The Wayne E. Oates Institute is a Connected Learning Community exploring spirituality and health as a way to advance integrative care for the whole person. The Oates Institute is a non-profit educational organization made up of caregivers from the medical, spiritual and counseling communities providing a forum for joining together as an interdisciplinary dialogue toward understanding the relationship between spirituality and the healing process.

As Baby Boomers move toward retirement age in better health overall than prior generations, concerns regarding meaning and fulfillment in life will parallel and at times outweigh concerns over material well-being and physical health. Issues of meaning, hopelessness, boredom, and fear are significant spiritual issues within the aging process and addressing these issues in positive ways affects overall well-being and health. A new Special Issue on Spirituality and Aging has just been published by the Oates Journal to help spiritual care givers address some of these issues.

In the face of increased stress from the economic downturn, increased patient loads through the holidays and flu season, and various other crises and critical incidents, Care of Self as a caregiver becomes increasingly important. Caregivers are notoriously poor at this as they often overlook their own self care in the process of giving care to others. To help with this the Oates Institute is offering a series of three Care of Self online seminars to start out 2010. To help even more, we are combining the opportunity for non-members to become members and register for all three seminars for only $96.

The Oates Institute’s Board of Directors voted during their November meeting to represent the geographical diversity of its constituency by moving to a national board. This process will begin in January 2010 with the addition of three new members from San Antonio, Texas.  It was also decided that the board would come together for a retreat in San Antonio in February 2010 and in Louisville in September 2010.

That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis will be the focus of the Fiction as a Pathway to the Spirit seminar being offered online in January. This seminar, which enables participants to gain new perspectives about spirituality in fiction and acquire new ways to observe reflections of contemporary spirituality in fiction, is offered by Chaplain Jan Waples. She points out that this seminar will explore That Hideous Strength in terms of moral theology and ethics, spirituality, faith, good and evil in daily living, the workplace, and in our relationships.

This year's recession has hurt almost everyone's continuing education budgets, and this time of cultural transition has made participating in lifelong learning especially important. So the Oates Institute is opening this year's opportunity to sign up for the Pastoral Care Group Membership to everyone. That means you can become a member of the Oates Institute and register for our online seminars free through 2010 for only $96 (a 20% discount).