First Thursday of Each Month - Partnership In Caring: Grieving Parents' Support Group

Begun in November 2007, Bishop Anderson House hosts month perinatal bereavement group meetings for parents who have lost a baby at Stroger Cook County Hospital, University of Illinois at Chicago Medical or Rush University Medical Center. The meetings are facilitated by staff of the three institutions. Refreshments are provided by a local restaurant. Parking is free at Stroger Cook County Hospital. The group meets from 6:30 -8:00 pm the first Thursday of each month. For more information please call 312.942.RUSH(7874) or Cherryl Holt at Bishop Anderson House, 312.563.4824.

February 18 - May 13, 2009
Lay Parish Chaplain Training Program

During the 20 years the Parish Lay Volunteer Chaplain Training Program has been in existence, over 200 parishioners from all over the Diocese of Chicago have been trained to help minister to the needs of God’s people in nursing homes, hospitals and parish visitation programs. The 12 week program combines didactic classes taught by experts in their fields along with opportunities for practical applications. Each class session is two hour in length. Participants must also do a field placement and commit at least two hours per week in the practice of supervised ministry. Topics covered include: Examining the Theological Purpose of Pastoral Care; Listening and Counseling; A Medical View of Illness; Older Adults and Home Bound; Loss and Death among others. Please call Cherryl Holt, 312.563.4825 for a brochure and application.

Past Programs on Pastoral Care:

October 22 and 25, 2008 Pastoral Care Seminars
Spiritual Crisis and Serious Illness: Pastoral Care in Action

(Serious medical illness often creates crises around issues usually considered religious, for example death, life meaning, aloneness and alienation vs. connection to God or life. In what ways do we usually encounter this spiritual struggle? Why does it matter? What can psychology add to the understanding of spiritual struggle? How can pastoral care volunteers and professionals help a person in times of serious illness when the Spirit is assaulted?

Questions like these were address in the seminar. Spiritual or Religious Struggle is gaining acknowledgement as a critical interface of spirituality and medicine, and the seminar weaved together didactic materials from the field of Psychology, case studies in chaplaincy and research to help participants –chaplains, volunteers, pastoral care counselors, clergy, Eucharistic Ministers and others-be agents of healing in patients’ lives.