Presenters and Conference Schedule

Amani Olugbala is a storyteller who weaves music, film, speech and poem into art that highlights social injustice, honors the ancestors and demands for change. This, in an effort to uplift the spirits of the marginalized and promote love and service as necessary acts of rebellion against isolation and disconnection. An artist, farmer, educator and community organizer Amani uses artistic expression, urban agriculture and social awareness to impact change and foster a sense of empathy and inter-being in local urban communities.

Co-Slam Master of the Nitty Gritty Slam team, Albany’s regional championship team, Amani feels called to raise her voice and has used Slam Poetry to advance her message of radical change based in love and equity. In her first Slam season and second as a coach the Nitty Gritty Slam team won several competitions, including the 2014 and 2015 Empire State Slam, the 2015 QEW Slam and Jersey Slam’s ‘Win and You’re In’

Her talk will include and is titled, Freedom Fighting in the Name of Love, Creativity and Self-Realization. This combo of performance, workshop and lecture led by Amani O+ will focus on recognizing the power our unique skill sets and contributions to the movement in order create a foundation for peace that blossoms for future generations. Topics explored include but are not limited to: Active Listening, Personal Affirmations, Flipping Our Privilege, Artivism, Self-Care, Personal Development and Finding Courage.

Paul K. Chappell is the Peace Leadership Director for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He  graduated from West Point in 2002, was deployed to Iraq, and left active duty in November 2009 as a Captain. He began working at NAPF in 2009, and is the author of four books: Will War Ever End?, The End of War, Peaceful Revolution, and The Art of Waging Peace. Lecturing across the country and internationally, he also teaches college course and workshops on Peace Leadership.

Dr. Ed Landing received degrees in geology with a specialization in paleontology (BSc, University of Wisconsin-Madison; MSc. and PhD, University of Michigan). He spent most of his career as a research scientist and curator of paleontology at the New York State Museum, Albany. The author of over 220 articles (see researchgate ed landing) on the earliest marine animals from based on field work on geologic sections worldwide (eastern and western US and Canada, Arctic Canada, southern Mexico, England, Wales, Germany, Morocco, Jordan, Israel, Siberia, south China, Argentina), he is a Fellow of the AAAS and Geological Society of America, and won the R. S. Reynolds Award for the Geological Synthesis of Canada. His current work emphasizes an under appreciated consequence of sea-level rise--as sea-levels rise with melting ice and expansion of warming ocean water, global warming will accelerate as seas gradually cover continents and shallow waters are warmed by sunlight.

Talk description: Title--Ancient and modern climate change

Climate change, and in particular global warming, through geological time has long been appreciated, and key controls on climate (carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, shifts in orientation of the Earth's spin axis) have been proposed and tested for two centuries. The first control on increased global temperatures and melting of ice sheets on land that has led to sea-level rise has been the anthropogenic (man-controlled), remarkable increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, since a U.S. Weather Service prediction in the mid-1950s of global warming with carbon dioxide increase, the climate change discussion has become highly politicized, particularly in the U.S., with many politicians asserting their "belief" in the absence of climate change and sea-level rise despite documentation of run-away changes within the last generation. The climate change problem is likely even worse than predicted as rising sea levels will slowly move shorelines across continents, and this will mean that shallow seas will reduce continental reflectance of sunlight and store even more heat in shallow water. Very hot shallow and deep seas will have lower dissolved oxygen, and global marine anoxia, seen repeatedly in the geological past, will accompany global hyper-warming.

Mary Anne Grady Flores mother of 4, Nana to 3 grandkids (who all live in Ithaca!), has been an organizer and activist for a few decades, most recently protesting the drones at Hancock Airbase.  Her focus has been, in part, ending racism, militarism, and poverty, here in the US, Palestine, and Puerto Rico.  She's been a Latino caterer, with her food being just one expression of her artistic side.  Mary Anne has  been arrested numerous times for drone protests and was recently sentenced to one year in prison. She is currently out on appeal. 

Rev. Chris J. Antal is the called and settled minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Rock Tavern, New York. He is a minister in Final Fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association, founding member of Veteran’s For Peace Hudson Valley Chapter 177,  and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Peace Ministry NetworkLeadership Team.

Chris was born in New York in 1972 and raised together with his sister Jill by their parents, Richard and Susan, on the southern coast of Maine. He attended public schools and received no formal religious education. Chris grew up in the wake of America’s War in Vietnam–a war his father had served in as a medical officer for the U.S. Navy–and watched the First Gulf War (1980-1988) as well as the final years of the Cold War (1985-1991) unfold on television. He learned at a young age that war hurts and he should be skeptical of military solutions. Compassion, hospitality and public service were all deeply held family values. His mom also taught him, “if you can’t say something nice don’t say it at all,” but that was one lesson that never took root.

