In Memory of Denis G. Meacham (January 5, 1943- March 20, 2019

We offer our condolences to the family and colleagues of the Rev. Dr. Denis G. Meacham, died on March 20, 2019, at the age of 76.

Denis was born into an Irish Catholic family in New York City on January 5, 1943. His childhood was filled with friends, travel, and music. He started playing guitar when he was eight years old, and by the time he was in high school he wrote music and played for parties, often with his sister. He did well in school graduating as valedictorian of his class. In 1966, he received his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. After college, he supported himself as a musician, and eventually settled into a job as a scientist/medicine copy editor for the first edition of the American Heritage Dictionary. This was the beginning of a thirty-year career in publishing and communications, as an editor, and almost ten years as a professor of communications at Boston University, MA.

Denis and his wife Janet married at the All Souls UU Church in NY in 1969. They attended UU services on and off for the next ten years. In 1979, they were looking for a church school for their kids and got connected with the First Unitarian Society of Newton (FUSN), MA. They joined FUSN in 1980 and quickly became involved in community work and church governance.

In 1985, Denis graduated from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, MA with his Master of Public Administration, majoring in International Relations/Conflict Resolution. The turning point for him in terms of ministry came when he was asked to become a lay minister at FUSN (1985). He served as a lay minister for twelve years sermonizing, extending minister’s outreach to the sick and housebound, and counseling folks with addiction problems. His lay ministry encouraged him to seek further education as an addiction therapist, and eventually to go to seminary with the conviction that he was called to a ministry with people troubled by addictions. In 2002, he earned his Doctor of Ministry from Andover Newton Theological School, Newton, MA, with an emphasis on pastoral counseling.

Rev. Dr. Meacham was ordained on June 2, 2002 by the First Parish Brewster (FPB) UU, Brewster, MA. He served as a founder and director of the Center for Addictions Ministry (CAM) at the FPB from 2002 to 2019, and as a community minister from 2004 to 2008. He began reorganizing lay ministry at the FPB, involved more people, and created new opportunities for ongoing training (empowerment) and supervision. The CAM provided support and guidance to faith communities that wished to learn how to minister to people dealing with addictions. In 2005, FPB won the E.O. Pickett Award citing its national addiction ministry.

Rev. Dr. Meacham was highly active in UU affairs. He served as an advisor to the Denominational Affairs Committee and was a part of a group creating workshops for Ministry Days and for the UUMA Center presentation around clergy self-care regarding drug/alcohol use. He presented the concept of addiction ministry through sermons and workshops within the Ballou Channing District (BCD) UU societies, at GA (workshops in 2002 and 2004), at the BCD 2002 fall conference and at a BCD young adult conference. Furthermore, he was on-call for pastoral care at the UU Meeting House in Chatham for six months.

Rev. Dr. Meacham wrote for various publications on health and healing subjects. His book “The Addiction Ministry Handbook: A Guide for Faith Communities “, published by Skinner House, June 2004 was widely used by congregations that offered addiction ministry.

Interdenominationally, Denis participated in the Cape Cod Council of Churches, and the Parish Nurses of Cape Cod. He was involved with youth work on the district and national level, doing curriculum planning, and leading workshops for members of the youth caucus, etc. He was certified and licensed by the state of MA as a drug/alcohol counselor. His ministry offered strong motivation to serve others and to help persons gain greater control over life problems.

Additionally, Denis served as a member of a behavioral health working group of the Lighthouse Health Access Alliance, MA (an organization within the Barnstable County Department of Health and Human Services) and was active with a programming committee of the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod. He offered classes on spiritual aspects of addiction at Cape Cod Community College and sat on a behavioral health steering committee of the Barnstable County (Cape Cod) Health and Human Services Department. Moreover, Denis worked as an on-call chaplain at Cape Cod Hospital, MA. He provided grief counseling and in-service workshops on end-of-life issues at several skilled nursing facilities in Cape Cod.

Denis was also a poet. He wrote his senior final review paper in poetry while at Princeton. His later works reflected addictions, illness, loss basically embracing the whole catastrophe of life. After losing his wife to Alzemier’s disease, Denis wrote many more including “Hope.”

“Hope
Perhaps hope is like the skin:
It holds you safely in,
Anywhere, everywhere,
Even if you don’t understand
Or even usually notice.

Perhaps hope
Is the spirit’s skin.”

Denis is survived by his daughter Kate Langevin (Paul), son Sam Meacham, grandsons Ethan and Brandon Langevin, and sister Pam Hutcherson (Barry Thompson). He was preceded in death by his wife Janet Harper.

A celebration of Denis’s life was held on May 11, 2019 at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House in Chatham, MA.