Spiritual Care Summit

Spiritual Care For Human Wellness: Making Spiritual Care Accessible for Everyone, Everywhere

Occurred on Monday October 23, 2023

St. Joseph's College
278 White’s Bridge Road, Standish, ME
Summit will take place in the Harold Alfond Center Sports Complex

Faith and spirituality are critical factors of human wellness and wholeness, and the role of spiritual care providers and chaplains is evolving to meet the world’s needs. Thank you to those who joined us for the day of exploring how the fields of Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy are changing in order to cultivate wholeness and build resilience outside of traditional institutions. We enjoyed two keynote speakers, each of whom is doing groundbreaking work in the field of chaplaincy. Wendy Cadge and Rev. Jana Milton-Martin shared about their work in and out of institutions. We experienced contemplative time around the beautiful St Joseph's campus, came together for workshops offered by folks doing spiritual care in the world, and participated in conversation circles to reflect on and integrate what we have experienced.

For more information, contact Lori Whittemore at lori@scsmaine.org

Schedule

9:00 am - 9:30 am: Arrival and Gathering 
9:30 am: Centering Practice, Opening Remarks, and Introductions 
9:45 am - 11:15 am: Keynote presenters 

BREAK

11:30 am - 12:30 pm: Contemplative Sessions 

  • Labyrinth — Linda Bruce
  • Contemplative Nature Walk — Nicole Diroff
  • Music as Prayer in Chapel — Craig Werth
  • Trail Walk to Lakeside Silent Sit — Jan King
  • Gonging in Meditation Room — Todd Glacy

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm: LUNCH 

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm: Breakout Sessions 

  • Spiritual Care in the Arts — Susannah Crolius, Art + Soul 
  • Spiritual Care in Earth Care / Climate Justice — Alison Cornish 
  • Spiritual Care with Infertility and Loss — Abby Luca 
  • Spiritual Care in Social Justice Work — Vaishali Mamgain

BREAK

2:45 pm- 3:45 pm: Conversation Circles - Participants to break out into rooms for facilitated conversations about spiritual and pastoral care in today’s society.
3:45 pm - 4:15 pm: Closing and Postlude

View the Keynote Presentation below, recorded on October, 23, 2023:


Keynote Speakers

Wendy Cadge

Wendy Cadge is the Barbara Mandel Professor of Humanistic Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at Brandeis University. She is an expert in contemporary American religion, especially related to religion in public institutions, religious diversity, religious and moral aspects of healthcare, and religion and immigration.

She is the author of three books: Spiritual Care: The Everyday Work of Chaplains, Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine, and Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America, and is a co-editor of Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care in the Twenty-First Century and Religion on the Edge: De-Centering and Re-Centering the Sociology of Religion. Information about her articles is available on her Scholar Works and Google Scholar profiles.

Wendy launched the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab in 2018 after founding and co-directing the Transforming Chaplaincy Project from 2015-2019. A public intellectual, she recently wrote or has been quoted in the Atlantic, the Economist, the BBC, and on WBUR. She has published more than eighty articles and raised more than $8 million in support of her own research and teaching and that of students and colleagues.

Rev. Jana Milhon-Martin

The Rev. Jana Milhon-Martin is an Episcopal priest and CPE Diplomate Supervisor. She currently serves as the Director for The Center for Lay Chaplaincy in the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese and previously served as a healthcare chaplain in a variety of settings. In another life she was a social worker for an AIDS hospice and worked with homeless youth on the streets of Los Angeles. She has traveled extensively in Central and South America and spent time in Kolkata, India working in Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying. Rev. Jana is a Trinity Wall Street Philanthropies and Roanridge Trust grant awardee and she is excited to bring the transformational possibilities of CPE to a wider audience and the healing presence of chaplaincy to the footpath of "ordinary" life.