Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy / Edition 1

by Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley

Overview

The first comprehensive resource for pastoral care in the face of disaster—a vital resource for clergy, seminarians, pastoral counselors and caregivers of all faith traditions.

This essential resource for clergy and caregivers integrates the classic foundations of pastoral care with the unique challenges of disaster response on community, regional and national levels.

Offering the latest theological perspectives and tools, along with basic theory and skills from the best disaster response texts, research and concepts, the contributors to this resource are innovators in their fields and represent Christianity, Judaism, Islam and more.

Exploring how spiritual care changes following a disaster, and including a comprehensive explanation of a disaster's lifecycle, this is the definitive guidebook for counseling not only the victims of disaster but also the clergy and caregivers who are called to service in the wake of crisis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594732409
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	03/01/2008
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., MDiv, DMin, DH, a frequent speaker on the topics of leadership development, clergy resiliency and interfaith dialogue, is acting dean and associate professor of practical theology at New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He was the interim pastor at Union Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey, and is the founding pastor of Abundant Joy Community Church in Jersey City, New Jersey. He also serves as a consultant on disaster recovery and clergy self-care to congregations and Fortune 100 companies. He is author of Learning to Lead: Lessons in Leadership for People of Faith and coeditor of Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy (SkyLight Paths).

Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, MBA, MHL, BCJC, is the editor of Professional Spiritual & Pastoral Care: A Practical Clergy and Chaplain's Handbook and coeditor of Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Response to Community, Regional and National Tragedy (both SkyLight Paths). He is a past president of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains. Most recently he served as the associate executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, directing their chaplaincy program, providing services in more than fifty locations throughout New York, and serving as the endorser for both New York State's and New York City's Jewish chaplains. Prior to this he served as the director of chaplaincy of the Beth Israel Medical System (New York), overseeing chaplains and clinical pastoral education (CPE) programs at three acute care hospitals, one behavioral health hospital, and various outpatient facilities served by chaplains.

Imam Ummi Nur Allene Ali is CEO and president of Malik Shabazz Human Rights Institute; a United Nations nongovernment representative for the African Committee on Health and Human Rights; a member of the African Woman Alliance NGO; a member of the Partnership of Faith of New York City; a member of the Woman Planning Committee, Auburn Theological Seminary; a member of the Clergy Advisory Committee for Organ/Tissue Transplant Network; a committee member of the Interfaith Advisory Council, Auburn Theological Seminary; and served as a Red Cross chaplain at Ground Zero, New York City.

Chaplain Therese M. Becker, MA, MDiv, is the manager of Spiritual Care Services at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara, California. She is a (joyful) Jew by choice. Her interest in disaster spiritual care began when she was doing her theological studies in earthquake country twenty years ago. A certified chaplain, she has worked in community hospitals and trauma centers. Previously, she was a machinist for United Airlines and a welfare worker in Manhattan. She was the first chaplain formally deployed by the American Red Cross to a train crash in Bourbonnais, Illinois, in March 1999. For her, disaster chaplaincy is an honoring of God in the stranger, the ger, which also means "convert."

Rev. David Billings, DMin, has been an antiracist trainer and organizer with The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond since 1983. After thirty-five years in New Orleans, he moved to New York City in the fall of 2004 to work with The People’s Institute’s New York office. In the fall of 2006 he was appointed the Pauline Falk Chair on Community, Race, and Mental Health with the Jewish Board of
Family and Children’s Services. Rev. Billings is an ordained United Methodist minister. He also is a historian with a special interest in the history of race and racism. Over the years, Rev. Billings’s organizing work has been cited for many awards, such as the Westchester County chapter of the National Association of Social Workers Public Citizen of the Year; the New Orleans Pax Christi Bread and Roses Award; the Loyola Universityof New Orleans Homeless and Hunger Award; and the National Alliance against Racist Oppression’s Angela Davis Award for community service.

Greg Bodin, BCC, MDiv, is the director of pastoral care at North Memorial Health Care and is an ordained pastor with the Evangelical Covenant Church. He has extensive experience in the field of disaster chaplaincy, starting in 1980 as a fire chaplain and then in 1981 as the disaster team pastoral care coordinator for the Metropolitan Airports Commission in Minnesota. He has responded to four aviation disaster crashes as well as two hurricanes; he was an officer for the American Red Cross in New York City overseeing spiritual care after 9/11; and he was the senior chaplain helping to oversee the provision of disaster 104 Bodin, Becker, Schmidt spiritual care in his hometown when there was a major interstate bridge collapse in 2007.