Chris left Maine to enroll in Rhode Island School of Design, but his social conscience was awakened by the Second Gulf War (1990-1991) and the Rodney King Riots (1992) so he dropped out after two years, preferring instead a life of poverty and spiritual discipline within the Unification Church. During his decade of involvement in that community Chris met his life partner, Mitsuko Ishikawa, and they were married in a public ceremony in Washington D.C. that involved thousands of couples and was officiated by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. After Congress passed the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 Chris entered seminary and began work as a research associate for the International Coalition for Religious Freedom, under the guidance of Dan Fefferman, and developed advocacy skills in Washington D.C. meeting then Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Robert Seiple at the U.S. State Department Office of International Religious Freedom and members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Chris’ research contributed to the first five editions of the Annual International Religious Freedom Report to Congress.

Chris was teaching and doing research in South Korea with Mitsuko and their first child when the tragedies of September 11, 2001 occurred. He watched from afar as the Bush Administration launched the Third Gulf War (2003-2011) and witnessed Korean outrage over speculations that North Korea would be the next target of President Bush’s “preventive war” against the “axis of evil.” When Chris returned to the U.S. in 2003 he completed his seminary degree then followed his heart to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie and found the community a good fit. At the age of thirty-five, he decided to pursue a career as an ordained minister and, concerned about the preponderance of evangelicals in the U.S. military and the human cost to America’s wars, began to discern a call to military chaplaincy.

Chris completed clinical pastoral education at Westchester Medical Center under the supervision of the Rev. Susan Lunning and at Albany Medical Center under the supervision of the Rev. Harlan Ratmeyer. In both residencies he specialized in trauma care. He was mentored by the Rev. Kay Greenleaf, then minister an now emeritus of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie, and completed his parish internship at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany, New York under the supervision of the Rev. Sam Trumbore. Beginning in 2009, Chris also studied under the guidance of Edward Tick, co-founder of Soldier’s Heart and author of the influential book War and the Soul. Chris was ordained by that society on March 20, 2011. Douglas Johnston, another one of Chris’ teachers, who founded the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy and wrote Religion: The Missing Dimension of State-Craft, delivered the ordination sermon.

Rev. Antal was hired as the consulting minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Rock Tavern and began his service there in September 2011. In June 2012 he took a leave of absence for military service in Afghanistan, where he was a chaplain for a signals battalion from the New York Army National Guard supporting the Third Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. As he was gearing up for his deployment, Chaplain Antal entered into a covenant with the Church of the Larger Fellowship and their Board recognized him as their first community minister. Rev. Antal established a written agreement with the Rev. Meg Riley that included an understanding he would post on their public blog site Quest for Meaning during his service on active-duty.  While deployed Chaplain Antal established and led the Kandahar Crossroads Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. After he redeployed Rev. Antal returned to Rock Tavern and the congregation called him to be their settled minister. Rev. Antal was installed in a ceremony on March 22, 2015. The Rev. Sarah Lammert, Director of Ministries and Faith Development for the UUA, delivered the installation sermon and Edward Tick provided the charge.

Chaplain Antal served five years as a military chaplain, first with the New York National Guard (2011-2013) and later in the U.S. Army Reserve (2014-2016) with one tour on active duty in Afghanistan (2012-2013), which came to an abrupt end when Brigadier General Scottie D. Carpenter officially reprimanded him for posting a “politically inflammatory” sermon, “A Veteran’s Day Confession for America” on the Church of the Larger Fellowship website, where he was identified as a U.S. Army chaplain and a photo of him in uniform had been posted. Despite an appeal supported by dozens of letters from American service-members, veterans, and concerned citizens, including letters of support from subject matter experts like Edward Tick, CH (COL) Herman Keizer, USA retired, and Unitarian Universalist theologian Paul Rasor, the reprimand was not rescinded and the signals battalion commander used it as a basis to release Chaplain Antal from active-duty. Although Chaplain Antal continued to serve in uniform for three more years, and was promoted to captain and transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve with the help of a Congressional Inquiry by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand,  he resigned his commission on April 12, 2016 in a letter to President Obama, an act of protest against U.S. policies regarding killer drones, nuclear weapons, and preventive war. His stand of faith and conscience was reported in Army Times, Military.com, ABC News and Rev. Antal was invited to speak on The World, The Takeaway, and Democracy Now.

Rev. Antal is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association and holds himself accountable to their Guidelines for the Conduct of Ministry. He has advanced degrees from Yonsei University in South Korea (MA, 2003) and Unification Theological Seminary in New York (MDiv, 2004) and is a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry from Hartford Seminary. He recently published together with Kathy Winnings “Moral Injury, Soul Repair, and Creating a Place for Grace,” in the Journal Religious Education.

Chris is married and lives with his wife and their five children in the Hudson Valley.

Linda LeTendre stands with Father Dan Berrigan.  Linda is uncertain of the year however it is Good Friday and shortly thereafter both are arrested. Linda LeTendre is a Saratoga Springs based activist who has been arrested for civil resistance against, drone assasinations, against war and advocating for the homless.  Linda will be conducting the Father Dan Berrigan remembrance on Saturday afternoon.