Sister Regina Ann Brummel
On a September morning, Sister Regina Ann Brummel interacts with students at Turtle Mountain Community High School in Belcourt, N.D., via a video call from her office in Concordia. In this experiment in hi-tech "distance learning," she teaches the French I class five mornings a week, and her computer equipment has now been upgraded so she has a direct internet link with the school.
BORN: Pilot Grove, Mo.
RECEIVED: Aug. 15, 1962
CURRENT HOME: Concordia
EDUCATION: BA, Marymount College; MA, University of Kansas; MA, Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver; Ph.D., University of North Dakota
MINISTRIES:
1965-69: Teaching school in Plainville, Kan., Aurora, Ill., and Chicago
1969-74: Attending Marymount College, Creighton University (Omaha, Neb.) and University of Kansas
1974-80: Teaching French and ethnic studies at Marymount College
1981-83: Attending University of Denver
1983-88: Establishing, teaching in and administering a high school for the Sissteon-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, Sisseton, S.D.
1988-98: Researching and studying for a doctorate, University of North Dakota at Grand Forks
1998-2003: Helping to establish the White Earth Tribal and Community College, Mahnomen, Minn.
2003-05: Chairing the teacher education department and teaching at Turtle Mountain Community College, Belcourt, N.D.
2005-08: Teaching and grant writing at White Mountain Tribal and Community College
2008-present: Serving on the congregational Leadership Council
Religious life for me has come to mean Jesus’ call to share life in a community of His friends and disciples in solidarity with one another and the dear neighbor without distinction. The experience of this solidarity that has most shaped me is a “moment” when, as a Marymount College French instructor, I spent the summer of 1975 in West Africa where indigenous people called me in a new way into the world neighborhood.
This neighborhood, I have come to realize, is anywhere my sisters and brothers have been and continue to be marginalized through political and economic injustice. I have found myself, as a Sister of St. Joseph of Concordia, most alive when I can engage in friendship and collaboration between and among the poor and voiceless. Native people have taught me that this neighborhood is close indeed, as close as extended family and as near as all creation.
That summer in 1975 is an ongoing “moment” in my life. As I try to listen to the Spirit of Jesus, the neighbors have continued calling me to solidarity with the poor and marginalized, especially in Haiti and American Indian reservations. The experience is a constant reminder that as long as I can share my gifts and talents, no matter where I serve in the world, my CSJ sisters are there also. I believe that we are disciples, partners and collaborators with Jesus who gives his life to all, and whose only rule is that we love one another as He has loved us, with the love of friendship. (John 15:12)
