Be attentive to the moment.

I admit it, even typing that sentence makes me bristle a bit. When we are stuck in such a bizarre moment: a moment moves from dull and difficult, to sabbath-worthy and grace-filled and then back to panic-scrolling the latest news in a matter of seconds, well, being attentive might be the least desirable thing on offer. 

Yet as a people of the way, we know that Jesus invites us to be so attentive to the world that we let our hearts fill and break them too. In many ways, being attentive to this time demands no more and no less than what our faith always asks of us: to draw from our tradition, to respond everyone with God's generous love, to speak prophetically to injustice and to work together to bring about the Kin-dom here on earth. 

LeaderShift is playing its small part in supporting your work. We’re currently offering time to gather with Rev Janet Gear and Rev Brian Thorpe to explore the spiritual questions that arise during a crisis, the theologies that are guiding us, and how we respond to the needs of our communities right now. Also available are pastoral learning circles so wisdom and learning can be shared among colleagues. Following the feedback from all those who took the mental health first aid training, we have engaged Tipping Point to offer training on how to do pastoral care in a trauma-centred time. 

As we continue to respond to this time, we want to hear from you. What are you learning? What is alive about your faith these days? And what might you need to support your work as a faith leader in your community? Continue to reach out to us as we move, preach, teach and learn in this time.

With every blessing, 

Rev Rhian Walker 

The intensity of the first weeks of COVID-19 life and work is giving way to a time of settling. Not settling in a comfortable way, not settling in a familiar pattern, but settling into accepting that for now, we will pray and sing and eat and gather together at a distance. The physical distance is obvious, but the emotional impact of that, and the spiritual questions this way of being stimulates is also very real.

In the first weeks of the pandemic we cancelled many good in-person learning events and pivoted to offer online training in skills related to shifting some of our ministry online. Over the past 5 weeks we have hosted over 400 people in learning, many workshops in partnership with the PMR First Third Ministry Network. Thank you to all the workshop facilitators who patiently and promptly showed up to offer their gifts in equipping others!

Now LeaderShift is shifting our online engagement to deep theological reflection and to re-tooling pastoral care skills for trauma-oriented response. What is being unveiled for us at this time? About the Holy, about being the church, and our own resilience and spiritual capacity? We hope you’ll lean into these offerings this May and June.

Faithfully,

Allison Rennie, Director

Faith Leadership for Such a Time as This with Rev Janet Gear and Rev Brian Thorpe

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Transforming Pastoral Care Amidst COVID-19: deepening skills for trauma-oriented ministry practice

Faith Leadership for Such a Time as This with Rev Janet Gear and Rev Brian Thorpe

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