Rabbi Zahara Davidowitz-Farkas, BCJC, was the founding executivedirector of Disaster Chaplaincy Services, New York. She responded onSeptember 12, 2001, to the 9/11 attacks in New York City. At the beginningof 2002 she was hired full-time to oversee the American RedCross's (ARC) Spiritual Care Long Term Recovery program in NewYork City. She is a longtime member of ARC’s Spiritual Care Response
Team and serves on the national oversight committee. She served as deanof the Rabbinic Seminary of Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute ofReligion in New York, as the director of the Jack D. Weiler Chaplaincy Program of the New York Board of Rabbis, and as coordinator of Jewish chaplaincy at the New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center under the auspices of the HealthCare Chaplaincy.

Rev. Thomas H. Davis Jr. is an ordained minister with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Currently he is the chair of the Emotional and Spiritual Care Committee of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster. Since 2002, he has worked with Church World Service as a disaster response specialist. In this position he has consulted with multiple communities in twenty-one states and territories on capacity building for long-term recovery following disasters. He has also developed a retreat for clergy and caregivers following a disaster designed to offer renewal and reflection of their disaster response. Rev. Davis's work has focused on community-based recovery involving social
service organizations and the faith-based community, including congregations and judicatories.

Kevin L. Ellers, Dmin, is the territorial disaster services coordinator for the Salvation Army in the central territory of the United States. He is also president of the Institute for Compassionate Care, which is dedicated to education, training, and direct care. He is an associate chaplain
with the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, serves as faculty for the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, and is a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors Crisis Response Training Team. He has authored several books and teaches broadly in the topics of medic first aid, grief, trauma, disasters, and emotional and spiritual care. Ellers is a candidate for the doctor of ministry degree in the marriage and family therapy track, and is currently working
on the final project for completion of the degree. He has a strong background in disasters, chaplaincy, pastoral ministries, marriage and family therapy, and social services.

Rev. George Handzo, BCC, holds a bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University, a master of divinity degree from Yale UniversityDivinity School, and a master of arts in educational psychology from Jersey City State College. He did his clinical pastoral education at Yale-New Haven Hospital and Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, and is ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Rev. Handzo is vice president of pastoral care leadership and practice at The HealthCare Chaplaincy (HCC) in New York City and leads HCC's consulting service. He was director of chaplaincy services at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a partner institution of The HealthCare Chaplaincy, for over twenty years. Rev. Handzo is the author of numerous articles and chapters in the area of pastoral and spiritual care and the book Health Care Chaplaincy in Oncology, coauthored with Dr. Laurel Burton. He has lectured widely, including at Johns Hopkins Universityand the American College of Healthcare Executives Congress. Rev. Handzo is a board-certified chaplain in the Association of Professional Chaplains and is a past president of that organization.

Imam Yusuf Hasan, BCC, is a board-certified chaplain in the Association of Professional Chaplains. He worked with Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, coeditor of this book, in the years prior to 9/11, helping create a disaster chaplaincy response organization in New York City, within the American Red Cross; was trained as an American Red Cross SAIR Team member; and was one of the first disaster spiritual 194 Hasan, Handzo care responders in New York after 9/11. He did his clinical pastoral education at The HealthCare Chaplaincy (HCC) and is an assistant imam at Masjid Malcolm Shabazz in New York City. Imam Hasan has been staff chaplain at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, partner institutions of The HealthCare Chaplaincy, for over fourteen years. Imam Hasan is the author and coauthor of numerous articles and chapters in the area of providing pastoral and spiritual care, especially for the Islamic community. He has lectured around the country and appeared on national television, including PBS’s "Religion" and “Ethics NewsWeekly” and “NBC Nightly News,” numerous radio stations, and newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek magazine.

Imam Muhammad Hatim, PhD, DMin, is the director of the justice ministry for the New York City Department of Correction with the Admiral Family Circle Islamic Community of New York City; general
secretary of Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X) Human Rights Institute; and a United Nations nongovernmental organization representative. He is a pastoral counseling specialist with the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, a clinical alcohol and drug counselor, and a recovery
mentor associate (specializing in opiate addiction) in New Jersey. He was a Red Cross disaster chaplain at Ground Zero after 9/11 and is an intern alcohol and drug counselor in the Intensive
Outpatient Program services at Team Management 2000, Englewood, New Jersey.

