Homage to an Urban Pioneer—Grady Clay
Reading the obits and accolades published at the death of journalist and urban-ecologist Grady Clay sends me back to 1968. Mr. Clay posted on the seminary bulletin board a request for a seminary couple to house-sit and teen-sit their son while they were away for several weeks. We met them, were offered the job, and we spent time in their home and sort of tended the young man of the house.
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- Written by David R. Sawyer, Ph.D.
- Published: 23 April 2013
Psychosis: A Service User's Perspective
An autoethnographical account of a psychiatric patient’s experience and its relevance to chaplains.
When researchers do autoethnography, they retrospectively and selectively write about epiphanies that stem from, or are made possible by, being part of a culture and/or by possessing a particular cultural identity. (Ellis et al, 2011)
It was a particularly stressful time that summer of 1998. My mother had just died and my only sister had been told her breast cancer was back and she didn’t have long to live.
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- Written by Hilary Pegg, MSc
- Published: 22 March 2013
Revisiting Spaceship Earth
A large screen image of the planet earth rising over the moon's horizon greeted me as I walked into a Southern Illinois University classroom to begin the winter term of 1970. At the time it was still a new image for us; a fresh look at the evidence of a new cosmology. It was the beginning of a new decade, which we greeted with a sense of world changing optimism in the face of a world divided by war, racial and ethnic hatred, and economic inequities. We were part of a design class focused on envisioning new solutions to world problems.
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- Written by A. Christopher Hammon, D.Min.
- Published: 21 March 2013
Ministry to Children in Peri-crisis:
Understanding the Need for Crisis Ministry with Children & Families
Weeks after the 1997 floodwaters receded in Iowa, young children still experienced nightmares that caused thrashing and moaning in their sleep. Long after the dust settled in the area around Ground Zero following 9/11, sobbing children clung to mothers and fathers as the parents tried to leave for work each day. Even now, as a community works to remove mounds of debris from a F4 tornado that ripped through the city of Henryville, Indiana last year, terrified children run screaming to hide under their beds and in closets as heavy winds roar outside their windows during spring thunderstorms. These examples are but a few manifestations of post-traumatic stress syndrome that affect children long after the initial crisis has passed.
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- Written by Lisa Wood, M.Div.
- Published: 21 March 2013
Applying Solution Focused Therapy to a Military Service Member
A Brief Case Study: 
Joe, 26, is a Staff Sergeant in the United States Army having joined the military at the age of 19. Three months ago he returned home from his second deployment overseas within a four year period of time. Most recently he served in Afghanistan as an infantry soldier with his first tour being in Iraq. During his seven year career, Joe has been transferred to three bases. Joe has been married for the last six years to his high school sweetheart and together they have two children ages four and two. Joe has been an excellent father and an attentive husband until recently when he started experiencing nightmares and a change in his personality became noticeable. A once fun-loving and easy-going person, Joe has been viewed most recently as tense, edgy, and arguing with his family. He has not been an active father or husband for the past three weeks. Though going to work, he has been speaking negatively of his fellow soldiers, something that has never happened before. Joe’s commander has noticed these differences and has asked him to attend counseling. Fearful that his career is in jeopardy, Joe confides to his wife the recent problems he has been experiencing. Together they seek out a counselor and come to you.
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- Written by Neil Duchac, Ph.D.
- Published: 11 March 2013
Positive Deviance and Spiritual Care Research
When I met with my surgical oncologist in October one of the things he said to me was, “Whatever you are doing, keep doing it. It is working.” He went on to add that a number of people that share my particular type of cancer, live well and much longer than expected without other medical interventions. So what are they doing that is different? Inquiring minds want to know. I want to know.
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- Written by A. Christopher Hammon, D.Min.
- Published: 07 March 2013