In this edition:

• Register for a February Online Seminar:
  • Care at the End of Life
  • Congregational Care 101: An Introduction to Pastoral Care for Lay Persons
  • Healthy Clergy: Healing the Holy Helpers
  • Ministry with Bereaved Parents
  • The Power to Bless
  • Spirituality and Mental Illness
• Subscriber Bonuses --
  • Finding Hope in the Context of Persistent Mental Illness
  • Video: Creativity in Retirement

Registration is Open for February Online Seminars

Care at the End of Life
12.0 contact hours / Facilitator: Martha Rutland, D.Min.

Providing care for persons at the end of life requires a number of considerations. We are often sought out to help patients, family members, and colleagues understand the spiritual and ethical values related to:

• Hope when there is no cure
• Personal autonomy and human dignity at the end of life
• Management of pain and suffering

This seminar features presentations by bioethicist Paul Simmons and hospice chaplain Jim England. Through interdisciplinary, reflective peer group email discussion, participants in this seminar will identify issues of concern around the theological and ethical dimensions of health care related to the end of life in light of their own experience and context. Participants will benefit by learning from one another as well as from the presentations.

For more information about this seminar, click here

Congregational Care 101:
An Introduction to Pastoral Care for Lay Persons
12.0 contact hours / Presenter: Vicki Hollon, D.Min.

At one time or another many of us have known the anxiety of wondering what to say when visiting a friend in the hospital, when talking to a colleague who has experienced the death of someone they love, or when trying to encourage a neighbor who has just lost a job.  We all know someone who is experiencing grief and loss but unfortunately, we are not all comfortable reaching out to others in the context of their pain and loss.     

Intentional training that increases understanding will help participants give the kind of care that is most helpful.  This seminar is designed as an introduction to that training.

For more information about this seminar, click here

Healthy Clergy: Healing the Holy Helpers
12.0 contact hours / Facilitator: TBA

Clergy of all denominations have experienced enormous changes as well as the redefinition of roles.  Some of this change has emerged naturally and parallels what is occurring within our culture, however, the demands of our culture, the acceleration of change, and a lack of support has thrown many clergy off balance.  This workshop featuring presentations by Dr. Dick Gilbert will provide peer group support while exploring an approach to ministry that focuses on the three L's: leadership, learning, and leaping.

For more information about this seminar, click here

Ministry with Bereaved Parents
12.0 contact hours / Facilitator: Sue Wintz, M.Div., BCC.

"Despite the numbers of parents grieving the traumatic death of their child," writes Dr. Ron Oliver, "their grief is so misunderstood by the non-bereaved that grieving parents frequently suffer again from the 'care' of their well-intended family and friends. Caring for a bereaved parent requires a paradigm shift away from how culture defines the needs of bereaved parents and the appropriate response to those needs."

For more information about this seminar, click here

The Power To Bless
12.0 contact hours / Facilitator: Chris Hammon, D.Min.

"The blessed child is one who is affirmed and loved by those responsible for the child's care, usually the parents," writes Dr. Myron Madden in his book, The Power to Bless. "But no child seems to get enough blessing to last a lifetime. As we move through adolescence and into adulthood, we have the need for affirmation beyond the family."

Through peer dialogue reflecting on writings by Dr. Myron Madden (The Power To Bless) and three popular films, seminar participants will reflect on the meaning of blessing. We will also explore the interaction between parents and children and between individuals beyond the family in the giving and receiving of blessing.

For more information about this seminar, click here

Spirituality and Mental Illness
12.0 contact hours / Facilitator: Rose Ann Briotte, M.Div.

One in five people in the United States have or will have mental illness sometime in their life. More than five million people in the United States alone suffer from serious chronic mental illness.

Through an interdisciplinary approach integrating spirituality and mental health, this seminar will enable professional care givers from the religious, medical, therapeutic, and social work communities to better recognize and work with the diverse needs of those who suffer from mental illness and the needs of those who are close to them. Reflective dialogue will be facilitated by a mental health chaplain.

For more information about this seminar, click here