Volunteer Impact
Conceived as a way to put retirement age religious social activists to work where their well-honed skills would make a difference, Volunteers in Global Service (VGS) has successfully placed creative colleagues with host sites. A brief look at some of their work depicts the specifics of that impact and suggests future directions.
Silver Spring, Maryland
The Rev. Dr. Ann-Cathrin Jarl, theologian and Lutheran priest from Uppsala, Sweden pioneered the project in 2012 with her work at the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Ann-Cathrin provided guidance and networking for the Swedish Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church of America as they developed a bi-lateral climate change conference with the Episcopal Church, USA. That event held in Washington, D.C. drew hundreds of participants and resulted in common commitments to action.
While at WATER, Ann-Cathrin was a valuable mentor to interns and a wise counselor to staff. Several women from WATER attended the conference and met many local and international colleagues in the process. As climate change becomes an increasingly important matter, Ann-Cathrin’s visit motivated WATER colleagues to embrace it with enthusiasm and knowledge.
Bangalore, India
Dr. Victoria Rue, California-based theologian theatre writer/director, a professor of Comparative Religious Studies, and a Roman Catholic woman priest spent time in Bangalore, India as part of VGS in 2014. In India, she worked through VISHTAR with young women in a theatre workshop. She lectured in both academic and popular settings on issues of sexuality and the sacred, sexual violence and religion, biblical, and Qur’anic stories in seamless ways. She proved herself a master teacher.
She took on a second VGS commitment in 2017 in Bethlehem. Victoria developed a connection with Dar Al-Kalima University of Arts and Culture in Bethlehem while she was in Israel/Palestine. She met with women’s groups and engaged in both study and teaching. At the Tantur Ecumenical Institute she had the chance to brief the director, Russ McDugall about future VGS colleagues. The play she wrote, “Mary/Maryam in Christian and Islamic Tradition,” was performed there.
Meanwhile, Victoria has shared her experiences with many groups in the U.S. via her unique and creative artistic expressions including drama and preaching. Her students at San Jose State University were the primary beneficiaries of her experience. As she writes: “The resonance with my trip was palpable for them, especially the image of the two date palm trees in front of the Mosque of Omar in Bethlehem planted to honor Mary/Maryam.” Lucky students!
Tenafly, New Jersey
Martin Ritchie, a PhD candidate at New School, University of Edinburgh with a background in arts management, choir training, and organ spent several months in 2014 at the Tenafly Presbyterian Church in Tenafly, New Jersey where Board Member Eileen Lindner is the pastor. Martin shared insights from the Scottish liturgical renewal movement center in Iona with its emphasis on social justice.
Martin coordinated the Arts and Faith Festival that involved many people in that theatre-rich congregation near New York City. Martin also took on worship and pastoral duties during his stay. The Tenafly congregation benefitted enormously from his presence. His visit was a lovely example of the Scottish reform movement’s efforts at justice seeking expressed through the arts, something the Tenafly people do as well.
Palestine/Israel
Dr. Kathleen Schatzberg, retired president of the Cape Cod Community College, volunteered for six months in Palestine/Israel at Tantur, a study center run by the University of Notre Dame. She worked with staff on public relations, grant writing, and program assistance to which she brought decades of experience and wisdom. That work is still in progress at this writing.
She participated in many of Tantur’s workshops and liturgical events. She met dozens of people from around the world who pass through that welcoming place in their efforts to learn about the complex issues at hand in finding a peaceful solution for all in that fraught part of the world. It is hard to imagine a more important location for a U.S. colleague to simply be and learn, accompany and pray.
Guatemala
Judith Nebrig has travelled to Guatemala during her VGS years as part of a twenty-year covenanted relationship between The Presbytery of Western North Carolina and two Presbyteries in Guatemala. Working with the partners in Sur Occidente and Suchitepequez Presbyteries, Judith has focused on improving access to and quality of education for children and university-level students, including seminarians by developing and maintaining relationships of respect and dignity with the Guatemalan partners.
Judith served on the leadership team of the three presbyteries that has made possible clean water, improved nutrition, and empowerment of women in Guatemala. Back in the Presbytery of Western North Carolina, she has worked to increase understanding of immigration issues at a time when that theme is front and center in American life. VGS board members know what it is to volunteer.
Matanzas, Cuba
Mary E. Hunt has taught several times at the Seminario Evangelico de Teologia in Matanzas, Cuba during her years on the board. Her courses on feminist theology and feminist ethics have exposed Latin American students from a variety of denominations (including Seventh Day Adventists, Anglicans, etc.) to concepts that can be helpful in their pastoral work. Issues of sexuality, religion and domestic violence, and the like produced lively discussion. Several reciprocal visits to WATER by SET Vice Rector Clara Luz Ajo have deepened the two organizations’ collaboration.