ALWS director installed

Ms Jamie Davies has been installed as Executive Director of Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS).

At her installation at St John’s Southgate in Victoria on 7 March, LCA Bishop John Henderson called on ALWS Board members and staff to pray for, honour, support, and work peacefully together with Ms Davies. ‘We thank you for the gift of Jamie’, Bishop Henderson said in prayer. ‘By your Holy Spirit bless her with all that she needs to take up your calling to serve as Executive Director of ALWS.’

Ms Davies said the rite of installation and blessing for ALWS staff and board was very special. ‘We had the chance to step away from the busyness of it all, worship together and affirm our shared commitment to the ALWS mission and identity’, she said. ‘It reminded me that this role – our roles in leading church ministries – are not just jobs. They are vocations.’

She joined the LCA’s aid and development agency in the chief role last August, having had more than 20 years of international relief and development experience in Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia. Ms Davies most recently was Head of International Programs with Caritas Australia, the Australian Catholic agency for international aid and development. She succeeded Chey Mattner, who is now with the Lutheran World Service Department of the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva.

Ms Davies said ALWS was ‘an inspiring place to work’.

‘The ALWS team and partners around the globe are amazing: their tireless commitment to improving the wellbeing of others, unquenchable passion for making the world a better place, and the careful way they treat the gifts from the LCA/NZ community – every last penny is put to best use’, she said.

‘And what sets ALWS apart from other aid and development agencies is the way the members of the LCA/NZ engage so proactively – they see ALWS as their own agency – which it is! We are merely a channel for the Lutheran community here to express their love and care for those most in need around the world.’