IF ONLY THE CANYON COULD BE CONTRACTED
Hi Ed:
I read your posts all the time; how are you? Thank you for sharing your insights with all of us.
I have a personal stake and response to this particular post, because for some years now it has been clear that this work I do is not just work, it is ministry. Ironically, of all churches I have ever interacted in, it is my childhood church, the Episcopal Church, some congregations, that has been most open to reaching out, providing space for, and in general being available for people with mental illness. They are so liberal, however, that I left years ago, disappointed with what I perceived as not standing up for the gospel and creating their own theology, separate from the Bible's. Other churches where I have found community and worship and teaching and spiritual nourishment, shy away from directly addressing the problems and the lives of those of us with serious mental illness. My current church actually taught a series out of which one message was dedicated to "emotional problems". They were surprisingly loving, understanding, wise, and smart enough to encourage people to seek professional help if needed. But when I asked about hosting a support group in the church the answer was to send me around to different people, none of whom ever returned a call or an email. I believe it will happen, in its right time. In the meantime, it's undercover--just like in the jail--I meet a person, we develop a relationship, and the spark comes up--and I go with them, spiritually, wherever they want to go. I can provide reading materials if they ask; the chaplain will provide bibles if they ask--I just can't be the one to do the asking. At church, I'll strike up a conversation with someone, and when I bring up that I live with bipolar they respond--and it goes from there. How do we get people to stop being afraid? I have no clue.
Jana Spalding
I received this email from Jana in response to my last blog and asked her permission to start my next blog with it. I first met Jana when she was working at a drop-in center in Broward County, Florida. As you can tell from the email she now works in a jail system.
We both live daily with bipolar disorder, but at first glance one may think we do not have a whole lot more in common. I am an old white man and she is a much younger attractive well educated black woman. However, first glance never tells the real story. We have two things in common for sure. Our experiences with the church and our belief that our work is a ministry.
In 1989 I was ordained as a missionary/minister to the mentally ill by the elders of a church in Georgia. I had been ordained as a Pastor at Newport, Kentucky in 1970 and as an Elder at Red Oak, Georgia in 1985. Remember in a previous blog I told you I had started preaching when I was 12 years old. My missionary/minister/educator father took me to church from the time I was born. In fact my parents dedicated me to the Lord in a service at Union Church, Berea, Kentucky when I was a baby. Why is all this important? To show you how I know the value of the faith communities to those of us with a mental illness. They are in my blood. Just like Jana does, I know how important faith communities are to us.
If we had done as much research into bio-psycho-social-spiritual “best practices” as we have into brain research, the lives of those of us with mental illness would have a far higher joy quotient as two researchers called it in a paper I once read. The joy quotient is determined by counting the number of smiles over a certain period of time. I consider it to be the best monitoring tool I ever saw.
There is no doubt that those of us with serious mental illnesses are leery of faith communities, but also there is no doubt that faith communities are uniquely equipped and committed to embrace us if only the canyon could be contracted.
You can reach me directly at [email protected]
HOMEPAGE: http:// www.geocities.com/eecoop_2000/ed.html
