Leading a Congregation in Traumatising Times

 Leominster Priory

2020 was a year like no other for many, with the various disruptions issuing from the pandemic impacting Church and society alike. Other concerns, like the consequences of Brexit and slow-burn climate change, along with more local tragedies like floods and sexual misconduct, also overshadow us at this time. These threaten to unmoor people and dash them on rocks of despair. We will learn about how trauma impacts the human body and the community, consider best practice in terms of pastoral and liturgical responses, learn the power and art of lamentation, and explore how the pieces can be put back together.

We will be led by the Revd Dr Carla A. Grosch-Miller, who is part of the team that created the Tragedy and Congregations Project. She is a contributor and co-editor of Tragedies and Christian Congregations: The Practical Theologies of Trauma (Routledge, November 2019). Her other areas of research and writing are sexuality and spirituality, and theo-poetics. She is the author of Psalms redux: poems and prayers (Canterbury Press, 2014).