Sister Elizabeth Terbrock
Current ministry location-Maryknoll, NY
Elizabeth Terbrock was born May 28, 1952 in St. Charles, MO to Beatrice T. (Slattery) Terbrock and Henry J. Terbrock. She had one sister: Mary and one brother: Paul. Elizabeth graduated from Sacred Heart Academy High School, St. Louis, MO in 1970. Elizabeth received an R.N. from Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing in St. Louis, MO in 1973 and worked as a nurse in Deaconess Hospital and St. Mary’s Health Center until 1976.
Elizabeth entered the Maryknoll Sisters September 2, 1976 at the Sisters Center in Ossining, NY. She professed First Vows June 4, 1978 at the Center and Final Vows August 31, 1985 also at the Center. While in the novitiate, her first assignment was to give Nursing assistance at the Center and with the Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor also in Ossining.
Sister Elizabeth’s first overseas mission assignment was to Korea in 1978. There she used her nursing skills in a clinic and also visited homes of poor and physically challenged people. Poems which she wrote in Korean were published in the Pusan newspaper, and she was interviewed on a Korean TV talk show concerning her ministry as a poet and she shared that she tries to describe God’s presence as she sees it in people’s lives.
Moving to Hyun Jeo Dong in western Seoul, she lived a contemplative presence in a lower-income neighborhood and from her neighbors learned to more fully appreciate cultural values that have their roots in the Korean multi-religious traditions of Buddhism, Shamanism, and Christianity: an abiding appreciation of nature, interdependence, and the value of personal presence over and above accomplishment and productivity.
In 1987, Elizabeth earned a Bachelor of Arts-Asian Studies from Columbia University, NYC. And, in 2002, she earned a Certificate in Poetry Therapy from the National Federation for Biblio/Poetry, Maryland.
After her integrative work with the expressive arts in Korea, she was assigned in 1997 for a ministry of Word-Arts for Wholeness at Maryknoll, NY. Sister Elizabeth, a poet-artist, is a Certified Applied-Poetry Facilitator. Believing in the transformative potential of the arts when used in a context of hope, she journeys with women as a listener using visual and written resources from the creative arts for enrichment or support during challenging passages in their lives. She believes that the spark of the Divine within each person is a deep, original wholeness which prevails through experiences of loss and trauma. She continues to offer retreats to groups and individuals.