Rev. Earl E. Johnson, MDiv, BCC, is an American Red Cross (ARC) Spiritual Care Response Team volunteer partner, located at ARC headquarters in Washington, D.C. Since stepping into this position in 2002, he oversees the training and deployment of almost two hundred professional board-certified chaplains who respond on behalf of their various
professional chaplaincy associations through ARC to aviation and transportation incidents, as well as a variety of disasters including Hurricane Katrina, the four Florida hurricanes of 2005, and other disasters of national scope and importance. He is a board-certified chaplain and member of the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) and the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. In 2006 he was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award by the APC. He is an ordained Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) minister and a former hospital chaplain in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Rev. Lorraine Jones, MDiv, relishes the challenge of solving problems in a creative manner. Her educational background includes a degree in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt Universityand a master of divinity from Andover Newton Theological Seminary. Her career includes work in stewardship and missions training/fundraising on a denominational level and providing instruction on cutting-edge biohazard detection systems. Rev. Jones currently serves as senior vice president of design and production for ICE Buddy Systems, Inc., a company that designs, patents, and markets emergency preparedness items. She serves as an associate minister and outreach pillar leader at Parker Memorial Baptist Church, a Covenant Community ministry in Burtonsville, Maryland.

John D. Kinsel, MS, LPCC, has been a volunteer for Children's Disaster Services of the Church of the Brethren since 1981, serving primarily as a trainer and a Level II volunteer. He is the program director of the Young Children’s Assessment and Treatment Services division of Samaritan Behavioral Health, Inc. in Dayton, Ohio. A clinician and child developmentalist, Kinsel has been providing mental health services to children and their families for over twenty-five years. He is
married and has two adult children.

Rev. Canon William V. Livingston, MDiv, MEd, serves as canon pastor-missioner for the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi through a post- Katrina project funded by Episcopal Relief and Development. He offers individual and family pastoral support, counseling and spiritual direction to coastal clergy and their families, and has started a support group for clergy and a support group for clergy spouses. In addition, he serves as a consultant to coastal Episcopal parishes and community recovery operations funded by Episcopal Relief and Development. Prior to ordination, he worked for twenty-three years in community mental health—with fourteen of those years as CEO of the Abilene Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center in Abilene, Texas, and the Southwest Mental Health Center in McComb, Mississippi. He has served as president of the community mental health center coalitions in Mississippi and Texas, on the board of directors of the National Council of Community Centers and is a recipient of its Distinguished Service Award, and as member of the National Children's Mental Health Coalition. His academic training includes a masters of divinity from the Episcopal School of Theology of the Southwest, a masters in education in counseling from Delta State University, and a bachelor of science in psychology and sociology from Mississippi State University.

Rev. Charles R. Lorrain, DMin, is the executive director of the International Conference of Police Chaplains (ICPC). Rev. Lorrain is a certified master chaplain with the ICPC, having served twenty-five
years in field ministry to local law enforcement and also national events such as 9/11, the crash of American Airlines flight 587, Hurricane Katrina, and others. He is a board-certified expert in traumatic stress, a diplomate with the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, a board-certified crisis chaplain, and board-certified in emergency crisis response. He also serves on the American Red Cross Crisis Response Team and the ICPC's disaster response team.

Rev. Charles R. Lorrain, DMin, is the executive director of the International Conference of Police Chaplains (ICPC). Rev. Lorrain is a certified master chaplain with the ICPC, having served twenty-five
years in field ministry to local law enforcement and also national events such as 9/11, the crash of American Airlines flight 587, Hurricane Katrina, and others. He is a board-certified expert in traumatic stress, a diplomate with the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, a board-certified crisis chaplain, and board-certified in emergency crisis response. He also serves on the American Red Cross Crisis Response Team and the ICPC's disaster response team.

