Exit: Tom Ewell 20-year council veteran moving on to make more time for peace

Tom Ewell left the Maine Council of Churches after nearly 20 years as its executive director feeling well used.

“I’m leaving with such a deep satisfaction,” Ewell, a Quaker, told members of his organization this fall. “Quakers don’t say ‘you did a good job,’ but that you were ‘well used.'”

Ewell’s legacy at the Portland-based council includes creation of a Restorative Justice Center of Maine, Maine Interfaith Power and Light, the Giving Winds Campaign to help tribal economic development, and “Hear Our Stories, Know Our Names,” a drama to raise awareness about the homeless in Maine.

“I am convinced that unless we learn to stem the growing tension in our society,” he told council members a decade ago, “we are going to be caught up in an ever-widening web of violence and self-destruction. And this includes our churches as well as our environment and our civic society as we know it. This, then, is my vision, my direction toward the horizon in these next critical years.”

Ewell’s effort to prevent that growing tension involved helping congregations work together in statewide ecumenical, interfaith and community coalitions. The idea was to develop partnerships with state and other nonprofit agencies that would result in programs serving the common good.

He and the council gave special attention to people who live on the margins because of cultural and economic circumstances.

The council is an organization made up of eight Christian denominations: the state’s Episcopal and Roman Catholic dioceses, and various units of the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Religious Society of Friends and the United Methodist Church.

Under Ewell it has focused on a host of issues, especially peace, restorative justice and the environment.

Although he’s leaving the council, Ewell, 62, said that his work will not change. He expects to continue to pursue the vision he bought to the council in 1986 – building a culture of peace.

Born in Ohio, Ewell hit the ground running his first year on the job, calling for prison reform rather than focusing on building more cells.

In 1987, the council offered money to help flood victims and organized a counter-rally against a Ku Klux Klan visit to Rumford. On the council’s behalf, he lobbied the Legislature on issues of economic and social justice.

Although the mainline Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church are members of the council, Ewell’s personal faith is not rooted in either, but in the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers.

Ewell described his work at the council as advocating a “theology of presence” that “could be counted on to be with people.”

“I felt like I was in the right place at the right time,” he said of his tenure, “but now it’s time to move on to do nonviolent training.”

He will do that with his wife, Cathy Whitmire, from the couple’s home in Cape Elizabeth.

Ewell said earlier this week that he wants to work with institutions to teach them that the theology of God is present in conflict and that change can be a challenging and creative process.

Over the years, Ewell has often been sought out by those seeking to establish interfaith dialogue in Maine.

Abraham J. Peck, director of the Academic Council for Post-Holocaust Christian, Jewish and Islamic Studies at the University of Southern Maine, credited Ewell with being a catalyst in getting leaders of often-antagonistic faiths to talk with each other.

“I will not forget the first time we ever met,” Peck recalled in a statement. “I was new in Portland, coming here with a vision for inter-religious study and dialogue that I was not certain would find a place in this community. When [Ewell] listened to what I had to say, [he] burst out with a joyous, ‘Abe, I’ve been waiting for you for 15 years. You are finally here.'”

In Ewell’s honor, the council established the Ewell Fund for Justice Initiatives. More than 80 donors gave a total of $11,000 to create the fund, it was announced in early November.

Earlier this month, the Maine Civil Liberties Union gave Ewell its Roger Baldwin Award for his record of advocacy for civil liberties.

The organization cited Ewell’s work in helping prisoners gain access to administrative hearings, his work on Maine Won’t Discriminate Campaigns to gain equal rights for gays and lesbians, and the organization of an interfaith rally on Sept. 12, 2001, in Portland.

Although he is changing jobs, Ewell said, he’s keeping the motto that served him well during his years at the council: Expect grace. Pray for mercy.