Waiouru welcomes Madre

Ruapehu Bulletin, 13 April 1993, Page 9

Waiouru welcomes Madre

B\

Jan

Savell

"A step in faith" is how Sherry Weinberg describes her change from ministering to a small Southland Presbyterian Parish to her

appointment as 'Other Denominations Chaplain' for Waiouru Military Camp. She had no contact with the military before taking

up her commission. In fact originally she thought the job would never appeal to her. "At a seminar I talked to an Army Chaplain about

his job. I thought 'that wouldn't be for me' but God had other ideas." Six months later Padre Sherry Weinberg and her son Carl saw the Waiouru township for the first time. Sherry Weinberg is the . Army's second female chaplain and she believes that 'Madre', being grammatically correct, will probably become her usual title. "I don't mind what is used. I use Padre on the telephone but gradually I think it may change," she said. Now she's been on the job three weeks and still finds her sympathies firmly with the basic recruits who "salute anything that moves". She is very grateful to Lt Helen Cooper who worked with her for the first week to help familiarise her with military protocol. Still she found the experience of her first week "terrifying" 'Tve been blown away by the size of the place. My son has gone from a school of 2& to one of 350. Now he's got more people in his class than he had in his whole school. He loves it though - there seems to be so.many things offered here in Waiouru. She attended the Beat the Retreat performed at sunset by the Army Training Group Support Unit, "dancing her toes off" at the function afterwards. "Some people may have found that quite shocking because it is not what people expect of clergy," she said. "I am me and I won't pretend to be anything other".

Madre Weinberg comes from a farming background. She was born in Taumarunui and lived in the National Park area for much of her childhood. Before joining the Army she ministered at Oreti Plains Parish near Drummond. Her role at Waiouru involves caring for the spiritual and moral

well-being of the soldiers. This sometimes means stepping into welfare areas with families although Madre Weinberg stresses that Waiouru already has a full time Social Worker who is the key person for these services. She joins Padre David Gruschow in ministering to the Waiouru community.