Depression and the Spirit: Half-day educational opportunity

Do you often come across depressed persons in your work as a chaplain? Would you like a place to think and learn about the relationship between depression and spirituality? Are you a bit stumped as to what there is to do to care for a depressed person?

Bishop Anderson House, host of a successful lay chaplain training program each spring (see earlier blog), annually holds a continuing education venue in the fall for its graduates and other interested persons. They have found in the course of their experience in training lay chaplains that a certain degree of psychological knowledge and training is essential to a chaplain's work. What follows here is the text of their brochure about their autumn event this year that goes some of the distance in providing that training. There's still time to get in on the second offering of this interesting, highly relevant topic. If you are in the Chicago area or will be passing through next weekend, check it out:

Depression and the Spirit…
The Lay Parish Chaplains’Training Program
Continuing Education Fall Seminars

Understanding depression is important for providing pastoral care for persons
who suffer from depression’s symptoms. Even more important is developing an
appreciation for their needs and how to respond. Often patients explain that they
know they need their doctor’s help, but more important to them is to have some-
one who can listen to their religious concerns. How does pastoral care provide
hope for patients with depression? What special skills are required?

Often patients’ religious concerns are directly related to and probably caused by
the symptoms of their illness. This session will look at some of those symptoms spe-
cifically, with suggestions for responding. It will also address the spiritual preparation necessary for this kind of pastoral care.

The seminar will weave together research and ten years of Sr. Pat Murphy’s clinical
experience. It will include a discussion of descriptions of spiritual darkness found in the scriptures and in the Christian mystical tradition. The goals of the session are to increase a sense of your own comfort in this work as well as to learn how to trust in the patient’s resources and the presence of God in providing pastoral care to this population.

Patricia E. Murphy, RSCJ, Ph.D., BCC is a Chaplain and Assistant Professor with dual
appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry and Religion, Health and Human
Values at Rush University Medical Center. Pat is a respected researcher in the field of spirituality and medicine and is a master teacher who has earned respect for her integration of psychiatry and pastoral counseling in her clinical work as a chaplain. Her research and clinical experience give her unique tools to share with us in the pastoral care of people with depression- whether in our work in congregations, in hospitals and nursing homes, or with those we love in our families, friendships and professional associations.

Join Chaplains, Clergy, Eucharistic Ministers and others in a morning of increasing our knowledge about depression and spirituality while adding to our skills as a pastoral visitor.

Each Seminar starts at 8:30 am, ends at 11:00 am, and is offered at two locations:

Saturday, October 13, 2007
at Bishop Anderson House
Located at: 707 South Wood Street
Rush University Medical Center Chicago, IL 60612-3833

Saturday, October 27, 2007
at St. Michael's Episcopal Church Library
647 Dundee Ave.
Barrington, IL 60010

For more information or to register, call

Bishop Anderson House
Rush University Medical Center
1735 West Harrison Street
Chicago, IL. 60612-3833
Phone: 312-563-4825


Let me know, if you go, if you find it helpful. And thanks in advance for patronizing our pastoral training venues.

Faithfully submitted,
Maggie Izutsu

Training for Lay Chaplains at Bishop Anderson House

I am unbelievably behind in my blogging!

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting Bishop Anderson House in Chicago at the kind invitation of The Rev. James (Jay) Risk, their executive director. Jay approached me at the Association of Professional Chaplains’ Assembly of Episcopal Healthcare Chaplains’ banquet with the suggestion that I come take a look at what they are doing in the chaplaincy training effort.

A well-designed program for lay folks extending over 11 weeks each spring, the students are treated to a host of experts who offer for two hours each Wednesday evening didactic material ranging from psychiatric diagnostics to aging. In addition, students are paired with a field site and a field supervisor. The learning contracts for these sites are as clear, concise and constructive as could be—impressive.

I met with an outstanding array of people involved, beginning with the psychiatrist who offers in the program a thumbnail sketch of diagnostic categories, and ending with one student and her field supervisor. The latter was none other than Belinda Chandler, a member of the original steering committee for this project. It was wonderful to finally have a chance to talk with Belinda in person. Asking directions to her office at the hospital, the information clerk noted, “Nice person, Belinda Chandler!”

Not only nice, Belinda reflectively registered some of the trickier issues of employing lay folks trained in such a venue. Not the least of these is the legal issues of what lay folks can and cannot do. I was impressed with the dedication Belinda has demonstrated in making wise use of the human resources cultivated through the Bishop Anderson House training program. One of these uses is in helpful data gathering on who needs a visit by the professional chaplain.

At the risk of getting ahead of ourselves, Jay and I mused over the prospect of involving Seabury in extending the program of Bishop Anderson House in line with the hopes and aims of this project. Watch this space for news of developments along these lines and others.

In the meantime, please know of my admiration and respect for the job Jay is doing with the program there now.

Thanks, Jay, for your congenial hosting of a lovely and informative day.


Gratefully submitted,
Maggie Izutsu

Berkeley in Bloom

“Tell me more about Vicki Joy,” Bishop Packard asked, when we discussed my proposal to go to the Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley to see what they are about.

Vicki Joy had been my student since I arrived at ETSS to oversee their MAPM and MAC programs in 2004. She had come to see me several times to discuss her feeling of a call to chaplaincy and the possibility of being recognized by the Episcopal Church and adequately trained to serve in it. She was flummoxed by the lack of resources for training in our tradition, and particularly, the dearth of artistic and creative approaches. She was drawn to the Berkeley enterprise by their clowning offerings. Patch Adams has been a formative influence in their programmatic development.

“Vicki Joy is not very academically inclined, but she is hard-working, sincere, dedicated and bright. When she decided, after much thought and research to pursue the program in California, I felt the whole Episcopal Church was sharply rebuked by this turn of events.”

For anyone who knows Bishop George, you will recognize both his characteristic modesty and his openess to the movement of the Spirit. He responded, “I didn’t know where I was going when I asked the question, but I’m glad I did; she is our target population. Go to where she’s been.”

And so I did. Yesterday, I began a several day sojourn in Berkeley at the warm invitation of founder The Rev. Dr. Gina Rose Halpern. I'll file another report after I've digested what I've found, but as for background, here's what struck me from Gina Rose's and my initial conversation by phone last week:

All the instructors are artists, and their program is continually evolving. They are thrilled that the Episcopal Church has taken an interest in them.

Gina Rose herself converted from Judaism to the Episcopal Church at the time of the women’s ordination movement and was powerfully influenced by her membership in it. She drifted away some time ago when her own aspirations were not met with enthusiasm or encouragement; now, she is on the cutting edge and we are coming to her.

She was too modest to say so, but I imagined if I were she, I’d have a tear in my right eye.



Maggie Izutsu