Tragedy and Congregations
The purpose of the project, funded by the Templeton World Charities Foundation, is to resource churches to respond in a healthy way to the impact of tragedies, local and global, through training ordinands in good practice, careful reflection, and personal resilience. Congregational flourishing can be jeopardized when tragic events threaten ordinary frames of meaning within which groups of worshippers live. This can lead to symptoms of trauma, and to communal narratives that are refractory to healing. How then can Christian congregations be helped to respond with integrity, courage and compassion to tragedies, including those that seem to have a scientific explanation?
The project team has done over 50 Zoom workshops for clergy groups since May 2020, and 25 more are booked.
Key outputs:
Megan Warner, Christopher Southgate, Carla A. Grosch-Miller and Hilary Ison (eds.) (2020), Tragedies and Christian Congregations: The Practical Theology of Trauma, Abingdon: Routledge
Christopher Southgate (2021), “Explorations of God and Covid-19”, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith
Carla A. Grosch-Miller (2021), Trauma and Pastoral Care, Norwich: Canterbury Press