Rabbi Myrna Matsa, DMin, holds the position of rabbinic pastoral counselor for Hurricane Katrina support in the New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Biloxi/Gulfport regions. She works closely with leaders of various faith communities, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and also laypeople within the Gulf Region providing them with direct pastoral services during reconstruction, serving as a Jewish referral resource, and interfacing with various mental health associations. She was sent by the New York Board of Rabbis in partnership with the United Jewish
Communities. Rabbi Matsa has earned a doctor of ministry in pastoral counseling and pastoral care, a degree that brings together psychology and theology, and has completed four units of clinical pastoral education. Her area of concentration was in the field of dying, death, and bereavement. Recognizing Healthy and Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms 137 As a community leader she has dedicated her life to helping people who have been at the margins of society. She has been involved in protecting children's rights, affordable housing issues, advocacy for homeless individuals and families, and other societal concerns such as substance abuse and domestic violence. Rabbi Matsa brings passion to her work as she helps to identify needs along the Gulf so that she can be counted among those who bring a source of hope and healing.

Pamela Norris Norwood, LCSW, received her degrees from Tufts Universityand Atlanta University. She is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where she also serves as a Sunday school teacher. She also served as a member of the church's emergency
preparedness team in Los Angeles. She is a clinical social worker with over thirty years of private practice experience, and also formally directed two outpatient mental health centers in the District of Columbia and Maryland. She served for over eighteen years as CEO of a security consulting firm providing extensive security and emergency preparedness services to law enforcement, educational systems, and business and faith groups. She currently serves as CEO of ICE Buddy Systems, Inc., a company that designs, patents, and markets emergency preparedness items.

Rev. Naomi Paget, DMin, BCC, BCETS is a Mission Service Corps missionary for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Rev. Paget's field of service is as an FBI chaplain and crisis interventionist with extensive training and experience in crisis intervention in law enforcement, community services, corporate institutions, and in multiple disaster relief organizations. She is a certified member of the national American Red Cross Spiritual Response Team, the Denver Seminary Critical Incident Stress Management Team, and several other national and international crisis response teams. She is a disaster chaplain trainer and curriculum writer for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and serves on the National Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters committee. She has served as a crisis chaplain consultant and instructor for multiple denominations, communities, institutions, and agencies throughout the country. Rev. Paget earned her DMin from Golden Gate Theological Seminary and her MDiv from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is board certified by the Association of Professional Chaplains and board certified by the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress wherein she has achieved Diplomate status and is listed in the National Registry of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. She is an adjunct professor at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and at Denver Seminary and has authored two books, Disaster Relief Chaplain Training (North American Mission Board, 2005) and The Work of the Chaplain (Judson Press, 2006). She is a passionate supporter of higher education for women and enjoys reading, ranching, and fly-fishing in her leisure.

Rev. Rebeca Radillo, DMin, fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, served for six years on the board of directors of the association. Rev. Radillo is a licensed mental health professional (NYS); an associate professor of pastoral care and counseling at New York Theological Seminary; and founder and executive director of the Instituto Latino de Cuidado Pastoral, Inc. in New York City. Her publications include "Pastoral Counseling with Latina/Latino Americans" in Clinical Handbook of Pastoral Counseling, Vol. 3 (Paulist Press, 2003); Cuidado Pastoral: Contextual e Integral (Libros Desafio, 2007); and “A Model of Formation in the Multi-Cultural Urban Context for Pastoral Care Specialists” in The Formation of Pastoral Counselors: Challenges and Opportunities (Haworth Pastoral Press, 2006).

Tanya Pagán Raggio, MD, MPH, FAAP, is board-certified in preventive medicine and pediatrics. She was awarded her bachelor's of science and doctor of medicine from Rutgers University. She completed her masters in public health and fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology at the Universityof Pittsburgh. She has extensive experience in developing and implementing health care services for persons of all ages throughout the country. She has also served as an associate professor of medicine at several universities.

Rev. John A. Robinson Jr., MDiv, is the associate for disaster response in the United States with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He has been involved in disaster response ministry, either as a volunteer or as paid staff, since he organized Interfaith Disaster Assistance after a category F4 tornado cut through Robeson County, North Carolina, in 1984. He is a graduate of the Universityof North Carolina at Greensboro and Union Theological Seminary in
Virginia. John lives with his wife, Helen, in Winchester, Virginia. They have two sons, John Arron and John Andrew III.

