Photo courtesy of Sheryl Thornton
Sheryl Thornton served as a reverend at Canterbury United Methodist Church for 17 years before retiring in March 2025.
Sheryl Thornton retired from Canterbury United Methodist Church in March after 17 years as a reverend.
Q: How did you choose your career?
A: I attended the University of Alabama with plans to work in the area of finance, following after my dad and older brothers. After my sophomore year, I took a summer job as youth director in a United Methodist church. The next fall, I began wrestling with my future, discerning that ministry might be a much better fit for my gifts and aspirations.
Q: What is the best part of working in this community?
A: I’ve always known how this community cares for each other in crisis and how they lead in community organizations to strengthen the greater Birmingham area. Since I came to Canterbury UMC in 2006, I have loved experiencing these qualities in the people I get to serve with in ministry.
Q: How has Canterbury impacted your life?
A: While serving at Canterbury, we adopted our children, Daniel and Sophie. We were surrounded with love and support, and it has meant so much that people have loved them through their baptisms, confirmation, graduation, and they still ask about them. And during the two hardest years of my life, when my husband and I both faced life-threatening illnesses, we were carried in such grace and love by our friends at church through prayers, meals, cards and so much care.
Now that she’s retired, Thornton plans to do some traveling in between volunteering and workouts, and maybe even sleep in on a Sunday morning.
