SHARON DECKER is a successful business executive who has effectively balanced her professional life with responsibilities of the home, service to the community and devotion to her faith. She spent over 17 years with Duke Power Company, a career that evolved from her first job as a Consumer Education Representative to positions including Chief Communications Officer and Vice President of Customer Service. Her journey has included positions as Founding President of The Lynnwood Foundation and The Lee Institute in Charlotte, President of Doncaster, a women’s apparel company and most recently as Founder of The Tapestry Group, a faith based initiative focused on providing women with ideas and inspiration for living well.

She is co-host with Pam Stone and Ramona Holloway of the Sunday morning radio show, The Satisfied Life, on 107.9The Link. She serves on the boards of Family Dollar Stores, Inc., Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated, SCANA Corporation and Herschend Family Entertainment. She is the mother of four and she and her family reside in Rutherfordton, NC. Sharon is a Lay Pastor in the local Presbyterian Parish and is currently pursuing her Master of Divinity degree at The Christopher White School of Divinity at Gardner Webb University and her required internship position this next year is as Interim Director of Graduate Ministries at The Center for Christian Study, Charlottesville, Virginia, serving the Darden Business School and UVA Law School communities.

 

BILL DIETRICH is a longtime spiritual director, retreat and spiritual formation group leader. For over 20 years he served in various capacities with the board and staff of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, DC, and served as Shalem’s Executive Director from 2003 to 2009. He continues to teach in Shalem’s Spiritual Guidance Program and is also an Associate at Pendle Hill, the Quaker center for spiritual nurture near Philadelphia. He currently serves on the board of Companioning the Dying, a program for hospice workers and others who are called to accompany others’ final journeys. He also volunteers in patient care and other capacities with Montgomery Hospice. Bill is a member of Bethesda Friends Meeting (Quakers), and is also a board member of the Silver Spring Zendo, One Heart Sangha, an interfaith community that teaches Zen meditation.

Prior to his involvement with Shalem, Bill had a successful career in public accounting and corporate finance. Since 1986 he has served on the Board of Trustees of the Ariel Investment Trust, a socially responsible family of mutual funds. He and his wife, Anne, live in Rockville, MD and have 3 grown children and one grandchild.

MIKE FLANAGAN, M. Div., is the Rector of Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Simpsonville, SC. A native of Charlotte, NC and raised in York, SC, he was trained as an Industrial Engineer at North Carolina State University, and worked in that field for ten years. Mike left the engineering field to attend seminary in Wisconsin and was ordained in 1991. Mike served as assistant rector at St. Michael and All Angels in Columbia, SC, and came to Simpsonville as Rector of Holy Cross in January of 1995.

In addition to serving the church as a priest, Mike also composes, plays guitar and sings. In September of 1991 he completed a compilation of original songs on a CD, “Come to the Wilderness.” Mike is married to Deborah (29 years!) and they have a son, Nic, married to Jaclyn, and a daughter, Megan.

 

MARGARET HARDY is a spiritual director & retreat leader, a student of culinary arts at Anne Arundel Community College’s Hotel, Culinary Arts and Tourism Institute in Glen Burnie, MD. As a volunteer, she cooked for two months in 2007 in the retreat center kitchen on the Isle of Iona. She is in the beginning stages of developing a program of cooking and eating together for seniors living alone or in assisted living. Her volunteer activities include community theater, choir, altar guild and baby-hugging at a pediatric hospital.

 

JANICE JENNINGS has a background in marketing and has been a Greenville Realtor for over 17 years. Longing to go deeper in relationship with God and to strengthen her skills for helping others, she completed the Sursum Corda Spiritual Direction Formation Program and is finishing her International Life Coaching certification through Life Coaching Institute. Janice has been married to her husband, Victor, for 35 years, and is the mother of two grown sons. She leads an adult Sunday school class at Messiah Lutheran Church in Mauldin, SC, serves on the Greater Greenville Association of Realtors Board of Realtors and is actively involved in foreclosure prevention and affordable housing.

She has heard God’s call to her to serve as Interim Executive Director for The Anchorage and is excited about the year ahead.

 

ASHLYN MENGEL, serves on the Music Ministry staff of Christ Lutheran Church, Charlotte, NC, where she plays organ and piano, and participates in planning worship. She earned a Master of Sacred Music degree from Emory University in conjunction with Candler School of Theology, and a Bachelor of Music degree from The University of Texas at Austin. Ashlyn and her husband, Chris, live in Charlotte with their daughters, Ainsley and Kaitlyn.

