Susan-Lynn Johns began conducting occasional services at First Parish in 2003. In 2008 she accepted a call from the Board of Trustees to serve as “Pulpit Supply,” doing two services a month. Because her role expanded over the years, the Board voted in 2012 to give her the title of “Lay Minister” in recognition of her contributions to the life of First Parish. On January 10, 2016 Susan-Lynn was ordained by the First Universalist Parish of Derby Line. board of trustees and congregation.
The Rev. Susan-Lynn Johns is a member of First Universalist Unitarian Parish, Derby Line, where she conducts services two to three Sundays a month.
A native of South Carolina, Susan-Lynn holds two graduate degrees in theatre and communications and attended the Memphis Theological Seminary. In 2013 she was named a Fellow of the Cohen Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Before moving to Vermont in 2002, she taught theatre and communications at the college and university level for 25 years and is now an instructor at CCV in Newport and Associate Director of QNEK Productions, the resident theatre company of the Haskell Opera House. She has been serving as a Justice of the Peace since 2012.
Susan-Lynn’s faith journey has been a true quest, full of twists and turns. Brought up in the Lutheran tradition, she moved Arkansas in the 1970s and joined a Methodist church, where she was employed as Youth Minister. After moving to Memphis in 1978, she became a Lay Eucharistic Minister in the Episcopal Church and attended seminary, where she lost her religion completely. At this low point, she found the Unitarian Universalist Church which provided her with a sense of belonging and a structure from which to begin her spiritual quest anew. An eternal student, she usually has four or five books “in process” at any given time. This is reflected in her sermon topics, which have included everything from virtual reality to quantum physics to global warming and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Rev. Susan-Lynn Johns is a member of First Universalist Unitarian Parish, Derby Line, where she conducts services two to three Sundays a month.
A native of South Carolina, Susan-Lynn holds two graduate degrees in theatre and communications and attended the Memphis Theological Seminary. In 2013 she was named a Fellow of the Cohen Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Before moving to Vermont in 2002, she taught theatre and communications at the college and university level for 25 years and is now an instructor at CCV in Newport and Associate Director of QNEK Productions, the resident theatre company of the Haskell Opera House. She has been serving as a Justice of the Peace since 2012.
Susan-Lynn’s faith journey has been a true quest, full of twists and turns. Brought up in the Lutheran tradition, she moved Arkansas in the 1970s and joined a Methodist church, where she was employed as Youth Minister. After moving to Memphis in 1978, she became a Lay Eucharistic Minister in the Episcopal Church and attended seminary, where she lost her religion completely. At this low point, she found the Unitarian Universalist Church which provided her with a sense of belonging and a structure from which to begin her spiritual quest anew. An eternal student, she usually has four or five books “in process” at any given time. This is reflected in her sermon topics, which have included everything from virtual reality to quantum physics to global warming and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
6th Principle: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all
