Following are excerpts from the Ministerial Information provided by Rev. Jeanne Mills when she was applying to be our Consulting Minister. There are lots of dates, but we thought the breadth and depth of her experience would be of interest to many.

Jeanne Melis Mills, AIM
E-mail address:minister@uusavannah.org
Phone: 912-234-0980
Cell: 773-315-8629

Background and development:

From your late teens forward, describe your higher education, the three or four most important events in your life experience, the context in which you felt called to ministry, and your professional development, continuing education, and work history; include every ministry (include dates by month/year) and what you bring from it and your other work to a new ministry:

Significant Events:

1) Failing organic chemistry first semester college freshman year, dashing -- I thought -- any hope of becoming a physician -- a dream first enunciated in my eighth-grade graduation album. My eventual decision to apply to divinity school came about as a much-delayed re-iteration of that early aspiration -- the Albert Schweitzer-inspired medical missionary now envisioned as an oncology chaplain. In May, 1999 I received accreditation from the Association of Professional Chaplains as a Board Approved Chaplain.
2) Peace Corps Volunteer service in Bogota, Colombia -- another re-working of the earlier dream -- here a missionary following the inspiration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, asking what "I could do for my country."
3) Earth Day, 1970 -- a dreadful epiphany of the destruction of the global environment leading me into local and state-wide efforts to inform and influence others to greater ecological awareness.
4) Divorce and return to school at 40 to earn an MBA. The training and then professional experience taught me about organizational development, financial management, and long-range planning.

Resume and Background

2005-06 Schenectady, New York at First Unitarian Society of Schenectady -- after having taken a sabbatical (2004-05)  Then to Eugene, Oregon at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Eugene, 2006-07.  Retired officially at the General Assembly in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, June, 2008.

August 15, 2003-June 20, 2004: Interim Minister, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington, NY

August 15, 2002-June 18, 2003: Interim Minister, Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church, Clear Lake (Houston), Texas

September 4, 2001-June 15, 2002: Interim Minister, Second Unitarian Church of Chicago, Illinois

August 10, 2000-June 10, 2001: Interim Associate Minister, All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma

August 15, 1999-June 18, 2000: Interim Minister, UU Fellowship of Midland, Michigan

August 1,1998-June 30, 1999: Extension Interim Minister, Greater Nashville UU Congregation. (A one-year appointment. I was the only Extension Interim Minister in the UUA.)

Sept, 1997-April, 1998: Chaplain Resident, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NYC.

Sept,96-May,1997: Ministerial Intern - Second Congregational Meeting House Society, UU, Nantucket: Ordination, May 10, 1997; Concurrently, Intern: Hospice Care of Nantucket

June, 1995-June, 1996: Director of Religious Education, Scituate First Parish UU Church, MA. Paid field work while at HDS.

June-August, 1995: Chaplain, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, Advanced Clinical Pastoral Education.

Sept 1994-May, 1995: Chaplain, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, Paid Field Work while at HDS.

Sept, 1993-May, 1994: Yale Divinity School. I was the only full-time resident UU at YDS and at the end of the academic year, transferred to Harvard Divinity School.

1990-93: Independent Financial Consultant, advising clients on personal finance, investments, and estate planning.

1988-1989: Move to Vermont: Renovation of 1820 Farmhouse.

1984-1987: Partner, Freedom Financial Services, Inc., Plymouth, MA, advising clients in personal finance, investments, and estate planning.

1983: New York Securities Company, Inc., Darien, CT, Corporate Finance Associate.

1982-1983: Marketing Consultant, MA/COM Corporation, Burlington, MA (Paid internship during MBA degree program.)

1978-1982: Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, MA, Curator of Manuscripts and Books; Trustee: 1985-1991; Finance and Investment Committee, 1989-1991 (Chair 1990-1991)

1978: Outward Bound School, Hurricane Island, Penobscot Bay, Maine

1974-1978: Town Archivist: Scituate, MA, First Archivist for a town settled in 1629; Founder, The Friends of the Scituate Archives (Fund-raising arm.)

1974: National Archives, Washington, DC, Certification as Archivist.

1974-1975: Nursery School Teacher, Erdman Family Nursery School, Scituate, MA.

1970-1980: Founder and Trustee: Scituate Environmental Effort, Inc. (S.E.E., Inc.) Local volunteer group: Wetlands protection and municipal recycling.

1968-1974: At home: Mother, community volunteer: schools, local and state politics. Daughters: Nicole Lauren Mills, born October 6, 1968; Sara Aislinn Mills, born September 3, 1971.

1968: Public Relations Coordinator, American Indian Oral History Project, Western History Center,University of Utah, Salt Lake City,UT.

1965-1967: Peace Corps Volunteer, Colombia ETV, Bogota, Colombia, S.A. Trained Colombian elementary school teachers and wrote ETV guides and audio-visual manuals in Spanish.

1965: Teachers College, Columbia University, NYC: Student Teaching in New York Public Schools.

1964: Graduation from Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA

1960: Graduation: Garden City High School, Garden City, NY

Theological orientation:

Hoping always for balanced diversity, I find that when I am in predominantly Christian congregations, I am an Emersonian Transcendentalist or Naturalist/Theist; among Humanists/Atheists, I list back toward the center as an Agnostic/Deist/Panentheist ("God is in everything; everything is in God.") But with the Hindus, I urge: "Beware the 'Names and Forms Delusion!'" While serving Tulsa's All Souls Church, I enjoyed the experience of a very large congregation which defined itself as "Liberal Christian" and "Christian Humanist" (about right for a church sharing turf with the likes of Oral Roberts, I think!) There was freedom to use language that flowed from atheist to theist and back again -- and by so doing, seemed to me more truly Unitarian Universalist.

Additional information:

Hospital & Hospice Chaplaincy: Board Approval by the Association of Professional Chaplains, May, 1999.

Sept,97-April,98: Chaplain Resident - Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NYC.

June,95-August, 95: Chaplain Intern - Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon/Hanover, NH

October, 94-May, 95: Chaplain Intern - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA.

September, 96-May, 97: Ministerial Internship (Second Congregational Meeting House Society, Nantucket, MA, concurrently with Chaplain Internship at the Nantucket Hospital and Hospice:

Certified: Hospice Volunteer (Oct-Nov, 96)

Cancer Support Group Facilitator Trainee (Oct,96-May, 97)

Bereavement Support Group Organizer and Co-Facilitator (Jan-May, 97)

Crisis Intervention Training ("A Safe Place Crisis Center") (Mar-April, 1997)

ARCHIVIST: (Certification:National Archives/Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC) - February, 1974.

Feb,74-June,78: Town Archivist, Scituate, MA

Sept,93-May,94: Yale Divinity School Library: Church Missions Collection

Sept,94-May,96: Harvard Divinity School Library, UUA Archives (Alan Seaburg,Director)

CONTINUING EDUCATION:

October, 1999: "Relational Couples Therapy", Terry Real of the Harvard Project, Boston, MA
January, 2000: "Applying Systems Theory to Vital Congregations", Speed Leas, Alban Institute.