Serving Us at First Parish

Interim Minister, Rev John N Marsh

John Marsh serves as the Interim Minister of the First Parish of Arlington, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and is currently working on his doctorate at Colgate Rochester Divinity School. He has formerly served churches in San Francisco and Edmonton, Alberta. He commutes home to Rochester, New York to be with his wife, Alison Patrick, a social worker, and two of their children, Aidan and Robin. Their oldest son is a sophomore at Victoria College at the University of Toronto.
Learn more about Rev John Marsh through his personal website.
The text for Rev Marsh's January 27th sermon, "The Crisis in Public Education" , is available here.

Assistant Minister, Rev. Carlton Elliott Smith

Rev. Carlton Elliott Smith is in his sixth and final year as one of the ministers at First Parish. After a dual internship at the Unitarian Church in Summit, NJ and the UU Society of the Palisades in Englewood, NJ (supervised respectively by Rev. David Bumbaugh and the late Rev. Lee Reid), Carlton was ordained as a UU minister October 1995. He was the sole minister at the Hollis Unitarian Church in Queens, NY (1995-1997) and Minister for Extension and Outreach at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, CA (1997-1999), where he was the third of a ministerial team with the Revs. Rob and Janne Eller- Isaacs. He relocated Boston two weeks before the 9/11 attacks, and came to First Parish in September 2002 as Interim Assistant Minister. In March 2004 he accepted the call to be the church's settled Assistant Minister. He will be on the equivalent of paid sabbatical leave from mid-February through the end of August. During that time, Carlton will be offering his soon-to-be self-published nonfiction book to readers near and far, and completing work on his first novel. A native of Mississippi, he is a graduate both of the School of Business and the School of Divinity at Howard University.
Rev. Smith begins a six-month leave after his service on February 10th. During his leave he plans to post to a blog we may follow: SixMonthLeaveSpot.

Parish Manager, Michael "Medge" Edge

Michael "Medge" Edge is a life-long UU hailing from Columbia, SC.

Medge has spent most of his adult life in the software industry, and joins us as Parish Manager as part of a search to have his work life be a little more people oriented. Over the last decade Medge has lived in Boston, Australia, New Zealand, San Francisco, and South Carolina, and will inflict humorous stories about each place to anyone willing to listen.

Music Staff
	Music Director, Laura Prichard and Organist, Sarah Haera Tocco.
Music director, Laura Prichard, directs children's and adult choirs and organizes and directs instrumental ensembles. Musical contributions encompass both Sunday services and special programs like the Alliance Holiday party, our spring "Musicale" and field trips. New this year to First Parish, Sarah Haera Tocco plays music for services on organ and piano and accompanies weekly choir rehearsals. Sarah also joins forces with First Parish vocal and instrumental musicians providing music in our services. Both Sarah and Laura lead lively lives outside First Parish. Learn more about them on our music staff page.

Religious Education Staff
Marcie Griffith, Youth Advisor	Tina Schultz, Director of Religious Education	Amy Rogers, Nursery Supervisor
Director of Religious Education Tina Schultz, has been active in our religious community since 1986, serving on the Welcoming Congregation Committee and the RE Committee and teaching children and youth programs before becoming DRE in 1994. Her background in early childhood development, teaching and corporate training, plus love of children of all shapes, sizes and ages has proven to be a blend of skills that meets the needs of our growing congregation. "The RE Committee, ministers and I have created a clear plan for what we want our children and youth to come away with after being part of our vibrant, stimulating and loving church community. Each year I look forward to meeting new families to draw them into our great program, and watching our children grow to be active Unitarian Universalists". Tina and her husband Neil quietly reside in Arlington since their children Gillian, (an elder care social worker now living in Atlanta), and Eli, (a freshman at the University of Vermont) are launched to the wider world. Learn more about our RE program.

	Sunday morning assistant, Mayuen Agara

We remember with love our Parish Manager,
Everett Butch Redding,
who died on February 20, 2008.