By Sonya Hollins, editor
editor@comvoicesonline.com
KALAMAZOO (MICH)-When Rev. Mary Perrin decided to take her sabbatical from her duties at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, she knew she wanted to do something during that time to make a difference. She contacted her church headquarters in New York City to find out where she could do the most good and not be hindered by her lack of foreign language skills.
“At the same time, I didn’t want to decide on what I wanted to do, but whatever God called me to do,” Perrin said.
Her church headquarters suggested she head to India where she would be under the leadership of The Rt. Rev. Probal Kanto Dutta, bishop presiding over the area she would serve for more than two months.
Perrin knew about the history of India’s cast system and that government rules bound people to be only what their family had been for generations. Many of those people of the Dalits (lowest cast rank) were what Perrin learned were called ‘untouchables.’ Because they were the ‘lowest’ group they would be charged with such tasks as removing dead bodies from places.
She said many of them lived in the streets as less than human. When they became ill, they were cast aside and left to die. Those with leprosy were doomed to an even worse fate as they were cast aside with no one to care for them.
What she would learn first-hand was more than she could have imagined. More than what she experienced working with AIDS victims in the 1980s. How the church reached out to help those with leprosy astounded her.
“I had no idea the church could be so relevant,” Perrin said. “The church there lived to serve the people; not the people of the church, the people of the area, the poor.”
Perrin said during her visit she stayed on a compound in Durgapur which contained a hostel for children. The hostel was a cross between a boarding school and orphanage and the diocese brought in kids from these lower levels of people (their standards) kids that have no future and are or would be living on the street. Up to 24 students could be housed there, receive meals and tutoring. More than 50 students would participate each day for an afterschool program, meals, help with homework and other recreational activities.
She sent photos and updates of what she experienced to her congregation and others on her Facebook page. Once returning, her members asked, ‘what can we do?’
They decided to build a hostel in Purulia, a leper colony where about 600 people who have had or someone in family have leprosy are shunned by society. The hostel will house up to 40 children who have leprosy.
“India has more than half those suffering leprosy in the world. This was a place I knew we could try to make a difference,” Perrin said.
The shell of the building cost $20,000 and so far the walls and roof are complete. They are now continuing to raise funds for the much needed beds, linens, computers, kitchen supplies, books, etc., needed to provide all the comforts the children need. The congregation recently supported a musical featuring Dr. Romeo Philip and Alfrelynn Roberts to help raise funds for the project.
The Rev. Perrin who served at St. Andres Episcopal Ministries in Grand Rapids before coming to Kalamazoo seven years ago, grew up Baptist. She said she always knew God was calling her into the ministry, however was encouraged to marry a pastor or serve as a foreign minister, something she did not feel led to do.
In 1980 however, she felt she had to answer the call from God to serve as a minister. She began working with Grand Rapids Area Center for Ecumenism (GRACE); part of AIDS pastoral care network. There she met George, who was suffering from the newly diagnosed disease and was given four days to live.
“I was reading the 23rd Psalm, ‘though I walk through the valley…’,” Perrin remembered. “We were there, with George in that valley of the shadow of death and there was no evil. Within two hours of his death, what came to me from God is, ‘now is the time.’ That changed my life.”
She went for ordination and has since continued to more forward in ministry. Under her reign at St. Martin’s her congregation of less than 100 people have helped purchased two water purification systems for India, funded more than a dozen missionary projects around the world and United States and locally works with Loaves and Fishes, Open Door Ministries in providing household needs to families, and the annual food drive with the Post Office.
St. Martin’s Episcopal Church is located at 2010 Nichols Road in Kalamazoo.
