Director of Religious Education
Sharron Mendel, a graduate of Mountain Brook High School, received her B.S. in Foreign Service from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1992, and her M.A. in Gender and Development from the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University in Brighton, England in 1994. For many years she worked internationally to improve the lives of women, young people, minorities and immigrants, specifically in the areas of y outh leadership development and violence prevention.
She has been a traveler since she was born, first on a quest to see all 50 US States with her family before graduating from high school, then on voyages across Western and Eastern Europe, Central America, Africa, India, and various parts of Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The best parts of these travels have been the amazing people she has met and the beauty she has discovered everywhere.
Raised in a huge family with both Jewish and Christian roots, she has been a meditator since her grandmother died in December 2001 and one of Birmingham's first yoga teachers showed her how to find peace in the middle of pain. She is honored to have spent the summer of 2006 near Bordeaux, France, at Plum Village, a Buddhist monastery in the tradition of Nobel Peace Prize-nominee Thich Nhat Hanh, learning to enjoy each moment.
There she discovered that in addition to poetry and articles, she loves writing songs, children's stories, and potential performance pieces. Her writings range from travel tales to explorations into justice, peace, and healing from the most intimate to the global levels.
After so many years of wandering the globe, she is delighted to be back in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, and thrilled to have found a place at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham where she can both grow in community with others and offer some of the gifts she has cultivated along the way so far.
Her favorite things, though, are walking in beautiful places listening for songs in the wind and laughing with little kids.
If you would like to discuss the Religious Education Program or just introduce yourselves, please feel free to contact Sharron at 205-945-8109 or dre@uucbham.org .
Office hours,
Monday-Wednesday 10-3,
Thursday by appointment,
Sunday 9-1
Write Sharron at dre@uucbham.org.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham
A member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Location: 4300 Hampton Heights Drive · Birmingham, Alabama · 35209 · U.S.A
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 19786 · Birmingham, AL 35219
Phone: (205) 945-8109 · Fax: (205) 945-8111
E-mail: office@uucbham.org
Copyright © 2006-2008 Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham
All Rights Reserved.