Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg

STAFF DIRECTORY

Reverend Meg Barnhouse - Minister

"My parents were both students at Princeton Seminary when they met and married, and I was born in Princeton, in August, 1955, before my father graduated. He was the son of a famous Presbyterian radio evangelist and she the third child of missionaries to India from the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. On my mother’s side of the family, there was a minister in every generation since the late 1600’s. All the cousins lived in fear that they would be the one in our generation to 'get the Call.' My parents separated when I was three and my sister was one. We lived with my mother’s parents in NC for three years, and then all moved back to PA to be near my father. He was on the 6 and 11 o’clock news for CBS in Philadelphia doing commentary on the news." "I was passionate about my Christianity, about parapsychology, and about yoga. I didn’t like church much, so I went to a Conservative Friend’s Meeting in Haverford, PA, for most of my adolescence. It was a way to drive my evangelical parents crazy, but it was church, so what could they say?"

Reverend David R. Gillespie - Director of Religious Education

Spiritual journeys can sometimes meander like a lazy, lowcountry river. Such is definitely the case with mine. Presbyterianism was infused in me from the moment my adoptive parents took me home. I received a

Bachelor’s in Biblical Education (Columbia International University) and a Master of Divinity (Reformed Theological Seminary). It was encounters with UU folks here and there that finally made me aware that my own journey had taken me to a place very much akin to theirs — an understanding of the inherent dignity and worth of all aspects of the universe, a conviction that how a person lived was the indicator of what they truly thought and believed, over against what they simply professed, a belief in the insights of a myriad of religious traditions.

John Gault - Director of Music

Mary Bracey - Director of Children's Ministries/YRUU Advisor

Amanda Goldsmith - Childcare Coordinator