14.12.2023

“I Saw a Movement of Women to Lead”

In her church she was active as a youth pastor, as a theologian natural desaster was her special focus: Norita Sembiring comes to UEM with a diverse theological background. Photo by: Johannes Schermuly / UEM

Rev. Dr. Norita Novalina Sembiring is the new Team Leader Global Education at UEM.

Being a member of GBKP*, she decided to study Theology after school: “Maths and Physics never really tuned with me, so I decided to go for a more social, religious, historic approach” she explains. Several female pastors inspired her as a youth and sparked her feminism: “I saw a movement of women to lead, and that’s what drives me to be a good pastor, and now a good team leader.”

In 2007 she was ordained as a pastor of GBKP. She took her Magister Program on Religious and Cultural Studies in 2008 and continued her doctoral research on theology and natural disaster in 2017 as UEM scholarship holder. A guiding concept for her is “deep christification”: All is saved in Christ, encompassing humans, animals and non living nature. Because God loves all of them, pastoral care can start a dialogue among the subjects of this love, leading to deep empathy even between humans and volcanoes in very challenging situations.

“What I love about UEM is living ecumenism as a communion, in a spirit of togetherness and equality. I am working from Wuppertal, but globally, in all three UEM regions.” This experience started in 2014, when she attended a UEM conference on Non-Formal Adult Education in Wuppertal. Since then, she has been working together with UEM on several occasions and in different seminars. Now she joined UEM as a coworker.

For next year, she plans to organize an event on “Post Desaster”, bringing together perspectives from all three regions: “The pastoral encounter seminar this year in South Africa which focused of discrimination and racism is also part of the educational work in UEM. We organize our education according to GLEP* and build networks with a wide range of international institutions as well, especially universities are invaluable for this work. And not just with theology – with all kinds of research and science!” she explains.

In her free time she likes watching good movies: both comedy and family movies, but also scientific documentaries.

We welcome Norita Sembiring at UEM and wish her God’s blessings for her work to come.

*GBKP = Gereja Batak Karo Protestan (Karo Batak Protestant Church)

*GLEP = Global Learning in Ecumenical Perspective: A process in UEM on the question of how we learn, focusing on structures, formats and methods of learning together