Roberta L. Samet, LCSW, was the program manager for the September 11th Fund. In this capacity she oversaw the development and implementation of the long-term mental health recovery plan for New York City, the tri-state area, as well as other parts of the United States most affected by the events of 9/11. She developed 15 distinct trauma training programs reaching 7,000 mental health professionals, 3,000 primary care physicians, 2,500 early childhood educators and 2,000 clergy. She was instrumental in the development of a far-reaching mental health benefit that combined resources of the September 11th Fund and the American Red Cross. Through this program, a pool of 125,000 eligible individuals were entitled to receive free mental health and substance abuse services. Prior to this, Samet headed the AIDS Initiatives for the NYC Department of Mental Health where she served as a senior consultant to the agency. She is a past member of the board of directors of the New York City chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

Chaplain Timothy G. Serban, MA, BCC, is vice president of mission integration and spiritual care at Providence Regional Medical Center, Everett, Washington, supporting a team of twenty-one board certified chaplains and music thanatologists. He has been in the field of spiritual care, mission, and ethics for more than twenty-two years. He holds his master's degree in theology and pastoral ministry in health care from Duquesne Universityin Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a board certified chaplain with the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. He serves as national volunteer lead for the Spiritual Care Response Team of the
American Red Cross in Washington, DC, and liaison of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains to the American Red Cross. Chaplain Serban has taught and spoken abroad on disaster response, ethics, and spiritual care. He is a contributor to Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy (SkyLight Paths Publishing), and The Red Guide to Recovery: A Resource Handbook for Disaster Survivors.

Rev. Frederick J. Streets, MDIV, MSW, DSW, DD, LICSW, is the Carl and Dorothy Bennett professor in Pastoral Counseling at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University, New York City. He is the former chaplain of Yale Universityand senior pastor of the Church of Christ in Yale, where he served from 1992 to 2007. He is an adjunct associate professor in pastoral theology at Yale Divinity School. Prior to Yale, he was for seventeen years the senior pastor of Mount Aery Baptist Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is a senior
consulting member of the Harvard Program for Refugee Trauma. A native of Chicago, Rev. Streets has been involved in providing pastoral care and mental health services and doing humanitarian work in urban America, Bosnia, Cuba, Colombia, Argentina, and Ghana. He will be a Fulbright Scholar during the spring of 2008 at the Universityof Pretoria in Pretoria, South Africa, focusing on the intersection of modern medicine and social work interventions and spirituality among families with children living with HIV and AIDS. He is the author of numerous publications and editor of Preaching in the New Millennium (Yale UniversityPress, 2005).

Rev. Julie Taylor, MDiv, CTR, (Certified Trauma Responder), is the executive director of Disaster Chaplaincy Services, New York. She is a member of both the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) and the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists, and is an ICISF-approved instructor. Rev. Taylor has been a consultant to the New York City Mayor's Office of Labor Relations on trauma-related crisis counseling and psychoeducation. During the 9/11 recovery, Rev. Taylor was a chaplain at St. Paul’s Chapel at the World Trade Center site. Rev. Taylor serves on the Hudson Valley Critical Incident Stress Management Team and is the cofounder of Chiron Associates.

Cheryl Guidry Tyiska is a nationally certified crisis responder, crisis response trainer, and victim advocate. She is director of victim-witness services for the Anne Arundel County (Maryland) state attorney's office. She served as interim executive director of National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster and was president of its board of directors. She served as interim executive director of the National Organization for Victim Assistance, was its deputy director for two years, and was its director of victim services for eighteen years. Tyiska has responded to many crises and has performed numerous trainings and speaking engagements in the United States and other countries.

Rev. Beverly Wallace, PhD, is assistant to the bishop of the southeastern synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Her role is to coordinate pastoral care and spiritual emotional health for the Katrina recovery on the coast of Mississippi. Rev. Wallace served as assistant pastor at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Atlanta and Redeemer Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. Before her call to Mississippi, Rev. Wallace held a predoctoral fellowship at Elon Universitywhere she taught counseling; prior to that she was the chaplain for vocation at Hamline University, where she also taught in the religion department and in the area of social justice. The mother of two adult educators and grandmother of grandson Jaylen, Rev. Wallace received her PhD in the area of family social science with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy from the Universityof Minnesota. She is the coauthor of the book African American Grief, published by Routledge.

