05.02.2025

Staff Exchange: From the Cape to the Eifel

With competence and experience into Monschau County: Rev Dr Claudette Williams. Photo by: Johannes Schermuly, UEM

Claudette Williams, the new coworker of EKiR* in Monschauer Land, starts the interview with a lot of appreciation: “I love being a reverend, especially when I am talking to elderly people”, she says. “The wisdom they import, the faith they bring into the conversation, these things are special to me.” Williams is an ordained minister of URCSA*, a member church of the United Evangelical Mission (UEM). Now she decided to work in Germany as part of UEM’s Staff Exchange Program. The UEM runs a program to exchange staff between all three Regions: Africa, Asia and Europe. Currently, 30 coworkers are taking part in this program. Because when we work together internationally, we often find surprising, innovative perspectives and new solutions for old problems.  

People making a difference

In URCSA, Williams lead the church-based NGO, called the Christian Dependency Ministry, that supported families struggling with drugs and substance abuse.

Her own path to becoming a church minister started at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa. After changing to Stellenbosch University, she found herself in an almost exclusively white context, “while up to that time, basically everyone I knew was coloured or black.” She recalls how she and her group of coloured and black classmates, would always get the worse marks than their fellow white students. “That’s where I really learned what racism is”, she says. Williams later did her Master of Practical Theology at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. In 2015, she first encountered UEM when starting her Master Course IMADM*, parallel to working in the NGO. And in 2024, she graduated as a Doctoral student. Her research topic is: “Moving towards a transformative diaconia in the Christian Dependency Ministry in the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa. A practical theological approach.”

Working with children

What fascinated her about the job description in Monschauer Land was their focus on children and youth. Just as working with elderly people, this is something she really enjoys. So, what can her future congregation expect from their new exchange staff? “I really like laughing! And I am funny, even if not everybody sees that always”, she smiles. “I am a really open person, I just hug people. And even though I have struggles, and often some unanswered questions, I have a deep faith in God. This faith has kept me going in my ministry.”

For her work in and around Monschau, we wish her all the best and God’s blessings, together with the other 30 coworkers in UEM’s Staff Exchange Program.

*EKiR = Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland (Evangelical Church in the Rhineland)

*URCSA = Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa

*IMADM = International Master of Arts in Diaconic Management (Diaconia Study Course organized by UEM)