 

DONNA MEYER is the Director of Ministry Formation at Bon Secours St. Francis Health System and a nurse. In her 30+ years of nursing experience she considers her work with the poor in an inner city clinic as the place she most visibly encounters the human face of God. Donna has led retreats in New England, has provided days of prayer for various groups and has been a spiritual director for both lay people and clergy. Her background is Ignatian spirituality. She received her nursing diploma from St. Luke’s School of Nursing, her BA from Smith College and her M. Div. from Weston Jesuit School of Theology. She and her husband Paul have three adult daughters.

 

ROBERT MILES has served St. Michael Lutheran Church in Greenville as Pastor since 1988. His education includes a BA from Davidson College and an M. Div. from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. He has a love for preaching, teaching, and being with people in ways that produce growth and change. He has had a long-time interest in the book of Genesis, and in family systems. He enjoys time on the water especially in a sailboat or kayak. He is married to Debbie, an early childhood educator, and they enjoy time with their two grown children, Jessica who is married to Seth, and Adam.

 

ADAM PAGE serves as a Chaplain Resident at the Mountain Home Veterans Affairs Hospital in Johnson City, TN. He earned his Masters of Divinity and Bachelor of Arts in Religious Education from Gardner-Webb University. He also volunteers as Young Adult Leader by teaching Sunday School and a Life Group at Colonial Heights Christian Church. Previously, he served in youth, children, and young adult ministry for five years. He and his wife Ashley live in Kingsport, TN.

 

CARROLL PAGE has been telling stories since his college days, when it became part of his ministry to youth and college students. He has been a teller at several storytelling events and in many schools. Through the years, he has been a part of the National Storytelling Association and the Network of Biblical Storytellers. His experience allows him to relate stories to all age groups and to connect stories and spirituality.

He received a BA in sociology from the University of South Carolina and a masters and doctorate from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. The title of his doctoral project was “Storytelling as Theological Reflection.”

For the past seventeen years, Carroll has been the pastor of Boiling Springs Baptist Church in Boiling Springs, NC. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Gardner-Webb University.

 

CATHERINE POWELL, founder of The Anchorage, earned
degrees from the University of Florida and Erskine Theological Seminary. Her formation also includes the Spiritual Guidance Program of The Shalem Institute, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, and a Christian process of spiritual/psychological healing. She is pursuing a D. Min. with a focus in Spirituality at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. This summer she hopes to complete a Spiritual Exercises Training Program at The Jesuit Center in Wernersville, PA. Cathie was ordained to the Gospel Ministry in 1999. She and her husband, Skeeter, enjoy as much time as possible with their two grown sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren.

Cathie believes that “God is enough” while this culture shouts otherwise, saying we always need a little bit more. Her greatest sense of call is to provide settings for others to experience this “enough-ness” of God.

 

Jeff Rogers, Ph.D. (Princeton Theological Seminary), is a teacher and preacher who has led retreats, conferences, and workshops for a variety of congregations, denominations, and universities. Prior to serving as senior minister of First Baptist Church, Greenville, SC, from 2001-2011, he was a member of the Religion Department of Furman University from 1988-2001. A former president of the South Carolina Academy of Religion, he brings a long-time interest in faith development, spiritual formation and theological exploration of vocation. His most recent book is Building a House for All God’s Children: Diversity Leadership in the Church (2008), which he led as a Clergy Day for The Anchorage in March 2006.

Jeff brings his giftedness as a listener and as one who can distill complex concepts into bite-size pieces. He is regarded as a consummate teacher in church and academic settings. He and his wife Bev are the parents

 

Caroline Smith, SSMN, is Provincial of the Sisters of Saint Mary of Namur in Buffalo, NY. She holds an MA in Theological Studies with a specialization in Spiritual Direction from the Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge and a Ph. D. in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola College, Baltimore. She received additional training in Spiritual Direction and Ignatian Retreats at Guelph Spirituality Center in Ontario, Canada. A licensed Counselor, she has worked extensively in Jungian dream work and the integration of the spiritual and psychological. She has been leading retreatants through the 30-Day Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius for over 25 years.

 

MOLLY WILKES is a retired ordained United Methodist Minister. She did theological studies at Erskine and Duke Seminaries. Molly is a graduate of Emory University and has a MEd degree from the University of South Carolina. Before entering the ministry as a second career, Molly was an educator, counselor and Women’s Center Director in Technical Colleges in South Carolina. She loves drama and helping people experience God’s truth in this context. Molly and her husband, also a UMC minister, live in Landrum, S.C. They have three children and eleven grandchildren.