Convocation 2025
Storytellers
Throughout human history, people have told stories to make meaning of the world around them, to create and nurture bonds with one another, and to shape the ways in which they engage with the natural world.
At a time when the crises we face are myriad and the structures we once thought stable are crumbling, storytelling offers us a powerful practice for slowing down, for paying deep attention, and for recognizing and honoring the dignity and wisdom held within each of us. In times such as these, imagination is a superpower and a lifeline to a world of healing, wholeness, and kinship.
We enjoyed engaging with the personal stories of each of these seven storytellers during Convocation 2025. In the weeks leading up to the event, each storyteller worked with an experienced storytelling coach from Stellar Story Company. This was a phenomenal experience for storytellers and story-listeners alike!
Kate André serves as Pastor of the Mennonite Congregation of Boston. Along with three congregants, she was lucky enough to attend the 2024 “Claiming Your Call for a Climate-Changed World” retreat at Maine’s Schoodic Institute, led by The BTS Center, Creation Justice Ministries, and the Anabaptist Climate Collaborative. Kate is also the Mennonite / Anabaptist Chaplain at Harvard University and a former Cohort Coordinator for the Office of Ignatian Spirituality’s Contemplative Leaders in Action program. This fall, she is beginning doctoral studies in Religion and Education at Boston College. Kate shared part of her own journey into Creation Care and Climate Justice with the BTS Center community!
David Arfa works full-time with Baystate Hospice where he coordinates their bereavement services and provides grief counseling. He retrained as a spiritual counselor ten years ago and has served as a chaplain in community hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, and elder care facilities. Rooted in both trauma-informed care and grief-informed care, he has developed specialties in spiritual care for addiction treatment, for end-of-life, and for the non-religious. David is also a storyteller and educator who is rooted in Judaism’s storytelling heritage and ancient environmental wisdom. He has helped renew the role of Maggid (Hebrew for storyteller) in the Jewish community. David leads contemplative Shabbat-inspired hikes at the High Ledges Audubon Sanctuary. For more information on his storytelling performances and educational programs, please visit www.maggiddavid.net
This past August, Rev. Sara Hayman began her 14th year serving as called and settled minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ellsworth, ME. Prior to becoming a congregational minister, she loved her work as Hospice Chaplain for Hancock County HomeCare and Hospice and before that, Program Director at Hospice Volunteers of Hancock County. Sara grew up in Lewiston and Auburn, ME, and now lives in Bucksport with her partner and small scruffy dog. She earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Chicago (2004), and her Masters of Divinity from Meadville Lombard Theological School, a UU seminary in Chicago, in 2006. Sara is super excited and grateful for this opportunity to learn and to stretch and practice becoming a better storyteller!
Blair A. R. Nelsen has served as Executive Director of Waterspirit since its founder retired in 2019. Blair received her Master of Arts in Religion from Yale Divinity School and her BA with honors in Environmental Studies from Brown University. She brings a multi-faith, international perspective to this work after living in Venezuela and Brazil for many years. She currently represents the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, at the United Nations in addition to her Waterspirit ministry duties in New Jersey. In 2022, Blair co-authored the Climate Pastoral Care Course, available on Waterspirit’s website. She is a Good Grief Network Community FLOW Facilitator who has also been trained in climate café facilitation by the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America. Additionally, she also holds a certificate in Climate Psychology from the California Institute for Integral Studies. Blair is a frequent writer and speaker about water, climate change, biodiversity, nature, climate anxiety, spirituality, religion, mindfulness, and contemplative practices.
Tyler Mark Nelson is a community educator, ecotheologian, activist, and artist. He currently directs the Living Earth Community program with the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, builds community partnerships with WPKN 89.5FM, and is involved in projects exploring kinship and public ritual in a time of planetary crisis.
Raised in Minnesota, Tyler’s work is deeply shaped by place, contemplative practice, and the more-than-human world.
Tawni White is a registered nurse who believed that her calling as a nurse was more than just a profession, but a ministry. Witnessing the decline of health in marginalized communities, she sought a deeper understanding between the physical body and the environment. Having concluded that the wellness of the body is tied to the wellness of the earth, sparked her passion to emphasize creation care as a viable intervention for improving health outcomes. Today, Tawni is devoted to congregational health, helping churches understand that caring for creation is also a part of loving our neighbors as ourselves. Her hope is that every community of faith will rise up to see holistic health not only as an individual concern but as a shared mission rooted in God’s love and command.
From homesteading off-the-grid in her late 20’s and early 30’s to maintaining a more modern homestead into her mid-70’s, June Zellers is particularly fond of the “rooted ones” and nature-based ritual. Theologically a Unitarian, she is an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Augusta, Maine. June studied extensively at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and regularly practices with the Kennebec River Zen Sangha in Augusta. She is also a retired mediator, conflict management teacher, and long-distance horseback adventurer.
