Meet our Interim Minister:
Reverend Doctor Barry Thomas Whittemore begins his ministry here in September. Please see our Contact Us page for more information
Barry was born at the peak of the post-war baby boom (1947) in Norfolk, Virginia, where he led a quiet childhood. His father was an independent gasoline retailer and mechanic; he now lives in an assisted living for Alzheimers patients facility in Wilmington, NC. His stay at home mom was a native of the Blue Ridge Mountains; she died in 1960.
After high school Barry attended VPI (aka Virginia Tech) unsuccessfully. He then spent four years in the US Army Security Agency , where he trained and served as a Hungarian linguist . He worked and traveled in Europe for two years before returning to Va. Tech and graduating. He did mostly construction work for a couple of years before he settled on a career as a History teacher, eventually earning an MS from Radford University and an MA and DA from Carnegie Mellon. Not surprisingly, Barry's dissertation was in Appalachian History. Along the way, he taught full time at the late Southern Seminary College as well as numerous adjunct positions.
While in graduate school, Barry felt the need for a different kind of community, beyond the mundane, secular world. Though raised a Southern Baptist, he found the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh, which he joined in 1987. In 1993, after being down-sized from teaching and spending a year back at home, he moved back to the mountains to adjunct teach and work on his dissertation. At that time he started attending the lay-led UU congregation in Blacksburg, Va. That congregation let him do services and eventually sent him off to the Divinity School at Duke University. He earned an M.Div . and did his internship at Eno River UUF in Durham, one of our flagship large churches. He was ordained by the Holston Valley UUC (TN) in 1999 and served them for five years. He is now ending his third year as the consulting minister at Outlaw's Bridge Universalist Church near Seven Springs, NC. He intends to complete his career in the interim ministry field.
Rev. Whittemore is single and lives with his three cats. While still enjoying scholarly pursuits in History and Religion, he is just as comfortable out of doors walking, hiking, kayaking, camping . Though it's been a while since he played softball, Barry thoroughly enjoys attending minor league baseball games. His soul needs periodic refreshing by touching the mountains, listening to live Old Time String Band music, and doing traditional southern mountain dance. As a student of the New South, living in Birmingham holds great interest.
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
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All Rights Reserved.