Who's Who

Rev. Anne Barker presented the 15th Confluence Lecture online in 2021, entitled A New Premise. Anne is a UU minister living in Saskatoon SK, currently working with the Capital Congregation in Victoria BC, after serving 14 years with Westwood in Edmonton AB. She is completing her term as President of the UU Ministers of Canada, which includes being 1/3 of the CUC National Voice Team, this May. She is also a partner in The Cracked Cup podcast with Liz James, working on her first non-fiction book, and co-creating an entrepreneurial ministry project with her wife Lori. In their 16th year of marriage, Anne is grateful for Lori’s love, wisdom, and support – which she says, “makes me a better minister, a happier person, and hopefully the kind of partner she deserves”. They have an abundance of beloved family, both birth and chosen, and love every minute they get to spend together. 

Anne is a graduate of Meadville Lombard Theological School, the UU seminary in Chicago. Within our broader CUC community, she has also been minister advisor to the National Lay Chaplaincy Committee, a ‘Basics’ Trainer for the Lay Chaplaincy Program, and a member of the Pastoral Care Team for Young Adults. She co-designed and co-led the first “Serving with Spirit: Nurturing UU Leaders” program, and has enjoyed participating in collaborative national services, programs, and workshops. 

Albert Dumont, Algonquin, Kitigan Zibi - Keynote speaker: Presently Albert Dumont is Ottawa's English Poet Laureate. He is serving his community on the Grandparents Counsel for Well Living House, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto. He worked as Elder for the Parole Board of Canada at Elder Assisted Hearings and was employed by Correctional Services Canada as a spiritual advisor for the Indigenous men incarcerated at Millhaven Institution’s J Unit near Kingston, ON.

He is an activist, a volunteer and a poet who has published six books of poetry and short stories and two children’s books. Albert has dedicated his life to promoting Indigenous spirituality and healing and to protecting the rights of  Indigenous Peoples, particularly those as they affect the young.

For more on Albert Dumont, including his poetry and books, please visit his website. 

Beverly Horton has been a member of the First Unitarian Church of Hamilton for 20 years. She has been active in leadership at her congregation most squarely focused on music ministry and has extended that leadership to the broader denominational context, serving as the co-chair of the Nominating Committee for AUUMM (the Association of UU Music Ministries). 

Delivering sermons and crafting services at her home congregation, speaking at the Hamilton branch of the UU United Nations Organization, facilitating workshops at CUC conferences and gatherings, and serving as co-chair of the “Dismantling Racism Study Group,” Beverly actively advocates for our individual and collective commitment to dismantling racism and achieving racial justice made manifest in the Beloved Community.  

Erin Horvath is the CUC's Social Justice lead. Erin has over 20 years of experience addressing injustices through community building, social entrepreneurship, environmental, arts-based and collaborative initiatives within the not-for-profit, private, educational, health, and community sectors, in particular with rural and First Nations communities in Northwestern Ontario. She served as a member of the Boreal Ontario working group for the Forest Stewardship Council and spent several years working as a Land Use Planner with two First Nations in Northwestern Ontario giving her unique experience with how the perspectives of colonial governments, settler environmentalists, and First Nations interact. Within her local climate justice movement and her work with the CUC she is eager to help people weave together their approaches to climate justice and right relations with Indigenous peoples in a way that is decolonizing and healing for people and the planet.   

You can read their complete bio on the CUC website. 

Camellia Jahanshahi - My name is Camellia Jahanshahi (she/her) and I’m a queer, Iranian-American woman, a multidisciplinary artist, cook, witch and religious professional. I hold a B.A. and M.A. both from Concordia University in the field of Religions and Cultures where my work centered around navigating contemporary identity politics from a faith perspective. Specifically, I look at how people of marginalized communities use faith and religion to fight against systematic oppression. I also have a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace from Cornell University and have been actively working with families and young adults for the past 10 years leading both worship and workshops alike within various Unitarian Universalist spaces, academic conferences, and nonprofit community settings. I am also the Coordinator for Rising Together, the CUC's program for youth and emerging adults of colour.   

Rev. Shana Lynngood - Rev. Shana Lynngood is a lifelong UU who has served as Co-Minister of the First Unitarian Church of Victoria since 2012. She is an ardent fan of music, poetry, and the stunning beauty of BC, art, and the sports teams from her home area of Philadelphia (not necessarily in that order). A big believer in the power and possibility of community to transform, she is deeply committed to the lifelong task of having our UU gatherings become as inclusive and welcoming as our values express.  

Carter Mahoney (he/him) I have been a UU my whole life, I just didn't know it until I join the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough's youth group in high school. My UUpbringing and edUUcation have come in the form of leadership at many youth and young adult conferences across Canada and the USA, Sunday Service Leading, and six years as a Lay Chaplain. Over the past few years, I have been the coordinator for the online national young adult conference (Chorus), the online national youth conference (CazUUm), and the in-person national youth conference last year in Vancouver (CanUUdle). I am thrilled to be wearing the hat of CanUUdle Coordinator for another year as we gather youth together from across Canada in Ottawa!  

Susanne Maziarz has been the Music Director at Neighbourhood UU Congregation in Toronto since 2007.  She conducts, arranges and composes music,  and accompanies the Spirit Choir, directs and plays bass in the Spirit Band, co-leads the monthly Singing Meditation, and hosts the monthly Talent Night.  

