From seminar participant to change maker
After presenting her work at Church & Society's UN office, Megan Beddow sat down with us to talk about how attending a seminar in 2005 affected her.
At Church and Society’s United Nations and International Affairs office, we take every chance we get to engage with researchers about their work in the field to better put our faith into action.
One such opportunity came recently when the Rev. Dr. Liberato Bautista was asked to offer remarks and moderate a panel of experts hosted by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development and its sister institution, the Fundacion Global Democracia y Desarollo. Designed to help enhance the dialogue about the role and importance of nongovernmental organizations in the Dominican Republic and all over the world, the event was organized around the release of the study “Fundamentals of the Dominican Voluntary Sector” by Megan Beddow.
A 2015 research fellow with the foundation, Beddow presented her analysis of the internal organizational characteristics and external environmental factors that shape the nongovernmental organizations of the Dominican Republic. She contextualized this complex topic by illustrating how the voluntary sector typically evolves in a developing country. As a nongovernmental organization ourselves, reports like these help Church and Society critique our practices, as well as to explore potential new pathways for cooperation with other organizations working in poverty-stricken communities.
After the event, we shared a cup of tea with Beddow in our office, and we were thrilled to discover that she was not only a United Methodist but had attended a seminar! She kindly indulged my barrage of questions and explained the seminar’s impact on her career or life in general.
Here’s what she had to say:
The June 2005 Seminar in NYC and DC was the first time I understood that my faith could define my career path. What I mean by that is, outside of church leadership, I had not previously interacted with a collection of passionate professionals who expressed that their faith determined the titles and societal roles they sought to fill. From the interfaith peacemaking workshop to discussions on morality in the federal budget, the seminar speakers invited us to critically apply our faith to our view of government relations, social safety nets, charity, free speech, food sources, advocacy, diplomacy, organizational collaboration and more.
Most importantly, the seminar facilitators challenged us to act on our critical thought: to be the hands, feet and mouthpieces of God. This combination of awareness, applied intellect, measured compassion, judicious action, and faithful dedication to God and his people forms the basis of how I chose to use my time and, thereby, has affected my career path. Today, I am one of the passionate professionals I once admired.
Now, the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development is taking the conversation to the Dominican Republic. Bautista will reconvene with other panelists, grassroots organizers, and researchers in the Dominican Republic in August to share knowledge and strengthen nongovernmental organizations work in the Dominican Republic and beyond.
