Chaplaincy and Spiritual Life

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Mary Grace Williams

The Rev. Mary Grace Williams, chaplain of the College and dean of community life, came to Bard in 2016 and has taught First-Year Seminar every semester since the 2018 spring semester as well as other courses in religion and the Bible. She received her BA from Rutgers University where she studied theater arts, which led her to move to New York City directly after college to pursue a career in theater. While living in the West Village, she rediscovered her deep interest in spirituality and religion and that inspired her to do a MA in religious education from Fordham University. Eventually this led her to seek ordination as an Episcopal priest, and she attended Yale Divinity School, where she earned a MDiv. Mary Grace has two daughters: Grace, who is currently in medical school in New York City, and Kate, who graduated from Bard in 2020 as a double major in human rights and dance and who now lives in Brooklyn performing and designing and creating clothing. Mary Grace lives in Rhinebeck and has three Cavalier King Charles dogs (Harry, George, and Charles).

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Joshua Boettiger ’96

Joshua Boettiger ’96 began at Bard in the fall of 2022 after spending the previous nine years serving a congregation in Ashland, Oregon. He was ordained through the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2006 and received his master of fine arts in creative writing (poetry) from Pacific University in 2018. He is a Bard alumnus of the class of ’96, a Rabbis Without Borders fellow, and in the larger community continues to teach meditation and Mussar—Jewish approaches to mindfulness and service. Joshua is excited to be back at Bard with his wife, Vanessa, and their 10 year old daughter, Paloma—and to work as part of the interfaith chaplaincy.

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Jim Hess

Jim Hess joined the Chaplaincy team in the fall of 2023. Jim is a member of the Carmelite Order and was ordained a priest in 1976. He graduated from the University of Maryland in Jewish Studies and went on to attend the former Washington Theological Union where his concentration was on Systematic Theology and Pastoral Care. Jim has served as a pastor, educator, retreat director, and seminary formator, and is drawn to Bard’s commitment to critical thinking, social engagement, and the arts.

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Tatjana Myoko von Prittwitz und Gaffron

In September 2017, Tatjana Myoko von Prittwitz und Gaffron was ordained by her Soto Zen teacher Seido Suzuki Roshi at Toshoji, Okayama prefecture, Japan. The outward manifestation of her monastic calling was the result of 20 years walking the Buddhist path, practicing as a lay person mainly with her first Zen teacher, John Daido Loori, founder of Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt. Tremper, New York, which Suzuki Roshi helped build up in the 1980s. She subsequently completed a three-year residential training at Toshoji, being appointed shusso, master disciple, in the summer of 2019. In September 2020, Tatjana returned to Bard, where she founded the Bard meditation group in 2001, in response to September 11—wishing to share even more deeply the beauty, simplicity, and freedom of the Zen teachings.

The weekly meditation group (Monday and Thursday evenings), Q&A sessions, private encounters, and awareness workshops (her main interests are the Zen arts with sumi-e ink drawings, haiku, and chanoyu, tea ceremony) are offerings to facilitate an experience that you can equally learn to trust your own Buddha nature. Learning to rest in the moment can be an eye-opening insight as your burden lifts and your mind opens as wide as the wonders of this world. Any necessary ecological, social, or political engagement comes from this place of acceptance, so we can move forward with a realistic, but positive outlook. “Please feel whole-heartedly invited and let’s walk this path of liberation together,” she says.