HOW DID I ARRIVE HERE? OR WHO BROUGHT ME HERE? Sheryl VanderWagen, President, NAB Antiochian Women
Little did I know that, twenty-seven years after becoming Orthodox, I would become President of the North American Board of the Antiochian Women in the organization’s fiftieth year. How did I get here, or, for that matter how did any of our Board members arrive in their leadership positions? I believe it is all about the practice of mentorship. Mentorship takes on many forms. It might be a mother or a grandmother guiding a daughter or a granddaughter by example. Formal mentorship is mostly found in corporate settings, but I believe that it is also a practice that will carry the Antiochian Women into another fifty years. At its root, mentorship is the practice of guiding and supporting someone who has less experience than you do. I will use my experiences from the last twenty-seven years as an example. I pray that as you read this, you will think of examples from your own life, and consider ways you might pass on to others the wisdom you have gained from your experience. We came to St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church (Grand Rapids, MichiganI) in September 1996. I remember it well, because our youngest daughter was a month old. We were chrismated the next year on Holy Saturday. We didn’t know anyone at the church, save Fr. John Estephan of
blessed memory, who encouraged us to come to a service. The first person to welcome us was our friend, Mae, who invited us to the coffee hour, where we also met Margaret and Margaret. These three Antiochian women played an important part in our introduction to the Church, and in our coming back Sunday after Sunday. Through them, I got involved in the Ladies Golden Links (the local Antiochian Women chapter), where I eventually took on the offices of Vice-President and President. I also learned the fine art of prosphora baking from one of the Margarets. All three of these women have since departed this life, but they are my first mothers in the Church. In 2005, I was encouraged to become involved in the Midwest Antiochian Women of the Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest. At that time, I had attended one Parish Life Conference and one Midwest Antiochian Women meeting, but I knew that I wanted to be a part of that sisterhood. Over the next ten years I served as Secretary and President. I had many wonderful Midwest sister/mentors as I learned about the diocesan and archdiocesan organizations, among them Elinor Bourjaily, Libby Kohl, and Ramona Darmour. All have departed this life, yet they left me with a strong sense of the tradition, history, and value of the Antiochian Women.
The Word
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