WHO WE ARE
Summit Beacon
is a radically inclusive Unitarian Universalist community dedicated to feeding the human spirit and healing the world. We welcome all individuals and families, and we are committed to providing a safe and nurturing environment for spiritual growth and exploration. Our community is built on the values of love, compassion, and social justice, and we strive to make a positive impact on the world around us.
Unitarian Universalists
Beacon’s Congregational Covenant
Love guides this congregation. Love calls us daily to acts of liberation grounded in antiracism. We affirm that we live in the complexity of intersectionality and that building healthy and loving relationships is a spiritual practice, requiring both inward and outward focus. Thus, we covenant to listen deeply, speak compassionately, express gratitude, and embrace our unique diversity. We endeavor to communicate honestly and with compassion, particularly when we are in conflict. When we hurt one another, we will try to make amends, forgive and reconnect with an intent to repair, change and grow. Our purpose is to be radically inclusive, feed the human spirit and heal the world. In celebration of the common purpose that unites us and with the aspiration of Beloved Community before us, we will do our best to abide by this covenant.
About
Our Vision is a Welcome Table
Beacon is a community that cherishes each person’s spiritual journey and invites all to live with joy, purpose, and connection. At our Welcome Table, people of every generation, orientation, culture, class, and race gather in love. Together we honor life’s mysteries, nurture one another’s spirits, and prepare a place for those yet to come. Grounded in compassion and justice, we commit ourselves to building a world of peace, equity, and sustainable living.
Our Ministry Team
Dr. Tuli Patel
Lead Ministry Team (Executive Director and Lifespan Ministry Lead)
tuli@summitbeacon.org. Zoom phone: (908) 219-9785
Dr. Tuli’s days off are Fridays and Saturdays
Dr. Tuli Patel is Beacon’s Executive Director and a member of the Lead Ministry Team alongside our minister, Rev. Robin.
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She has been a Unitarian Universalist since 1988 and attended congregations in Massachusetts, Illinois, Missouri and California. Tuli began her work with the Congregation in 2004 as Director of Religious Education. During her tenure as DRE, she built a robust program for children in grades PreK-8, including a junior youth group. During that time, Beacon was honored as a Breakthrough Congregation by the UUA. In early 2014, the Board of Trustees asked Tuli to take on executive functions of the congregation in a new role as Executive Director.
She currently leads ministries relating to Beacon’s finances, facilities and Stewardship. Tuli is a trainer and facilitator of Our Whole Lives, our values based sexuality education program. 2024 marks 20 years since she joined the staff at Beacon.
Rev. Dr. Robin Tanner
Rev. Dr. Robin Tanner is a member of the Lead Ministry Team, alongside Dr. Tuli Patel. Robin was called to Beacon after a year-long search on May 22, 2016. She previously served as Lead Minister of the Piedmont UU Church located in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Robin has a Master’s of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, a PhD from the Pacific School of Religion and is an ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister. She believes in leading social change through spiritual transformation.
Lead Ministry Team (Minister)
robin@summitbeacon.org. Zoom phone: (908) 219-9959
Rev. Robin’s day off is Fridays
Rev. Dr. Jé Exodus Hooper
Assistant Minister
je@summitbeacon.org
Beacon welcomed Rev. Jé in August 2024 as Assistant Minister, leading pastoral care and communications ministries.
Rev. Jé writes of their ministry in this way:
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“As someone who has both given and received life affirming pastoral care from a variety of congregational traditions and contexts, I am intimately familiar with what it takes – physically, mentally, and emotionally – to facilitate radically inclusive congregational environments that feed the human spirit and heal the social rifts of our world. For me, ministry includes tender, ethical engagement with a congregation’s internal and external practice of care. It invites us to ask ourselves– what are the shared values that guide our communities’ collective vision of liberation and how can we nurture a public ethic that centers those on the margins of the margins? Religious communities are often one of the first spaces we learn how to reflect, deepen, and expand our capacity to care. When intentionally nurtured, they can help us reimagine oppressive infrastructures and cultivate fortified relational ecosystems, expanding our ability to respond to the harshest crises and the deepest needs.”
Misa Iwama
Director of Music Ministries
misa@summitbeacon.org. Zoom phone: ‪(201) 500-8674
Misa Iwama joined the team at Beacon in 2019 as our Director of Music Ministries. She is a singer, teacher, conductor, arranger and pianist who performs a repertoire ranging from classical, musical theater and folk to liturgical and world music.
Misa has performed on opera and concert stages throughout the United States and appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning revival of The King & I. Her orchestral engagements include the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She is the Assistant Music Director of Central Synagogue in New York City and serves as the Artistic Director of the concert series Afternoon Music.
Jamaine Cripe
Lifespan Ministry Team for children and junior youth (6-8 Grades)
jamaine@summitbeacon.org. Zoom phone: (908) 219-9472
Jamaine’s days off are Mondays and Saturdays
Jamaine Cripe works closely with Rev. Dr.Jé as a part of the Lifespan Ministry Team. She’s been a member of Beacon’s religious education community since 2007 and is a UUA Credentialed Religious Educator.
A former assistant director for film and television, she was raised as a military brat “from everywhere & nowhere" but considers herself a Southerner at heart. Jamaine now considers Maplewood home, a place she shares with her husband Rick, her young adult daughter Alice, and their horribly spoiled “fur babies” Shivers (dog), Fiona, Sweet Potato & Squash (cats), and Doc & Sneezy (fancy rats).
Jamaine holds a Bachelor of Arts in Film Production from the University of Central Florida (GO KNIGHTS!) and a MBA in Media Management from the Metropolitan College of New York (unfortunately, they don’t have a football team).
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Dana Moore
Congregational Coordinator
dana@summitbeacon.org. Zoom phone: (908) 219-9471
Jamaine’s days off are Mondays and Saturdays
Dana N. Moore is a 2025 graduate of Starr King School for the Ministry, where she earned a Master of Divinity degree with a Concentration in Unitarian Universalist studies. A lifelong practitioner of "Love at the Center," she calls the UU Congregation at Montclair her spiritual home and joyfully continues her formation journey as an Aspirant to UU Ministry.
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After serving four years on the Lifespan Ministry Team, working with high school youth and adult guides, as the Youth Program Coordinator, Dana is celebrating her 5th year as a staff member at Beacon and her new role as Congregational Coordinator.
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Dana serves on the UUA's Commission on Appraisal and in leadership within BIPOC ministries, including DRUUMM and Black Women of the Chalice. She's passionate about the ethics of spiritual leadership, organizational development, and building sustainable beloved communities. When not nurturing her two beautiful children, you'll find Dana preaching about love, savoring good cheese, and hugging trees.
Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religious tradition that was formed from the consolidation of two religions: Unitarianism and Universalism. In America, the Universalist Church of America was founded in 1793, and the American Unitarian Association in 1825. After consolidating in 1961, these faiths became the new religion of Unitarian Universalism through the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).
Since the merger of the two denominations in 1961, Unitarian Universalism has nurtured its Unitarian and Universalist heritages to provide a strong voice for social justice and liberal religion.
The UUA is an organization of more than 1,000 UU congregations in the United States and Canada. As a covenantal religion, we have seven principles which serves as our promises to one another for how we will act in the world.