A simple tool to aid in examining our personal beliefs about the experience of violence. In thinking through these questions, how can we prepare to be healing agents for those who need compassionate, faithful support? This term spiritual distress is used professionally within medical circles and recognizes the complete disruption of life that pervades a […]

In the medical world, the word trauma refers to very specific classes of life-threatening injury. The hospital where I volunteer isn’t a trauma center, which means that—except for a few rare cases where trauma patients arrive under their own power, and even rarer mass casualty incidents—we don’t see people who’ve been shot, stabbed, severely burned, […]

Housing is often a particular issue for two groups of people: students and older adults. While college costs only seem to be growing, the need for affordable student housing has never been greater. And for older adults, moving to a nursing home or assisted living apartment often leaves them anxious, lonely, and frustrated. Humanitas Retirement […]

In 2012, a statewide survey in Tennessee measured the prevalence of ten “adverse childhood experiences” (ACEs)—things like child abuse and neglect, living with domestic violence, or having a family member incarcerated. The survey showed that over half of Tennessee citizens experienced at least one ACE before the age of 18, and more than 20 percent […]

When I was 11 years old my Little League team in Atlanta, Georgia, was named Western Electric. We sported uniforms in yellow and gray. It was my first year of playing in the “A” league. I played center field, and I knew that I was a pretty good player, but I did not have much […]

When Marty was in ICU after a ruptured aneurysm, people sent cards to our son’s address in Dallas or our home in Waco. Our friend Sue would truck them to us at the hospital when she visited. The cards were from all over: friends from church, Marty’s high school and college friends, strangers from other […]

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Yishun, Singapore, is doing things differently. Described as a “hospital in a garden and a garden in a hospital,” its mission resonates with a holistic approach to care by providing patients, visitors, and the whole community a place to rest and rejuvenate in body and mind. For every one square […]

I coughed for three weeks straight. I remember enough from my nursing training to know that was not a good sign. Finally, my officemate at the Church Health Center, Dr. Scott Morris, had enough of my hacking. Who can blame him? He practically picked me up by my shirt collar and marched me over to […]

Vacation planning can sometimes be as stressful as a day job. So why not take that week off, sit down in your garden, your patio swing, your favorite living room chair, and just breathe? While this might seem boring, there’s actually plenty you can do to vacation in a healthy way! Here are some ways […]

The connection between music and healing is well rehearsed. When King Saul felt himself in the grip of an evil spirit, he employed the boy David to play his lyre as a proven means of relief (1 Samuel 16:23). Thousands of music therapists in the present day can offer stunning anecdotes of how music can […]

Heart disease often flies under the radar of self-diagnosis. A slew of other health problems easily could cause shortness of breath, back pain, nausea and jaw pain. Maybe you took those stairs a little too quickly. Maybe you pulled a muscle at the gym. Maybe stress at work has you clenching your jaw. Or maybe […]

Whether you’re hosting a huge family dinner or sleeping on a couch for the night, the holidays often bring opportunities to offer and receive hospitality. Here are some tips to make guests feel welcome and to be a generous houseguest yourself. If you’re hosting … Seek a centering-something to anchor the event. Make a centerpiece […]

Near the end of his life, friend and preacher William Sloane Coffin wrote in his book Credo, “Death cannot be the enemy if it’s death that brings us to life. For just as without leave-taking there can be no arrival; without growing old there can be no growing up; without tears, no laughter; so without […]

From church kitchens to those extra classrooms, there are many ways to emphasize health throughout your church facility. This guide offers tips to making your church building a healthy place for all. THE KITCHEN Even the smallest kitchens can be a teaching kitchen. Have someone who loves to cook teach classes on cooking to any who want to learn. Use […]

Each week I attend a Toastmasters public speaking club, but this is no ordinary group. Two recovery centers host it jointly: On Our Own of Frederick and the Community Organized Recovery Efforts. Outside the walls of the room the persons present in the meetings carry labels: alcoholic, schizophrenic, drug addict. Yet, in this gathering, labels […]

By June of 2011, forty-thousand honeybees called Church of the Pilgrims’ (PCUSA) urban garden home, pollinating our urban garden and the 1,700 acres of our neighboring forest oasis Rock Creek Park. It was in February of 2011 that one of our members, Erin Littlestar, a sustainable agriculture advocate, suggested honeybee hives at Pilgrims to enhance […]

