense of humor, and has a special interest in the relationship of music, laughter, and lifestyle to physical and emotional well-being. Greg's humorous musings on cultural absurdities, as well as his messages of effectiveness, optimism, and service, have garnered him a large international following.

Ed Foote

Rev. Ed Townley

Rev. Ed Townley, ordained as a Unity minister in 1991, has served Unity centers in Beaverton OR, Chicago, Dallas and Hartford.  Rev. Ed is known widely for his enthusiastic metaphysical interpretations of the Bible, and his understanding of the Hero’s Journey as a roadmap for our own individual spiritual unfoldment. His most recent book, Kingdom Come:  A Guide to the Book of Revelation was published by Unity Books. He is also the author of The Secret according to Jesus, a meditative guide to the Sermon on the Mount, and is a contributor to many Unity publications. 

Rev. Robert Werme

Rev. Robert is an ordained UCC or United Church of Christ (Congregational) Minister, a multi-instrumental musician and singer, and an experienced workshop and drum circle facilitator.  He has shared his music and other gifts with Unity in the Foothills since soon after Rev. Bonny Gilbert Ashe and Christopher Ashe began this Spiritual Center.  

Rev. Laura MacLachlan

Reverend Laura MacLachlan is the pastor and president of First Spiritual Church of Bay City in Michigan.  Away from church work, she has been an Instructor and trainer for hunters, jumpers, combined training and hunter seat equitation horses and riders for 48 years.  She and her husband, Roger Schlack, live on a farm in Dryden, MI where they bred, raised and showed Percheron horses for many years, ending in 2013.

Robin Clare

Robin Clare is the creator of the Divine Freedom Formula™, a three-tier approach to fulfilling you Soul Mission across your personal, professional and community life.  Robin is an experienced corporate MBA, non-profit administrator and holistic entrepreneur.  She is an advanced Akashic Record reader and a certified 13th Octave La Ho Chi energy healing practitioner. Robin is the proud author of Messiah Within, The Divine Keys and the upcoming book, Feast & Famine. www.clare-ity.com.

Dr. Jon Mundy

Dr. Jon Mundy is an author, lecturer, the publisher of Miracles Magazine. He taught courses in Philosophy and Religion from 1967 to 2008 at the New School University and at the State University of New York with specialization in the History of Mysticism. Jon is the author of 10 books, including: Living A Course in Miracles, What is Mysticism?, Missouri Mystic, Awaken to Your Own Call, Listening to Your Inner Guide & Lesson 101: Perfect Happiness & Eternal Life and A Course in Miracles & A Course in Mysicism and Miracles. Jon met Dr. Helen Schucman the scribe of A Course in Miracles in 1973. Helen introduced Jon to the Course and served as his counselor until she became ill in 1980. He also appears on occasion as Dr. Baba Jon Mundane, a standup philosopher comedian.

Shannon Plummer & Bob Sima

In 2013, Shannon Plummer and Bob Sima left behind their fast-track, high-octane day jobs. Shannon worked in counter-terrorism and Bob was in corporate sales. They began to travel the country full-time spreading their powerful medicine - in the form of music, message, and experiences - to a world that is thirsty for meaning, purpose, and peace. Bob is an award-winning singer-songwriter, spiritual teacher, and musical mystic who has been called “Eckhart Tolle with a guitar”. With no musical training, he has creatively channeled 8 award winning albums and built a national following. The music that comes through him will vibrate with your spirit exactly where you are. Shannon is a shamanic practitioner, intentional creation coach, artist, and singer. Shannon is an instrument - an engaged observer to the story of your life. She will guide you to and through the blind spots. Together they amplify each other’s gifts into a divine combination that will lead the soul to truth and peace. They lead life-changing experiential workshops, music meditations, weekend retreats, and powerful concert experiences. 

Christopher Lee Hogan

Christopher Lee Hogan is a speaker, coach and trainer whose mission is help people achieve powerful results in their life, work or business through coaching. If you want to learn more about Christopher, you can visit his website at christopherleehogan.com

After spending 14 years in a variety of leadership and consulting positions in a large national non-profit, Christopher ran a successful non-profit consulting firm for 6 years called Hogan Consulting. During that period of running his own business, Christopher made a decision to follow his dream to become a coach and speaker, which he’s done for the past 10 years. Christopher is a Certified Executive Coach and Life Coach and has a Master Degree in Social Work from Boston College. Christopher considers his most important role in life, however, to be a loving husband to wife Karla, and father to two children Isabella (15) and Nico (9). He’s also a member of Unity of Central Massachusetts.

