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Our Minister
Greetings and Welcome to our Fellowship and our web site. I hope you find here companionship for your religious
journey, challenge to stimulate your conscience and your mind, comfort for your heart, and outlets where you can
set your hands to the work of justice. In our Fellowship, we are bound one to another in a covenant of forbearance
and love. We endeavor to bring out the best in one another. And we are committed to bringing our best out into
our neighborhoods. We are mindful of Francis David’s observation that “we need not think alike to
love alike.”1
If you live nearby I hope you will come by and worship with us. And be sure to stay for coffee and conversation
after the service. If you are visiting us on the web I hope we have kindled a spark of hope, a moment of challenge, or
a sense of companionship across cyber space. Our Fellowship has a strong tradition of welcoming Florida’s
special “snow bird” population. Whether you’re here for a week or half the year, we welcome your
full participation in the life of our Fellowship community. And if you happen to be sailing down the
Intracoastal Waterway of our beautiful Indian River Lagoon, call ahead, and we’ll get you a ride from the Vero Beach Marina
so you can stretch your legs and your mind with our religious education classes and worship services.
Welcome! Let’s talk together about our free church tradition. And let’s walk
together to bring more love, more justice, and more hope to all we meet.
1 Unitarian Universalist Hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition, reading # 566
Gail Ruth Geisenhainer
The Reverend Gail R. Geisenhainer has been the
settled minister of our Fellowship since September 2002. Before coming to Vero
Beach she was the minister in Canoga Park (Los Angeles), California. Gail
received Fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1996. She was
ordained that year by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ellsworth, Maine.
Rev. Gail’s academic experience includes the following:
B.S. in Accounting from Bentley College
M.A. in Pastoral Theology from the Episcopal Divinity School
M.Div. from Bangor Theological Seminary
Graduate Certificate from the Women’s Theological Center, Boston
And a Resident Graduate year at Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge
She grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, and later worked for the town, serving as Town
Accountant before entering seminary. Gail lived many years in Lincoln and
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and spent 10 years in Brooklin, on the coast of Maine
before entering the Unitarian Universalist ministry.
Rev. Gail has served our Association as an Extension Minister and through supervising
a ministerial intern. She has served her colleagues through various positions in local
Unitarian Universalist Minister’s Association chapters. Currently, she serves our
national UUMA as Treasurer on the Executive Committee.
What began as a humorous romp through theological words and religious differences with
a member of our Fellowship has ended up with the following list. Both parties decided
that while it was not the most graceful explanation and would be of little use in casual
conversation, it did, in spots, come remarkably close to answering the
question, “What does she preach?”
“What does she preach?”
An anthropology grounded in the presumption of human dignity and worth.
A theology of reverence and respect for the natural world.
A christology of Jesus as a fully human extraordinary teacher of love and justice.
A methodology embracing mystery with the disciplines of reason.
A gospel of Love as transformative and salvific when yoked with justice for all.
A commitment to building the Beloved Community:
right here, right now.
Contact information for Rev. Gail Geisenhainer:
Office Hours for Fall 2007 are:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 10 - 4.
(Evening and weekend times can be arranged.)
Home visits, confidential conversations, and walks on the beach are available by appointment.
Mondays and Thursdays, I make no appointments -- these days are for writing and for a Family Sabbath.
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