Reflecting on Grief and Pastoral Care

I am a monthly contributor to the blog Antioch Session. Antioch Session is a collective blog run by Zach Hoag and Scott Emergy and hosts a number of great writers all who are writing as a means to advance what they consider to be “creative Christianity” around three key areas: Liturgical, Missional and the cultural.

For this month’s contribution, I wrote an article about some of my experiences of walking with others who are grieving. It’s a follow-up post from my May article on Antioch Session about the death of my friend and Quaker pastor Stan Thornburg, as well as my article in Friends Journal about the suicide of my step-father. I wanted to reflect on what I’m learning through all of this from a pastoral care perspective. What does it mean to walk with another who is grieving?

Here is an excerpt:

But I am learning that in order to genuinely care for others, I must work at how I carry and tend to my own pain. Doing the grief work around my step-dad’s death has opened up new ways of connecting with others in their pain. I have to remind myself that is okay to admit that I need care too. A “wounded healer,” as Nouwen calls it, must learn how to descend that staircase into those buried wounds, even though we are afraid. In doing so, our own pain can become a source of a healing for others and our sensitivity can, like a diving rod, guide us in toward where the true woundedness resides in others.

Continue reading by following this link: In the Deep End With Grief: Thoughts on Pastoral Care With Those Hurting Most.