Lifelong Learning @ Oates.Org

In this edition:

Some September Seminars Still Open

Web Site Renovation Begins Next Week

Reservations for the 2007 Oates Institute Annual Gathering

Fall Conference on the Healing Power of Forgiveness

Center for Oates Studies Feature: "The Presence of God as Creator"

Some September Seminars Still Open

There are a few seats remaining in the following September online seminars: Hope as a Dynamic for Healing, Integrating Spirituality and Health, and Ministering to an Aging Society. The registration deadline for these seminars is September 5.

Hope as a Dynamic for Healing
Facilitators: Chaplain Glenn Winter and Dr. Vicki Hollon
12.0 contact hours (CCE/NBCC/WEOI)

What role does the dynamic of hope play in one's healing and overall health and well-being? The Hope as a Dynamic for Healing seminar offers participants the opportunity to explore the role of hope, future stories, and the creation of narratives of hope.

For more information about this seminar, click here.

Integrating Spirituality and Health
Facilitator: Dr. Carl Aiken / 24.0 contact hours (CCE/NBCC/WEOI)

As society recognizes the fragmentation of care for the body, mind, spirit, and soul, there is increased recognition of the need to integrate spirituality as an important dimension of health and healing. Such an integrative approach, as Carl Middleton writes, "is comprehensive, collaborative, personalized, and based on a multi-dimensional view of the patient."

For more information about this seminar, click here.

Ministry to an Aging Society
Facilitator: Martha Rogers, M.Div. / 12.0 contact hours

Whether in the congregational, healthcare, or community setting, numerous aging issues that need to be proactively addressed have not yet been considered. These challenges are exacerbated by a societal ambivalence that in general ignores some of the deeper issues of self-esteem, meaning, and sense of purpose experienced in the aging process. This seminar will provide an integrated format for addressing some of the spiritual, mental, and physical health issues of adults in the later years of the aging process.

For more information about this seminar, click here.

Web Site Renovation Begins Next Week

Renovation of the Oates Institute's virtual campus will begin next Tuesday, August 28 . This renovation will add new layers to the Oates website and will incorporate Web 2.0 tools for improved content management, news sharing, member interaction, and the use of RSS feeds. This process of upgrading the virtual campus will require that we take the servers down for one to two days.

Make Your Reservations Now for the 2007 Annual Gathering

We invite you to attend the 2007 Oates Institute Annual Gathering and Oates Award Dinner on Thursday, October 4, in Louisville, Kentucky. As the 2007 Oates Award recipient, Dr. Brooks Faulkner will speak on "Renewing Compassion Boundaries." Make your reservations early and save. Currently reservations are $25 per person ($30 after September 15).

For more information and to make reservations, click here.

Fall Online Conference on The Healing Power of Forgiveness

Many events during these early years of the 21st century have magnified the need for individuals and communities to understand the power of forgiveness. Whether in the shadows of 9/11/01 in the United States, in the villages of Darfur, in an Amish school yard in Pennsylvania, on the campus of Virginia Tech, in the streets of an impoverished community, or in a bedroom; we become increasingly aware of our need to understand how forgiveness can improve the human condition. How do we choose to forgive? How do we forgive? What are the effects of holding a grudge or seeking revenge? Can we find a way to balance our need for security with the potential to grant forgiveness? Plan now to join us for the Oates Institute's fall online conference November 5-16, when we will explore the Healing Power of Forgiveness through presentations and dialogue.

Presenters will include Rick Rouse (author of Fire of Grace: The Healing Power of Forgiveness), Kathy Manis Findley (Director of the Center for Healing and Hope in Little Rock), Sue Wintz (chaplain and mother of a teenage child killed in an automobile accident), and Leslie Hollon (Senior Pastor of St. Matthews Baptist Church) as well as segments from The Power of Forgiveness by Journey Films and discussions with the producers.

If you would like to present a paper on the the healing power of forgiveness during this conference, please contact either Vicki Hollon or Chris Hammon by calling the Oates Institute, 502-459-2370.

Center for Oates Studies Feature: "The Presence of God as Creator"
from The Presence of God in Pastoral Counseling by Wayne E. Oates

"You and I perceive the person, the couple, the family, or the group with whom we counsel from some particular angle of vision at all times," observed Wayne Oates in this chapter. "If we are intent upon realizing the Presence of God in creation, we purpose to reach behind all other perceptions of this person or these persons to value them primarily as persons made in the image of God." Dr. Oates suggests that bringing different perceptions into a unified vision is both a calling and a discipline for the pastoral counselor.

We are currently republishing this out-of-print work in the Center for Oates Studies as part of the Wayne E. Oates Library Collection. To read the first chapter, "Some Meanings of the Presence of God," click on the link below. If you are not a member of the Oates Institute, you are invited to subscribe to Lifelong Learning @ Oates.Org to receive access to the full text of this chapter (and the chapters to follow).

Click here to read Chapter 3
of the Presence of God in Pastoral Counseling by Wayne Oates

Non-WEOI members, click here