7 minute read
Interview: Departing vicar Charmaine Braatvedt
Holy Trinity vicar Charmaine Braatvedt is moving on. She tells Helen Vause of a growing need for what the church offers and her delight at the church-hall makeover she initiated.
Come on in... Charmaine Braatvedt recalls Holy Trinity playing a big part in making her personally welcome as an immigrant to New Zealand
Charmaine Braatvedt’s days as the welcoming face of Holy Trinity Church in Church St are fast running out for the popular minister.
On Sunday 16 October, she conducts her last service as vicar at the church she loves.
Braatvedt, who’s been known to refer to herself as the mother of a very extended family, is leaving her flock for family duties of her own.
She plans to spend time in her native South Africa, caring for her 94-year-old mother, who lives alone in Cape Town.
And although she knows she has made the right choice at the right time, she’s feeling the pain of the parting.
She has been the first woman vicar in the parish since the first Anglican church was built in the 1850s, taking over from Murray Spackman in 2008, after working with him previously. When she arrived in Devonport with her family in 1992, knowing no one, Holy Trinity played a big part in finding her path into the community. She’s never forgotten the value of that feeling of being welcomed. She and her medic husband Geoff had left South Africa with their young children for a stint in the UK, but were open to looking for another country to call home. New Zealand seemed a good prospect, and they chose Devonport as a place to live, sight unseen. Their third child was just six weeks old. Braatvedt recalls being very happy to find herself in this part of this world, despite the lack of family and friends at first. “This church,” she remembers, “was a very safe place to me then. The church offers companionship, and that will always be an important role.” She was a teacher by profession. When she had the opportunity to start working in her new country, she worked from home, one to one with children with disabilities. She notes that she is well aware of the downsides of working at home that many have experienced in recent pandemic lockdowns. Braatvedt found herself a niche as a layper-
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son helping Spackman.
She found being around the parish community was a good fit for her and her interest in working with “people on the margins”.
She started a men’s group and a women’s group. And the day came when she wondered about her own future direction and whether a career change might be approaching.
“My husband helped me to work it out. He said he felt I had a calling which I should think about exploring.”
Anyone who knew her as a child wouldn’t have been surprised to hear that. “I have always had this fascination with the spiritual side of life, and since childhood I have always reflected on the source of all the beauty in the world.
“I remember as a child, my father gave me a little Wendy house, complete with furniture and little kitchen things right down to pots and pans. But I took all that stuff out of it because I knew I wanted to turn it into a church. And that’s what I did with it.” With the full support of her husband and her then school-aged children, she embarked on three years of training at St John’s Theological College in Meadowbank, spending an entire weekend on campus each month
Ordained as a priest, she continued working with Murray Spackman until his retirement.
Many people in her parish and the community by then knew her well. She was accepted as the first woman to hold the job.
“I felt trusted and I felt welcome. And If you feel like that you know that you can do so much more. I felt I could have a go and try new things.”
With hindsight, and many a project under her belt, Braatvedt says she is very conscious that as a woman she needed to know what she was about in her new role. But she says with a chuckle she’s also aware that there seems to be less tolerance of strong, capable women, than there is of men of the same ilk.
She takes with her many fond memories from time in the role, and of the little extras she initiated. For example, Valentine’s Day, when she decided much more fun could be made of the date if people came to church in their wedding dresses, brought wedding photos with them, renewed their vows and later, celebrated with champagne and cake.
In recent years she decided more connection for some people was needed. To cater for this by providing a welcome place and companionship, she set up a conversation corner, with helpers, adjacent to a temporarily closed café. Like the Valentine’s Day event, it was a successful small initiative.
Braatvedt believes that recent times of Covid and lockdowns have brought a new era, and even greater demand for community groups to provide support.
“The pandemic has definitely had social implications for people. Everywhere, I see a lot more people out there who seem to be lost, anxious and depressed. There is a lot of need in our communities.”
One of the highlights of her time as vicar at Holy Trinity has been instigating the major redevelopment of the church hall.
On the day she spoke to The Flagstaff, she was delighted to point out that the new roof had just gone on. And when she comes home to Devonport in the New Year, the building will be nearly ready for reopening and offering more of the support initiatives she envisaged.
As she talks about community support, she nudges a large box of groceries, like the many distributed by the church at a time of growing demand from families. It’s symbolic of the need she identifies in our communities.
“The new hall will be a real hub and an asset to Devonport. It has been a high point of my journey here to see this facility, that is fit for purpose, becoming a reality.
“There are so many opportunities for new things to happen here. It is new and modern and it sets us up for the future alongside this beautiful church, and that is exciting for all of us.” Braatvedt says that while the packaging and the marketing of the church may seem outdated in modern life, “the product is still priceless”.
The church is more than a business, or a club, she says. “It is a family and a place where people can connect at the deepest level. Everyone is trying to live a better life and everyone wants that very human connection.”
Braatvedt’s mother, Honey, used to make the journey to spend long sojourns with her family in Devonport. Her daughter has happy memories of the warm welcome she got from the community and the friendships she formed.
Now that Honey is struggling with independent living back in Capetown, Braadvedt expects she will be making the trip from Devonport to support her mother more often. Is it retirement? She laughs. “The short answer is no.”
An interim priest, Warren Watson, will manage the Holy Trinity parish until a new vicar is appointed in six to eight months.
But Braatvedt says she will be putting her hand up to step in as a relieving priest in the diocese.
And then there is a very long list of things she’s always wanted to do if she had the time: the yen to study art history, do pottery and to learn te reo, But also a strong commitment to Holy Trinity and helping out in the parish she remains so connected to.
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