Nationality American Religion Unitarianism Books This Piece of Eden Years active 1991–2014 Role Minister | Occupation Minister Name Vanessa Southern Alma mater Stanford Spouse(s) Rohit Menezes | |
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Residence Maplewood, New Jersey, United States Education Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School | ||
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Vanessa Rush Southern (born 1968) is an American Unitarian minister notable for increasing church membership as well as being a progressive liberal advocate of issues such as reproductive health care options for women, diversity and racial tolerance, affordable housing including projects for Habitat for Humanity, human rights, and remembrance of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King. She was minister of the Unitarian Church in Summit from 2001 to 2014. She presided over high-profile weddings as well as local community discussions on topics such as diversity and tolerance and the "achievement gap" between low–income and high–income families. Her father was the director of an acting school in New York City called the School for Film and Television and her mother was a hematology technologist at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She was married in 1999 to Rohit Menezes. She wrote two books, This Piece of Eden and Miles of Dream.
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Ministry
Southern was minister of the Universalist National Memorial Church in Washington from 1995 to 2000, and in Summit from 2001 to 2014. During those years, congregation membership grew from 400 to 500 members, and children's education expanded to 200 members, according to a report in the Independent Press. The congregation supported relief efforts in Darfur, Haiti, New Orleans, Pakistan, Guatemala and elsewhere, as well as social action projects including tutoring sessions in an Irvington school, local food banks, a program entitled Summit Helping Its People, a transition program for homeless people called Homefirst, house-building efforts, and other charitable projects. In 2010, Southern's congregation was honored by the Unitarian national assembly as being one of four "breakthrough congregations" in North America for increases in membership and charitable activity. She was quoted in the Dallas News thanking utility workers from Texas who helped restore electric power in New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.