Meet Charlene Zuill, Spiritual Life Coordinator
Rev. Charlene Zuill is the new Spiritual Life Coordinator at Boston University School of Theology. In addition to serving in campus ministry for 15 years, she is also an ordained elder of the United Methodist Church, California Pacific Annual Conference. Charlene brings a wealth of experience, an exuberance for the work, and a strong commitment to the spiritual growth of our community.
STH: Tell us a little about yourself and what brought you here.
CHARLENE: I came here from Honolulu, Hawaii where I was serving as the director and campus minister of the Wesley Foundation, the United Methodist campus ministry serving students at the University of Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific University, and Kapi’olani Community College. After serving there 15 years, it seemed like it was a good time for the ministry and a good time for me to move on. I knew I wanted to continue in higher education ministry. It’s a big move! When I tell folks I moved here from Hawaii everyone’s eyes get really big and they ask Do you know how cold it gets here?
STH: That was one of my questions! Are you ready for this?
CHARLENE: I’m in total denial, total denial. I do have a coat–I’m not in that much denial. Everyone has told me that Boston is a beautiful city and I’ll really love the fall. Maybe in about October, I’ll move from denial and make sure I have a good pair of boots and see how the winter goes.
STH: What are some of the things you like and enjoy about higher education ministry?
CHARLENE: In the context that I left, one of the things that I really enjoyed was the ability to be a lot more spontaneous than I had found life in the local church. Students would come to me and ask, “Can we paint a mural on this wall?” and I could say “Sure, let’s do it!” One of the things I like about higher education ministry is that it’s focused. I think it’s pretty exciting to be able to focus on a particular constituency within the life of the broader church community.
I’m really excited about working with seminarians because a majority of them will be going into congregational ministry and other forms of ministry and mission. I’m excited to be a part of those years where they’re living into some dreams. I’m sure folks will come to seminary very excited and then very quickly get weary, so I want to be able to hear the stories and dreams and then hold that up as they experience the rigors of seminary. I’m really looking forward to learning the particular needs of seminarians and having some fun trying to meet those needs.
STH: Where did you go to seminary?
CHARLENE: I went to Candler School of Theology at Emory University. From Candler I moved to the Los Angeles area where I worked as an associate minister and did a clinical pastoral education residency. Then I was able to move into a full-time campus ministry position.
STH: What does spiritual community mean to you?
CHARLENE: A term that has become dear to me in terms of defining ‘spiritual community’ is ‘strength for the journey’ – being among a group of people that give you strength on your journey and you also have the opportunity to strengthen them in their journey. There’s a companioning aspect of spiritual community. Another part of spiritual community that’s very important is accountability. Especially at a school like STH that has an interest and a focus on social justice, I anticipate STH being a community that will take the risk of having deep conversations and then putting some action behind the conversations.
There’s another image that comes to mind for me when I think of the spiritual life. There’s a scene in the movie Finding Nemo where Nemo is among a school of fish and they get caught up in a fishing net. You can see the fishing boat pulling them up and they’re all panicking. A friend outside of the net says “Swim down, swim down.” When the captured fish and Nemo all gain the awareness that if they work together this disastrous ending is not going to happen, they all start swimming down, break the net and they’re freed. I think for the majority of us, we experience spiritual life within community. If we work together we’ll collectively meet not only our individual goals but also our communal goals, which hopefully is bringing in the Kingdom of God and bringing about a more just society.
STH: Can you tell us something about yourself that people might not know?
CHARLENE: I took hula classes when I was in Honolulu for about seven years. It was one way that I was able to learn about Hawaiian culture because hula is telling stories through motion. When you dance hula, it’s a way of interpreting visually what’s being said and you have to understand the whole history behind the song, the story behind the song. For example, there are different motions for different kinds of rain – the oceans, the currents and swells. I really enjoyed learning hula, culture, and Hawaiian language through dancing hula.
STH: What do you like about Boston so far?
CHARLENE: It’s a wonderful walking city. For the past ten years I’ve walked the Honolulu Marathon. I love walking – it’s very therapeutic. My first Saturday here, I went on the Black Heritage Trail walking tour through Beacon Hill because I thought it was important to connect with the beginnings of African American community here.
STH: What are you most looking forward to in the coming school year?
CHARLENE: During the interview process, the one thing that came through very strong was the sense of community here at Boston University School of Theology. When I asked the folks who were interviewing me “What keeps you at BU,” everyone unanimously said “the community.” I’m really looking forward to becoming a part of this community, contributing to this community and learning from this community.
One of the other things that I’m looking forward to is collaborating with a lot of other folks in the seminary. I’m discovering that this position is pretty interdisciplinary in terms of being able to interface with a lot of different folks. I imagine I’ll learn some wonderful things about collaborative work and I’m very excited about that. That’ll be new and refreshing.