I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. – Isaiah 43:19 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to […]

Pope Francis is a first in many ways—the first pope from the Southern hemisphere, the first from the Americas, and the first non-European pope in more than 1,200 years. He is the first Jesuit pope and also the first to remember in his chosen papal name St. Francis of Assisi, a saint known for his […]

The Bible is full of stories about oils, perfumes, incense and anointing. Almost the entire thirtieth chapter of Exodus is dedicated to the Lord’s instructions on how to anoint. Samuel anoints Saul the first king of a unified Israel and later David, is anointed king of Israel by a council of elders. The history of […]

When rapper Al Kapone walks out on a stage, you know the main event has arrived. In his signature white doo rag and backwards bill cap, Kapone dazzles audiences with underground hits like “Whoop That Trick” and “Get Crunk, Get Buck.” On September 6th, Kapone—born Alphonso Bailey in North Memphis—took the stage at Rock for […]

When you think about preschool, what comes to mind? Pink pencil erasers, juice boxes, safety scissors. Those little ice cream cups with the wooden spoons. One thing you may not have thought of is an iPad. But here at Perea—a charter preschool in the Klondike neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee—there are two in every classroom, plus […]

They have come from Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, and other countries all over the world, but they are all growing in Texas. That is, they are growing mustard, cilantro, peppers and yard-long beans, while also growing connections to each other and their new home. With their refugee neighbors, St. Francis Episcopal Church is growing in relationship […]

I am not afraid to ask for help. This is not because I can’t make a decision—I make countless important decisions every day. But as the book of Ecclesiastes tells us, “two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil” (4:9). This verse appears in a passage that acknowledges that […]

Christians spend much of Lent meditating on Jesus’ Way of the Cross, the sufferings leading to his death. We imagine ourselves being condemned, carrying our crosses, falling under our burdens. But on Good Friday, we are called to do something else: to reflect on our roles, not as the tormented Christ, but as his executioners. […]

Victoria A. Cole-Galo is co-founder of Prayer Shawl Ministry and co-author of the best-selling Prayer Shawl Companion books by Taunton Press. She is a graduate of the Hartford Seminary’s Women’s Leadership Institute at the Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut and resides in central Connecticut with her husband and two sons. Shelby Ussery spoke with her […]

Eating often seems so prosaic, so everyday, so trivial, that we are tempted to forget that eating is a spiritual and moral act. The question of what constitutes healthy eating is one that we in the church often leave to the nutritionists as though food were only a fuel and we only calorie-burners. I want to demonstrate here […]

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? —Matthew 6:25 After college, I worked in a small nonprofit in Jackson, Mississippi. Sometimes I would […]

Physicians and health care professionals often become so used to walking into and around hospitals that we forget that most people are frightened at some level with the experience of being in a hospital. Over the last few years, I have had several hospital stays due to orthopedic problems and I can assure you that […]

Today, I stood in front of my bathroom mirror and this is what I saw: tired circles under my eyes,  jiggly skin under my arms, and a little extra “padding” around my middle left over from two pregnancies. As I stood there, wincing at the loose skin under my chin, I noticed that my two-year-old […]

I live in Nevada, the driest and sunniest state in the country. My husband and I moved to Reno in June, which meant that for weeks, we woke up to brilliant sunshine and cloudless skies. When we commented on this gorgeous weather to locals, they just shrugged and said, “Oh, it’s always like this.” Both […]

For Nicole Becton, it was Tony Sea—her “angel,” that is. She met him at an African American Pastors Consortium (AAPC) function. After believing her HIV diagnosis meant an imminent death sentence, Becton re-solidified her spiritual foundation and emerged ready to live again. Also HIV-positive, Sea empathized with her, directed her to free medical treatment, and […]

Some families discuss sports, politics or weekend plans around the dinner table. While my family does all of that, we sometimes find ourselves discussing other challenging issues. Both of my parents work professionally with issues of death and dying and they have had their own poignant experiences with death. So, this is not a rare […]

In the beginning, God created a garden. Genesis 2 describes how God made the plants of the field and streams of the earth, breathed life into the first human and placed him in the Garden. Humankind, it would seem, was created to be at home in a garden. Yet many of us live far away […]