Thomas Getman, a well-known expert in the worldwide refugee crisis, is the next featured speaker at Union Chapel in the Grove; his talk is entitled “Divided on Almost Everything.”
The Chapel welcomes Getman to its interdenominational service on Sunday, August 14 at 10:30 AM. Music Director Linda Betjeman, organ, and Jean Hendrickson, flute, will provide music. All are welcome to attend.
Getman chose a reading from the Bible — Matthew, chapter 25 — that tells the parable of the sheep and the goats. It may also sum up Getman’s life’s work:
“I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me … Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
His talk will focus on how caring for “the stranger” and refugee is “a way to civil discourse, healing, and blessings,” he said. He’ll address the nexus of faith and public life, as he chose not to become an ordained minister, but instead became “a deacon for public ministry through legislative and humanitarian work.”
About Thomas Getman
Thomas Getman’s work focuses on the crossover between church and state, with a religious grounding. He is involved in Afghan and Ethiopian refugee resettlement and migrant service and works in partnership with Good Neighbors of Capitol Hill (an organization of multiple faith communities), and Lutheran Social Services. He regularly consults with U.S. senators and staff on Middle East issues.
He is also working on the papers and oral history archives of the late Senator Mark O. Hatfield with Randall Balmer, who holds the John Phillips Chair in Religion at Dartmouth. Getman was a congressional legislative director and speechwriter for Senator Hatfield.
He is a partner in a private consulting group that specializes in international, United Nations, and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) affairs, and university seminars and workshops on UN Reform and humanitarian interagency partnership building.
Until he retired in 2009, he was World Vision’s executive director for international relations, managing World Vision’s liaison activities with the UN and the World Council of Churches, and was responsible for diplomatic relations with UN government member missions in Geneva, Switzerland, and with countries on sensitive tax, staff and protocol negotiations.
He served on the board of principals for the UN Deputy Secretary General for Emergency Relief in the UN Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and as chair of a premier NGO consortium the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA).
Previously, he was director of World Vision’s programs in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip in relief and development projects in Palestine, Israel, and Jordan.
Getman earned a bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College and a master’s degree in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Karen, have three children and six grandchildren. They love to travel “to engage with our children’s (and grandkids’) careers in the priesthood-chaplaincy, stage-acting, and bibliophile, and attend operas and symphonies of ‘maestro’ friends in Santa Fe, UK, and Europe.”
‘Those still weary, still seeking’
Getman said his most recent talks have centered around his experience with the Senate and “encouragement gained in working with refugees and faithful volunteers.” He describes his 40-year career in ministry, government, and NGO/UN work as focusing “on partnership building among strategic actors and introducing critical players to one another in order to build more effective humanitarian action.”
“In my final working days, my goal is to link friends with friends who will advance the network of skilled, compassionate, and reconciling people who reduce the suffering of the poor and oppressed, especially in the Middle East and Southern Africa.”
He said his Union Chapel talk will include an especially poignant prayer, credited to Jane Deren, that includes this final blessing:
May we be blessed
With compassion for those
Still weary, still seeking,
Still with so far to go
Reception and commemorative book
An outdoor reception, catered by STARs Café will follow the service. And, the commemorative book, “All Are Welcome: 150 years of Shelter Island’s Union Chapel in the Grove,” by Carrie Cooperider, is available at the Chapel immediately after the service or anytime at Finley’s Fiction.
JoAnn Kirkland assists the trustees of Union Chapel in the Grove. To learn more about the nonprofit, historic chapel, visit its website, unionchapelinthegrove.org/.
