Meet Our Ministers, LoraKim Joyner and Meredith Garmon

Rev. LoraKim Joyner, DVM and Rev. Meredith Garmon, PhD Rev. LoraKim Joyner, DVM and Rev. Meredith Garmon, PhD, were called to be our ministers by unanimous congregational vote in April 2006, and began serving in August.

Both ministers were born and raised in the Southeast, and served as co-ministers to the Unitarian Universalist Community of El Paso for two years before coming to Gainesville.

Rev. Meredith Garmon, PhD

Meredith is a life-long Unitarian Universalist with five degrees in four different fields:

Meredith was an Assistant Professor of Philosophy, 1992-96, at Fisk University in Nashville before studying for the ministry at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, Shaw University Divinity School, and Meadville Lombard. In addition to being a co-minister with LoraKim in El Paso, and now Gainesville, Meredith was the the half-time sole minister to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Midland, Texas for a year, 2005-06.

Meredith has studied and practiced Zen Buddhism since 2001.

Rev. LoraKim Joyner, DVM

LoraKim was an avian veterinarian before going into ministry.

Though LoraKim doesn't practice as a veterinarian anymore, she maintains her license. She lived for almost five years in Guatemala where she worked on parrot preservation projects. She taught on the faculty of the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, 1995-97. Prior to beginning co-ministry with Meredith, LoraKim was the full-time sole minister in El Paso for two years, 2002-04.

LoraKim is an Initiate on the Sufi path.

Co-Ministers

LoraKim and Meredith met in Nashville and married there in 2000. Meredith has two grown children: daughter Morgen is in New York studying Library Sciences, and son John is at the University of Georgia studying agricultural economics. Meredith and LoraKim have adopted two Honduran refugees who live with them: Yency Contreras (b. 1987) and Osman Sanchez (b. 1988).

YouTube Video Sermonettes & Nature Video

Rev. Meredith Garmon: "Church! Huh! What Is It Good For?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5a7WptLlpY

Rev. LoraKim Joyner: "Parakeets and Paracletes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWgg6NpDbt4

Nature Video Meditation in sermon:
Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest, January 29, 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG-M1_ZgFmk


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