I came across this article written by Dr. Paula Bloom in yesterday’s Huffington Post religion section. I have been very interested in the link between lives of faith/belief and depression. Dr. Bloom seems to say that treatment of depression can help a person to be better equipped to experience him/herslf as being connected to the Divine Presence. I think all of this is very interesting. I also find it interesting that Dr. Bloom seems to suggest that the voice of the Divine is the opposite of the voice of depression. Did I read that right? I would love to know what you think?

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As stress increases more and more people in our congregation are likely experiencing the effects of depression. I have found that too often we have difficulty speaking the truth about depression because we feel we should be better able to control our moods. We become convinced that depression is a sign of weakness.

May faith groups have put together resources to assist congregations in talking about and responding to depression and other form of mental illness in our midsr. Here are links to a few of them:

United Methodist General Board of Church & Society

Department of Jewish Family Concerns- Union For Reform Judaism-Mental Health information

Presbyterian Church (USA)- National Health Ministries- Serious Mental Illness Information

Mental Health: Ministries: To Erase The Stigma of Mental Illness

I was reminded of these issues and the importance of providing space for this important conversation by a recent interview I saw with Quaker teacher and Scholar Parker Palmer.

Please take a few minutes minutes to view the clip below:

I would love to hear your reflections on our times and the rise of depression. I would also love to hear from readers concerning your reflections on the Parker Palmer clip.

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter recently became a congregational member of the Interfaith Disability Connection. We are grateful for their commitment to building congregations where acceptance, inclusion and belonging are at the heart of what it means to be community. If you are not familiar with the story of Holy Comforter you can read about it here.

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter operates the Friendship Center, Which is a day program for people with mental Illness and other disabilities.

The Work of Our Hands hosts an artist Market. The funds raised by the Artist Market are used to support the work of the Friendship Center and Emmaus House 

Please consider visiting the artist maket to support this vital work and whole you’re at it, pick up some wonderful gifts for the holidays.

Work of Our Hands Artist Market 2008

The National Alliance for The Mentally Ill (NAMI) has declared Tuesday, October 7,2008 the National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding. NAMI FaithNet has put together some resources to assist congregations in this effort.

The Jewish Family Concerns Department at the Union for Reform Judaism has put together a wide range of resources for congregations to help build understanding about theimportance of mental health and the prevalence of mental illness. You can visit their web site here to gain a better understanding of the issues.

The Observance on October 7th is a part of National Mental Illness Awareness Week which falls next week, October 6-10, 2008.

As part of National Mental Illness Awareness Week NAMI St. Louis  has partnered with the Missouri Institute on Mental Health to offer a series of web-based workshops about mental illness and recovery. You can obtain additional information about those workshops here.

It is my hope that you will share this information with friends, colleagues, and congregants. The stigma around mental health and mental illness in our congregations remains a substantial barrier to healthy, life-giving congregations. Let us work together to educate of congregations and communities so that our sanctuaries can become sanctuary for those living with mental health diagnoses.

I would also be interested to learn about other resources for congregational education about mental health/mental illness. Are readers aware of resources that have been helpful in opening up the conversation? Please leave comments and I will post regarding additional resources later in the week.

Update:The Chair of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta’s Health Ministries Committee sent me the following links  and asked that I add them to this post:

The Presbyterian Serious Mental Illness Network

The Presbyterian Serious Mental Illness Networks Resources Page 

I read this insightful post from Real Live Preacher this morning and it made me think about the ways our congregations do and do not address the issues that face people with mental health diagnoses.

Real LivePreacher has been very open about his journey with depression and his struggle in seeking treatment. I applaud his willingness to speak the truth of his experience and to hopefully provide an opportunity for his readers to “hear” the story of a person who is living his life in the midst of depression. The stories matter!

According to the National Institutes on Mental Health (NIMH) about 1 in 4 people over the age of 18 experience a mental illness in any given year. That’s a huge number.

It is incredibly important for our religious communities to be places where the silence around mental illness and disability is lifted and the truth is told.

Nancy Maris in her essay Carnal Acts makes this point much better than I could ever hope to when she says,

I can subvert its power(the power of shame), I’ve found, by acknowledging who I am, shame and all, and, in doing so, raising what was hidden, dark, secret about my life into the plain light of shared human experience. What we aren’t permitted to utter holds us, each isolated from every other in a kind of solipsistic thrall. Without any way to check our reality against anyone else’s, we assume that our fears and shortcomings are ours alone.

If you are a person in a congregation living with the secret of depression you are most certainly not alone.

There is a trend in some of our denominations to address the issues faced by people living with mental illnesses. Some examples of those efforts can be found:

Union of Reform Judaism- Department of Jewish Family Concerns

Mental Health Ministries

Creating Caring Communities Article- United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism

The Caring Congregation Program- Mission Peak UU Congregation- Freemont, CA

I would be interested to know about other resources readers have found as they sought to be educated around this too oft ignored set of issues?

I hope that these resources assist us in continuing to lift this important issue out of the darkness of ignorance and into the light of communal compassion. And let it be so.