Liz Ellmann and Pegge Bernecker are hosting the Spiritual Directors International booth at the Los Angeles Religious Educators Congress. About 24,000 people will be visiting the exhibitor area in the next three days. Come visit booth #658 at the Anaheim Convention Center!

Remember Christine Munger who submitted her name in discernment for the Coordinating Council of Spiritual Directors International? Well here she is pictured with her brand new baby boy, Alex. Please send your blessings to Christine, C., and baby Alex.

Spiritual Directors International members Carlyle Coash, MA, BCC; Sharon Stanton, MS, BSN, RN; and Carolyn Jacobs, MSW, PhD, joined more than forty others to create a white paper to influence spiritual care and health care policy.

Christina Puchalski, MD, from the George Washington Institute of Spirituality and Health; Betty Ferrell, PhD, FAAN from City of Hope; and “Brownie” Anderson, MEd, from the Association of American Medical Colleges facilitated an intense and rich learning experience in Pasadena, California, USA: “Improving the Quality of Spiritual Care as a Dimension of Palliative Care.”

Members Dan Robinson, PharmD, and Jack Logue, MHA, offered examples of how their health care settings have integrated gardens to offer healing respite from the often sterile hospital setting. During the Spiritual Directors International Leadership Institute, participants were encouraged to contemplatively stroll the healing grounds of San Pedro Franciscan Retreat Center in Winter Park, Florida, USA.

During the Spiritual Directors International Leadership Institute, members Dan Robinson, PharmD; Jack Logue, MHA; Carol Ludwig, MA; George Grant, PhD; Dawn Grinenko, MD; and Karen Hahn, PhD served as faculty for a rich day of learning about how spiritual direction interfaces with health care. Participants were encouraged to identify one "seed" of an idea they would like to plant and grow in their health care setting. The idea "seeds of hope and compassion" will be brought to Houston, Texas, USA, in April where they will be nourished during the annual conference with prayer and encouragement.

For more than a decade, member Louise Samuelson has worked at Campus Crusade for Christ with many years spent in Nairobi, Kenya. Louise offers spiritual direction to Campus Crusade staff and creates prayer opportunities at the headquarters near Orlando, Florida. Louise is modeling how spiritual direction might be made available on college campuses and in developing countries.

Members Joy Carol and Mary Ann Brussat hosted a popular booth during the Spiritual Care Summit helping participants learn about DVDs and online courses that teach about spirituality in many traditions.

Thank you Carol Ludwig for answering hundreds of questions about spiritual direction during the Spiritual Care Summit. The Spiritual Directors International booth enjoyed a steady stream of chaplains and health care providers seeking ways to integrate spiritual direction into their own life and into health care.

More than a hundred chaplains and health care providers attended the workshop, “Spiritual Care for Health Care Providers” offered by Liz Ellmann, MDiv; Dawn Grinenko, MD; Jack Logue, MHA; and Carol Ludwig, MA, during the Spiritual Care Summit in Orlando, Florida, USA. Poet Jinks Hoffmann created a poem for the health care events.

 

Sunflowers

 

Petals of sunflowers, borders of golden beauty,

radiance of compassion lifted to sun,

bounty of possibility, delight and hope.

 

Centers of sunflowers, core of darkness,

weight of dismay,

heavy with weariness and despair.

 

Sunflowers, outer and inner,

light and dark are we,

tending others in need.

 

Heart of darkness at sunflower’s center

heart of seeds spills in weariness

onto acquiescent earth.

 

It is life’s Spirit, rich earth, healing sun,

nourishing rain,

it is life’s Spirit,

that pings forth the new.

 

Sunflowers, light and dark are we,

tending others in need.

 

When we release our seeds,

when we seek the unique respite

that serves our souls,

when we peathe into deepest wisdom within,

when we ask

what do I do here,

what do I do now?

Earth’s Spirit answers

in the language

only we can understand,

then can we, who tend others in need,

lift our golden faces

in compassion and celepation

once more.

 

© Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann 29th January 2009

Member Suzanne Dunbar writes from Australia:

The fires have been truly horrific, and it is a national tragedy. The Prime Minister has declared a national day of mourning. At the same time as the fires, there have been devastating floods in Queensland! So the bottom half of the country is inflames and the top half under water. We live in a wild land. It is a constant reminder of the fragilty of life and how we must attend it with care.

Please keep the people of Australia in your prayers.

The new chair of the North American Spiritual Care Collaborative, David A. Lichter, DMin, stopped by the Spiritual Directors International exhibition booth during the Spiritual Care Summit in Orlando, Florida, USA. David is a champion for spiritual direction. Carol Ludwig and David shared ideas and mutual encouragement for integrating spiritual direction into health care.

Spiritual Directors International participated in the Spiritual Care Summit gathering of North American chaplains. The chair of the summit, George Grant, PhD, visited the Spiritual Directors International booth and is pictured with Lisa Irish (in the background, Bobbi Breitman and Carol Ludwig). Member Bobbi Wright, a spiritual director and a chaplain, writes about the thread that links spiritual direction and chaplaincy in the Christian tradition:

The connection between chaplaincy and spiritual direction is that of holy listening. Listening is one of the most important gifts that we can give the each other. Holy listening entails silencing all noise and interruptions around us and centering in on the other. It involves also bringing the Holy One into the moment. We listen and talk differently when someone else is listening. In our holy silence, we not only listen to ourselves, but also to the Other. As we practice this in our daily lives, we can listen this way with anyone we encounter. What a powerful message this sends. We are indeed blessed with God-given goodness and beauty of the gift of listening.

Earl Johnson, director of the Red Cross Spiritual Care Response Team, and Debi Hall offered training for people interested in serving in the event of disasters. Spiritual direction is one way of offering self-care to the spiritual care providers and possibly with families of disaster victims. Spiritual Directors International is exploring ways to offer spiritual care as part of the collaborative Red Cross network.