Susanne is originally from Hamilton, ON and has an Applied Music Diploma at Mohawk College and her B.Mus from McGill University and an MA in composition from York University. Since then, she has been active as a dance accompanist and is the assistant conductor of Common Thread Community Chorus, an 80-voice social justice choir aiming to change the world one song at a time.  In 2012, she started the Comfort Choir, which sings weekly at the bedsides of patients in the Palliative Care ward at Michael Garron Hospital in east Toronto. Her rock band, Houndbelly, performs their original songs in local clubs. 

Joseph McDonald is an Ottawa-based classical and jazz pianist/accompanist. With a Masters in Piano from the University of Ottawa, Joseph has performed for many established classical artists and pedagogues, including Jerome Lowenthal, Andre Laplante, David Jalbert, and Charles Richard-Hamelin. Joseph regularly performs solo classical recitals across Ontario and Quebec, as well as regular gigs as both a solo jazz pianist and as keyboardist in the Brant St. Trio. Joseph also works with both solo singers and choirs across Ottawa,  ON, including two choirs under his artistic direction. He continues to take on new musical challenges and endeavors, with an emphasis on live performance and original musical experiences. 

 I am Rev. Nicole McKay (she/elle) and I am honoured to be one of your ministers on-call for this symposium. I am a lover of nature and music as well as having a heart for advocacy, especially in large, complex systems. I am a parent, a partner, an educator, a runner, a knitter, and just before the symposium, I will be ordained as a minister by my home congregation, the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto.

I have served as a chaplain for CanUUdle and Ensemble and as a student minister with the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Winnipeg. I am a certified spiritual care practitioner through the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care. I serve our faith as our first, and right now only, Unitarian Universalist chaplain in the Canadian Armed Forces. I am a regular witness to the transformative power of love that is present when we show up for one another and so if there is a way we can support you during our gathering, online or in-person, I hope you will reach out. (Support available in both French and English).

Rev. Eric Meter was raised Unitarian Universalist. Rev. Eric has served our congregations in Northern California, upstate New York and in the U.S. Great Lakes region. Proud to now be in Canada, he and his wife have family in the Greater Toronto Area, as well as Germany and the United States. 

Kiersten E. Moore is the Director of Lifespan Faith Development, Unitarian Church of Vancouver.  She has served the Unitarian Church of Vancouver as the Director of Religious Exploration for Children and Youth since 2016. In 2021 she expanded her scope to include all ages as Director of Lifespan Faith Development. Kiersten grew up with First Universalist Church of Minneapolis and has been active in Unitarian Universalism at many levels of leadership throughout her life. She currently holds the position of Secretary to the CUC Board as a representative of BC. Kiersten’s work as a theatre artist, doula, and religious educator has focused on creative collaboration, lifelong learning, the importance of community connections and belonging, and the power of speaking truth. Her professional growth as a religious educator has focused on antiracism, effective communication, storytelling, and empowering radically inclusive community.

Andrew Pollock (he/him) grew up attending the Unitarian Universalist Church of Saint John, and went to his first youth con in 2006. Since then, he has maintained steady involvement in the Canadian UU Youth and Young Adult communities. He was a member of the CUC's Canadian Advisory Youth Adult Committee from 2007 to 2009, and most recently helped organize "Answering the Call," an online Young Adult conference in autumn 2022. Andrew is this year's Chorus Coordinator and is excited to be supporting the Young Adult components of the National Symposium. 

Reverend Meghann Robern has served in Unitarian Universalist communities since 2009, starting in volunteer religious education and moving into professional ministry. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, where she lives with her wife, their two children, and two dogs.

Rev. Diane Rollert (she/her/elle) has served the Unitarian Church of Montreal since 2006 and is now the longest-standing full-time settled minister in Canada. “It feels as though I only started yesterday!” she says. She is president and founding member of Coalition Inclusion Québec which is currently engaged in a legal case against Bill 21, the Quebec law banning the wearing of religious symbols for certain civil servants. She delights in a collaborative ministry and is pleased to be bringing members of Montreal’s creative worship team with her for the symposium’s Sunday service.

Diana Smith has 30 years experience in consulting, management, academic teaching, and applied research with changemakers and influencers in public, nonprofit and private organizations at many contexts. In her third age, she is a lifelong learner, systems thinker, and contributor to change. She’s an active community member, mentor, consultant, facilitator and learning designer, committed to creating lasting impact and results that matter.

A Unitarian since the 80’s, she has been active in many capacities in congregations in Ottawa, Vancouver, Victoria, Guelph, the CUC, and a member of Grand River Unitarians. She is an experienced facilitator, circle host, holding space for small groups to explore meaning and inquiry into the spiritual dimensions of our 21st-century lives. She has been part of the CUC Widening the Circle of Concern team for the past two years.

Casey Stainsby (she/her) is the CUC's Youth and Young Adult Program Manager. Casey now lives in Victoria (the traditional homelands of the Lkwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples) and is a member of the First Unitarian Church of Victoria, and will be relocating in the near future back to Vancouver (Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh territories), where she was raised. Casey is an aspirant for UU ministry, working on her MDiv at the Vancouver School of Theology.

You can read Casey's full bio on the CUC website.

 Rev. Julie Stoneberg ministered for over 17 years with two Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations in Ontario and recently moved to Wisconsin where she is serving UU Church West as Interim Minister.

Journey and process are key to Rev. Julie’s theology. Her faith is grounded in a commitment to the process . . . even when it seems there are no answers. Anti-racism work is her passion. Transparency, self-reflection, and honest communication feed her introvert soul. 

She believes that our belonging, our inherent worth, and our purpose are found within the ever-changing journeys of our lives . . . and that our individual journeys are deeply enriched by sharing the path with others.