Meet the Shared Ministry Team Members
Sarah Cheverton, Jim Hollowood, and Bernie Mathes have graciously made the commitment to pioneer HUU’s first Shared Ministry Team. In each member of the team, the Board’s nominating committee saw the spirit of shared ministry and voluntary contribution already at work. Contact the Shared Ministry Team.
Sarah Cheverton
Sarah Cheverton has been in the Shenandoah Valley since 1985. She became acquainted with Unitarian Universalism in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s while touring with Windfall, a folk band that played up and down the east coast, mainly in UU churches. She joined HUU around 1998 and has been actively involved in the congregation ever since. During her time at HUU, Sarah has served as a board member, as chair of the Social Justice Committee, and as a Java Jam organizer and choir member. You might also know her as “the coffee lady” who has led HUU efforts to participate in the Equal Exchange Fair Trade “business” for the past four years.
Sarah has agreed to serve on the Shared Ministry Team because, in her own words, “HUU is an important community in my life and others' lives; I want it to develop and grow. I admire the thoughtful and thorough work of the Shared Ministry Task Force and would like to see their vision realized.” As a grown-up “preacher’s kid,” the church community has always been important to Sarah, and even though she never really connected spiritually to the Christian faith, she has always enjoyed participating within a church community. She feels fortunate that, in HUU, she has finally found a faith tradition in which she genuinely feels comfortable.
Sarah’s career is in professional development and training. She has worked in the Center for Instructional Technology at James Madison University for ten years and was recently promoted to the Director position. Sarah enjoys playing music with the band blue stone sky and lives in the Ottobine area with her partner, Pam, and their two dogs and five cats.
Jim Hollowood
In Jim Hollowood, the nominating committee saw an active and inspired volunteer who would bring to the table almost thirty years of experience as a UU in two very different congregations: one with 150 years of history and 400 members (the First Church, Unitarian Universalist, in Belmont, Massachusetts), and the other only twenty years old with about sixty-five members (HUU). Jim and his wife, Judith, were members at Belmont for 27 years and joined HUU after moving to the Shenandoah Valley two years ago.
Jim has an active history as a UU; in Belmont he served on various finance and fundraising committees and as a youth program leader. Soon after joining HUU, Jim began serving on the HUU finance committee. Jim has joined the Shared Ministry Team for two primary reasons: “to help make HUU a very robust congregation,” and “to develop a strong organizational structure that will serve for many years in the future.”
In his professional life, Jim has worked on the finance and administrative side of educational and non-profit organizations. He currently works with The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.
Bernie Mathes
Bernie Mathes and her husband, Lincoln Gray, moved to Harrisonburg in 2005 when Lincoln began teaching at James Madison University. They joined HUU that fall and have been active participants in the life of HUU. Prior to life in Harrisonburg, Bernie and Lincoln were members of Emerson Unitarian Church in Houston, Texas, for more than twenty years. During her time at HUU, Bernie has been a member of the Sunday Services Committee (and currently serves as chair), has been an active choir member, and has filled in on the piano. Bernie also served on the Shared Ministry Task Force with David Lane and Julie Caran. She agreed to continue her service in the role of a Shared Ministry Team member in order to provide a thread of continuity to this new embodiment of ministry at HUU. Bernie became involved in Shared Ministry because she has been impressed with “the many ways our congregation ministers to each other and the larger community.” She explains, “I’m excited to help deepen this ministry and strengthen our connections to our local community and the Unitarian Universalist Association.”
When not at HUU, Bernie works as the Social Work Coordinator at the Harrisonburg Free Clinic. Her professional training is as a Clinical Social Worker, though she spent much of her time in Houston directing an Early Literacy program at Rice University. Bernie and Lincoln have two daughters. Emily, in graduate school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is getting married this summer. Katherine, who teaches at Fishburne Military Academy, occasionally sings at HUU.
Contact the Shared Ministry Team Members
- Bernie Mathes
- Sarah Cheverton
- Jim Hollowood
- Shared Ministry Team (all members)