Barbara Schafer, APRN, BSN, MSN, RMT, Licensed Unity Teacher

Barbara Schafer is a graduate of the Unity School of Christianity, Unity Village, MO.  She became a Licensed Unity Teacher in 1994.  She has taught at the Unity of Bridgeport Church (8 years), the Unity of Greater Hartford Church (10 years) and the Unity in the Foothills Church (12 years) in Torrington, CT where  she has led book study groups on Thursday afternoons, taught Unity Basics and New Member Orientation, Faith in Action classes and co-teaches many classes with Rev. Carolyn Swift.  She is a Platform Leader, Prayer Chaplain, Healer volunteer and Spiritual Advisor to our Board of Trustees. 

 

Barbara graduated from St. Joseph’s Hospital, Reading, PA, received a BS in Nursing from Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA and a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh in 1964.  She is retired from a 50 year career as a psychotherapist, educator and administrator in the field of psychiatric nursing.  Barbara is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) and a Reiki Master Teacher since 1996.  She teaches Reiki at the Osher Lifelong Learning Center at the University of Connecticut in Waterbury and has created 29 Reiki Masters.  Barbara lives in Naugatuck. She is blessed to have a daughter, a son, and three beautiful grandchildren.  

 

Deacon Arthur L. Miller

Deacon, author, radio, and former television host, Viet Nam era veteran and veteran civil rights worker. Deacon Miller is the retired owner and president of A. Miller investments. Miller was ordained for the Archdiocese of Hartford in 2004. He recently retired as the director of the Office for Black Catholic Ministries. Besides his assigned parish, he is the Chaplin at Hartford’s Capital Community College and Adjunct faculty for Holy Family Retreat Center in West Hartford and Our Lady of Calvary Retreat Center in Farmington, CT.

Deacon Miller was arrested and jailed during the summer of 1963 as he sat in silent protest over the sustained use of racial bigotry to separate black Americans from the imbued rights of all Americans. Continuing the struggle for those oppressed he was arrested in October of 2015 in protest against the same racial injustices that continue to sully the dignity of America. A nationally known preacher of God’s Holy Scripture, he has traveled throughout the country raising the need of conversion to “Radical Love”. The kind of self-denying love that can only be accomplished through the grace and power offered to us through Jesus Christ. Deacon Miller has preached throughout the United States, from New England to the Katrina ravaged gulf coast of Mississippi, from the Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico and Colorado, and the broad plains of Kansas, to the south side of Chicago, and the borough of Brooklyn in New York, he teaches and preaches Christ’s call to His life changing “Radical Love”. 

At public forums, houses of worship, schools and universities across the country, Deacon Miller addresses issues of social injustice. With firsthand knowledge he speaks to his audiences from the perspective of an African American who grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. Deacon Miller was 10 years old in 1955 when his schoolmate Emmett Till, age 14, was brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman—an incident that energized the nascent Civil Rights Movement. His recently released book “The Journey to Chatham”, details the historic events seen through the eyes of Emmett’s friends.

Deacon Miller is a certified trainer in Dr. King’s nonviolence philosophy as well as a Certified Spiritual Director and is a board member for Connecticut Center for Nonviolence. To this day he continues to addresses 21st-century examples of the societal tendency to embrace violence. Echoing the thoughts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he believes that as part of the great human experience, no one can sit idly tolerant of the great injustices that happen anywhere in the world.

“If God were to give us an 11th commandment,” Deacon Miller proposes, “I believe it would read: Thou shall not be a bystander.”

Rev. Toni G. Boehm

Rev. Toni G. Boehm is an inspirational and dynamic speaker, author, minister, certified organizational and life coach, nurse, poet, and known for her passionate teaching style and her expert facilitation of personal empowerment and transformational retreats and workshops. Rev. Boehm is retired from everyday corporate life and is in sacred service to the expansion of conscious awareness of spiritual teachings, and quantum-spirituality.
     Rev. Boehm serves as adjunct faculty at Unity Institute, Unity Village, MO and is certified as an organizational and life coach (I.C.F.), Peace-Maker and Transitional Consultant, as well as a coach for Spiritual Intelligence.
     Teaching internationally, Rev. Boehm facilitates classes and seminars on self-empowerment and transformation, prosperity, leadership skill development, and Transformation Coaching©, introducing students to the knowledge and skills necessary for living their lives from their highest innate potential. Her life work and mission is:
“I am a midwife for the birthing of the soul’s remembrance.” 
     Rev. Boehm holds a Bachelor of Arts in Health Care Education, Masters of Science in Nursing, Ph. D. in Religious Studies, and is an ordained minister (1989) and a Family Nurse Practitioner.  She is the author of numerous articles and many books.