Church Grounds
Pavilion is Planned
An ad hoc committee is planning the construction of a new pavilion on top of the knoll just north of the church.
Church members are asked to take pictures of good-looking pavilions as they travel and give them to chair Jim Albea. Other committee members are Bob Koehler, Bob Clifton and Gerry Garrick.
We have a Nature Trail
The Nature Trail is open! You are invited to use it freely for meditative exploration, nature walks, afternoon strolls, or just to stretch your legs after church.
Our church sits on fourteen wooded acres atop Red Mountain. We have views of downtown Birmingham, swampy low areas and high pine knolls. The trail begins near the entrance to our property and continues along the hillside, ending in the outdoor worship space below the Memorial Garden. There is a stone path that leads to the west side of the building. The Eagle Trail was the first and most difficult trail segment to complete. That project was organized by Colin Albea as his service project for the rank of Eagle Scout. A dedication ceremony was held after the service on May 13, 2007. Recently, the nature trail was extended and is now connected all the way around the property!
There is a lot of work to be done to make it a nice walkable path. If you would like to help with it we will have trail work parties every Sunday afternoon during the month of May. Jim Albea will conduct a tour of the trail immediately after the Sunday services. (You will need good shoes, a fine sense of balance, and a pioneering spirit to make it around the trail, at least until after the first few work parties.) Then come back any time from around 2:00pm til dusk. If you can only spare an hour that's fine. Hopefully we can get the trail smooth and walkable before
the weather gets to hot and buggy.
The main work to be done is digging and stump removal. Tools needed are picks, shovels, and heavy-duty hoes. Also, a number of large fallen trees are lying across the path... lumberjacks, here's your chance to crank up the chain saw (please follow safety precautions). And there's all manner of debris to clear from the trail surface and nearby -- especially privet. And then there's always a great need for keeping the diggers and lumberjacks hydrated and cheerful.
Our Memorial Garden
The original Memorial Garden , located on the grounds of the “old” church, was dedicated to the memory of the church's first minister, Rev. Alfred W. Hobart. When the church moved to its present location in 2002, the Memorial Garden was also moved to the grounds of the new building.
Marilyn Sheffield, who had planned the original Garden, also designed the larger and grander one for the church's new location. She had drafted the preliminary design for a steel entry gate, but it had not yet been completed at the time of her death in April 2004. John Powell finished the gate design and fabricated it in his engineering plant. John and his wife Pam donated the gate as a gift to the church, stipulating that it be called “Marilyn's Gate.” (It appears in the upper left of each page on our web site.)
The pavilion at Aldridge Gardens in Hoover is one example of what we're looking for:
Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham
A Welcoming 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 'at' uucbham.org
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All Rights Reserved.