We think we know what we believe and what we hold to be true, but when it comes to a crisis of illness or death, often all bets are off.  Michael Eselun, popular guest speaker and oncology chaplain at UCLA, will share an exploration of the different ways patients' theologies intersect with such crises, and the common themes that seem to surface from the atheist or fundamentalist alike.

Michael Eselun, a Unitarian Universalist, and a certified chaplain, is the chaplain for the Simms/Mann-UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology.  He recently hosted and presented at the first Spirituality and Medicine Conference at UCLA to an interfaith  group of community religious leaders. He's been invited many times to speak to students, doctors, nurses and social workers about his work as a chaplain, on death and dying and the spiritual dimension of the cancer experience.  He was a recent lecturer for UCLA’s Insights Into Cancer lecture series and was invited to address 300 nurses at the Cedars-Sinai Hospital Nursing Symposium.
 
Michael is also a co-founder and co-chair of a non-profit, volunteer anti-homophobia speakers bureau called GLIDE, Gays and Lesbians Initiating Dialogue for Equality. Over the last 18 years, Michael and his fellow speakers have spoken to an audience of over 150,000 students, teachers, and other various groups and agencies in the LA area about homophobia.  Michael has also led workshops on integrating spirituality into an LGBT identity. 
 
He shares his life with Scott, his partner of 35 years.  He is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica and has been a popular guest speaker there and at 25 UU congregations including First Parish in Cambridge, MA.