An Episcopal priest and the Summer Camp Reading co-founder, the Rev. Canon Noel Julnes-Dehner is also a documentary filmmaker whose work has been broadcast on television and shown in film festivals and other venues. She has been published by Sojourners magazine, Forward Movement, and Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women in the Military. Her family is a source of joy.
What past event do you often reflect upon, and how did that event change you?
When I was a teenager, I was suddenly consumed with why we are here and why things are the way they are –– even wondering why tables look as they do or, looking at the night sky, wondering at its vastness. There had to be more than everyday life, and I struggled to find meaning.
Kierkegaard’s “leap” into a Christian life spoke to me, and one day I said, I am going to live as if following Jesus Christ makes a qualitative difference and see what happens. I have found “The Way”2 to be a path of transformation.
How does your work add to the quality of your life?
Ordination offers a template of ministering with prayer, preaching, celebrating, and caring. To bring the “reconciling love of Christ” and “to build up the family of God”1 is a way to pattern my life. Knowing that people are counting on me and inviting me into their lives encourages me and points me in that right direction.
I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t struggle, that I don’t rage or say to God, “Don’t talk to me, I’m not interested.” But my work allows me to go deeply into my life and that of others. I prefer that to remaining in the shallows.
Tell us a story you would like to share with the world.
Fourteen years ago, I saw a painting in the newspaper, advertising an art show. It was only a simple painting of green leaves, but I had to see it. Why, I wondered? I hate going out in the cold winter, and our condo didn’t have much wall space. But something was driving me, so, off my husband Joe and I went, saw the small painting, and bought it.
The artist was a parishioner of an Episcopal church led by a colleague. Both were there. I mentioned that I was tutoring in their neighborhood, and that the students couldn’t do their math because they couldn’t read the directions very well. I had tried to get them into our diocesan one-week reading camp trial, but there wasn’t room.
“One week isn’t enough anyway. Let’s do our own,” said Joe. And with that, Summer Camp Reading was born, serving second through fourth graders who struggle to read.
My colleague, who worked in education before her ordination, offered her church as a place to hold the camp. She directed that first summer’s camp.
Now, every summer we have a wonderful camp at multiple locations where children receive daily tutoring, listen to stories, play literacy games, write in journals, work on sight words, learn to read books, learn about values, and have fun –– all for free. And every summer, tests show campers improving in comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary.
Neither Joe nor I have a background in education. But just as the Spirit led me to that art show, we have been led not only to our current director, who is amazing, but to all of our staff whose skills and nurturing are changing children’s lives. I remain in awe of what has been created. I cry at our closing ceremonies.
1 The Book of Common Prayer
2 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6). The Way, used to describe the early Christian movement, remains a descriptor for following the teachings of Jesus.
Author photo: Courtesy of author.
Side bar image: Pixabay/Edar.
