Alumni spotlight: A global peacemaker

Kristen Opalinski ’03 came to Augsburg because she wanted to play hockey, she was drawn to the studio art space in Old Main, and she felt “radically welcomed” on her campus visit. At the time, she never dreamed of a vocation working with the church or in the field of peacebuilding. But her time at Augsburg set her up for success, both as an artist and a faith leader—one who encourages the global church to come together in the midst of religious and theological differences for the common good.

Growing up in Pennsylvania, Opalinski played hockey on her high school boys’ team and on a traveling girls’ team. Her interest in playing collegiate sports encouraged her to look at schools in Minnesota, and she found a home in the heart of Minneapolis.

“I remember vividly the first time I stepped foot on Augsburg’s campus—I knew that was where I was going to be,” Opalinski says fondly. “I had a wonderful time meeting with the coaching staff and seeing the facilities and everything. But it was more than that. I was walking around campus and saw how close-knit the community was. I also loved the way Augsburg was placed within this larger urban setting. When you arrive at Augsburg, you know that you’re not only going to be part of the academic and social community, but the wider Cedar-Riverside neighborhood community as well.”

As an Auggie, Opalinski leaned into her artistic and creative coursework, athletic opportunities, and growing her faith. She filled her time by playing on the women’s ice hockey and soccer teams, founding the women’s lacrosse club, getting involved in campus ministry, working at local restaurant ministry St. Martin’s Table, and cultivating friendships that would continue far beyond graduation. After college, she put her studio art degree to work in graphic design, serving clients like 3M, the Minnesota Wild, and Mayo Clinic. But she missed the on-the-ground relationship-building and the connection to community she had experienced at Augsburg.

Following a sense of vocation toward the road less traveled, in 2009 Opalinski moved to South Africa with nine other Young Adults in Global Mission volunteers for a year-long program sponsored by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Afterwards, she accepted a communications officer position with the Lutheran World Federation in its sub-regional office in Johannesburg. For the next four years, she worked with Lutheran and Moravian churches throughout southern Africa to develop a regional communication network across 10 countries. They also shared communications promoting the ELCA campaign to reduce malaria transmissions, infections, and deaths across the region. Opalinski would relay stories from the ground to donors, churches, and congregations who were supporting these efforts.

During the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Opalinski witnessed churches come together to combat human trafficking, respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, promote gender justice, and respond to climate change. At the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, Opalinski was part of an interfaith delegation of theologians and faith-based practitioners who came together to draft the first interfaith statement on climate change. She also served as an advisor to the first youth contingent for the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches at a UN climate conference.

Opalinski returned to the United States in 2014 and attended the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia—now United Lutheran Seminary—where she earned her MA in religion with specializations in public leadership and conflict transformation. “Throughout my time in South Africa, I became deeply committed to the role of faith actors in the peace processes around the world,” Opalinski says. “It’s important to enable constructive conflict to take root and help communities understand their power in situations to effect change and build peace.” Her passion for this work led to her current position as the manager for ecumenical and interreligious relations on the staff of the Office of the Presiding Bishop for the ELCA.

Based in Chicago, Opalinski’s role involves shepherding new and existing ecumenical and interreligious relationships throughout the ELCA. She helps manage the ELCA’s full communion partnerships with churches in North America as they continue to grow into their relationships and envision what God might be calling them to now and into the future. Opalinski also works with interreligious partners and helps to staff the ELCA’s interreligious panels on Lutheran-Jewish and Lutheran-Muslim relations. Part of her work includes interreligious advocacy with organizations like Christians Against Christian Nationalism and the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign, a multireligious campaign to counter the rise in anti-Muslim bigotry and violence against Muslims in the United States. One of the areas she’s most excited about is connecting with the Interfaith Institute at Augsburg and collaborating on interfaith work at other ELCA institutions.

Across the world, Opalinski is part of a peacemaking project launched by the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission in 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. Peace and reconciliation theologians and practitioners from around the world gathered in Helsinki in April 2022 to share how their countries and churches were advocating for justice, learning from one another’s cultural experiences. This October in Washington, D.C., she will help lead a workshop countering the rise in religious extremism, nationalism, and tribalism.

Although Opalinski hadn’t dreamed of working for the ELCA, in conflict transformation, or on a global peacemaking scale, her time at Augsburg prepared her to traverse this unexpected ground. “I often connect my time of formation at Augsburg to the work I’m doing now. I see all the seeds that were planted there, even though I didn’t fully know it at the time,” Opalinski says.

When the Lutheran World Federation 2023 Assembly in Krakow, Poland, needed a logo, Kristen Opalinski ’03 turned to her artistic roots and Polish heritage to create an image that symbolized the theme: “One Body, One Spirit, One Hope”. Intrigued by her submission, the LWF communication team worked with Opalinski to finalize the design during the pandemic, which made the theme so much more powerful. “This was one of those unique moments of convergence between all my passions—on the largest Lutheran stage, no less. It meant so much to use the gifts God gave me to express the deeper symbolism of the church,” Opalinski says. She went on to win multiple DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards for the best religious communications at the 2024 Religion Communicators Council Convention for her remarkable work on this project.

“Augsburg invites students into places and spaces where they’ll be stretched and encouraged to embrace curiosity related to cultural exchange, ideas exchange, and wider formation. There’s no doubt that my time and experience at Augsburg led me into the work I’m doing now.”

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Top image: Opalinski with her “ One Body, One Spirit, One Hope” design for the Lutheran World Federation 2023 Assembly (Courtesy photo)