Pastoral Care
UU Pastoral Care Associates (PCAs) are here to listen. They have been trained in compassionate listening skills and are available to all members and friends of our congregation. To contact a Pastoral Care Associate, email listeners@AlbanyUU.groups.io, or contact the Albany UU office at 518-463-7135 or office@albanyuu.org. A PDF of this page is available here.
Anny Lapinsky
Anny has been a member of Albany UU since 1990. Her activities in the congregation have included teaching religious education to children and being on the religious education council, membership committee, art committee, growth through service, caring network, and wellspring. Now that Anny is retired from full-time work, she is in a two-year program studying to be a meditation teacher.
Anny currently leads a weekly meditation session for attorneys through the Albany County Bar Association and teaches some nutrition classes for lawyers through the NYS Bar Association, bringing her back to her first career as a nutritionist.
Donna Meixner
Donna and her husband Peter joined Albany UU over 25 years ago. Donna feels privileged to be a member of such a welcoming, active, and caring community. Over the years, she has served in many capacities including the Board of Trustees and Nominating, Personnel, Strategic Planning, and Stewardship Committees, and is honored to be asked to serve the congregation in this new role. Donna feels that she greatly benefited from the caring presence offered by Rev. Sam and our excellent Pastoral Care team during Peter’s lengthy illness in 2015. The empathic listening and compassionate support received gave her the strength to make it through a difficult time. She is grateful for the opportunity to support others in the Albany UU community as a Pastoral Care Associate.
Laura Paris
Laura has been a UU since the 1990s, first joining the Schenectady Unitarian Society and later joining Albany UU after moving to Guilderland in 2011. Laura has served on Social Justice Committees in both congregations. She frequently ushers at Sunday services, and has participated in the Meaning Matters and Wellspring programs. Before retiring in 2012, she taught special education in preschool programs in the Capital District and administered teacher training programs for the State Education Department. After learning about caregiving as a volunteer for the Community Caregivers program, Laura was the primary caregiver for her life partner, Rodger
Fink for several years until his death in 2021. She is honored to have been asked to serve as a Pastoral Care Associate at Albany UU. She has created several gardens in her yard, with a special interest in native plants, and volunteers for the Landis Arboretum in Esperance, New York.
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Randy Rosette
Randy and her husband, Chris, have been part of the Albany UU community since 1992 when they were looking for a spiritual and ethical home for their family-in-creation. A year later, they adopted three teenage boys. Randy became active with numerous RE programs, teaching elementary through Youth group classes, and has been honored to mentor three Rite of Passage youngsters. Throughout their tenure at Albany UU, Randy has also been privileged to serve on the Board, Personnel, and Finance Committees, and is involved with numerous activities including UU Weekend, fund-raisers, and the choir. Working in the community health care field for over thirty years, Randy strives to treat each person in need with compassion and care. She is honored to serve our community as a PCA and hopes to help whenever called upon.
Alice Sage
Following the birth of grandson, Aedan, Alice sold her home to be nearer to family. Her search for a new spiritual home ended with her first visit to Albany UU, where she joined Meaning Matters and Wellspring classes. On Sundays, she attends meditation services directed by Rev. Sam. Alice’s career as a teacher included 36
years in elementary classrooms in the capital district and Ireland. Throughout her life, Alice has practiced Buddhist meditation with an emphasis on mindfulness and Metta Meditation. She has been
trained in transcendental meditation and is a Reiki Master. She believes the world needs healing. In her roll as Pastoral Care Associate, Alice is grateful to transmit this caring to others and is guided by poet Mary Oliver’s words, “Attention is devotion.”
Alice is dedicated to offering compassionate devotion, a listening ear, and loving heart to those who seek her counsel.
Jim Chicoine
Jim and wife, Joyce, started attending Albany UU services in 2019 after deciding that they wanted to find a more socially outward reaching community. They have been involved with the Albany UU community in several ways, including attending Wellspring and Meaning Matters study groups and Circle Dinners. Jim has also been on the Finance Committee for several years and worked on two recent fundraisers. Given his desire to assist and connect with people, Jim has and continues to help neighbors and be a volunteer for a number of different Capital District organizations. Surprisingly, he even was a religious education teacher for 20 years. As a PCA, Jim looks forward to connecting with more Albany UU members and providing a listening ear when needed.
Debbie Rodriguez
After attending a wedding at her sister-in-law’s church in Hartford, CT, Debbie Rodriguez realized she needed a similar spiritual home. She looked for quite a while and, upon the recommendation of a co-worker, checked out and joined Albany UU in 2009. Subsequently, she found out that the church in Hartford she had attended the wedding at so long ago was a UU congregation. She has been singing with the choir since she joined Albany UU. She is active with the Rensselaer County Medical Reserve Corp where she helped with the COVID vaccine effort at Hudson Valley Community College and with the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club. She is an RN. She worked for the Office of Mental Health earlier in her career and has retired after 23 years from the New York State Health Department. She is grateful for the opportunity to provide support to the UU congregation as a Pastoral Care Associate.
Sharon Babala
Sharon has attended Albany UU for about 25 years and has taught RE, volunteered at many functions and Sun- day services and chaired the Caring Network. She also has 33 years of management experience, mostly oper-ating a small paralegal service company. What really matters to Sharon regarding the PCA pro- gram is her training as a yoga and meditation teacher and yoga therapist. What she loves is providing deep listening so that every person can be heard, cared for and healed.