Rev. John C. Wilson, PhD, is a recognized expert on disaster spiritual care focusing on the issues of the recruitment, training, and deployment of local clergy as spiritual care providers in community disasters. He serves on the American Red Cross Spiritual Care Response Team
for natural disasters, aviation, and terrorism incidents, and has responded nationally to aviation incidents. He served as the acting lead spiritual care for the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C., during the 9/11 aftermath and is a member of the Spiritual Care Response Team national advisory committee. He is a national speaker on the uniqueness and need for disaster spiritual care and a regular presenter and trainer for local clergy preparing for disaster responses. He is a board-certified chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains and the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, and is employed as the trauma and critical care chaplain at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, in Park Ridge, Illinois.

Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., MDiv, DMin, DH, a frequent speaker on the topics of leadership development, clergy resiliency and interfaith dialogue, is acting dean and associate professor of practical theology at New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He was the interim pastor at Union Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey, and is the founding pastor of Abundant Joy Community Church in Jersey City, New Jersey. He also serves as a consultant on disaster recovery and clergy self-care to congregations and Fortune 100 companies. He is author of Learning to Lead: Lessons in Leadership for People of Faith and coeditor of Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy (SkyLight Paths).

Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, MBA, MHL, BCJC, is the editor of Professional Spiritual & Pastoral Care: A Practical Clergy and Chaplain's Handbook and coeditor of Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Response to Community, Regional and National Tragedy (both SkyLight Paths Publishing). He is a past president of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains. Most recently he served as the associate executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, directing their chaplaincy program, providing services in more than fifty locations throughout New York, and serving as the endorser for both New York State's and New York City's Jewish chaplains. Prior to this he served as the director of chaplaincy of the Beth Israel Medical System (New York), overseeing chaplains and clinical pastoral education (CPE) programs at three acute care hospitals, one behavioral health hospital, and various outpatient facilities served by chaplains.

Rev. Arthur Schmidt, DMin, BCC, is an ELCA Lutheran pastor and a certified supervisor of clinical pastoral education. He is currently president of the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE). He has served as chaplain and educator in spiritual care for over thirty years
in Colorado, California, and Washington. After a several-year stint as the coordinator of disaster response for the ACPE, Rev. Schmidt joined Theresa Becker and Greg Bodin in designing a curriculum for training spiritual care disaster response personnel for the American Red Cross
Disaster Response Team. Art left this task force when he was elected president of the ACPE.

Table of Contents

Preface xi
Introduction
Disasters and Spiritual Care
Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, BCJC, and Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., DMin, DH
Disaster Spiritual Care Wisdom Sayings and Insights

PART I The Life Cycle of a Disaster
1. The Life Cycle of a Disaster
Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, BCJC
2. Self-Care—Not an Option
Tanya Pagán Raggio, MD, MPH, FAAP and Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., DMin, DH
3. Pre-disaster Phase—No One Is an Island: How to Prepare Your Congregation and Congregants through Cooperation, Collaboration, and Community
Pamela Norris Norwood, LCSW, and Rev. Lorraine Jones, MDiv
4. Impact and Heroic Phases—Small Disaster: What Do I Do Now? Congregational and Community Work
Rev. Kevin Massey, BCC
5. Impact and Heroic Phases—Large Regional and National Disasters: What Do I Do Now? Congregational and Community Work
Rev. Naomi Paget, DMin, BCC, BCETS
6. Impact and Heroic Phases: Disaster Chaplains and Chaplaincy
Chaplain Therese M. Becker, MA, MDiv; Rev. Greg Bodin, BCC, MDiv; and Rev. Arthur Schmidt, DMin, BCC
7. Spiritual First Aid
Rev. Julie Taylor, MDiv, CTR 106
8. From Honeymoon to Disillusionment to Reconstruction: Recognizing Healthy and Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms and Encouraging Resiliency
Rev. Canon William V. Livingston, MDiv, MEd; Rabbi Myrna Matsa, DMin; and Rev. Beverly Wallace, PhD
9. From Honeymoon to Disillusionment to Reconstruction: Pastoral Counseling—Thinking Outside the Box
Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., DMin, DH; Roberta L. Samet, LCSW; and Imam Muhammad Hatim, PhD, DMin
10. From Honeymoon to Disillusionment to Reconstruction: Working with Outside Groups to Help Rebuild a Community
Rev. John A. Robinson Jr., MDiv
11. Anniversaries, Holidays, and Other Reminders
Imam Yusuf Hasan, BCC, and Rev. George Handzo, BCC
12. Memorial Services, Site Visits, and Other Rituals
Rev. Earl E. Johnson, MDiv, BCC

PART II Special Needs
13. Compassion Fatigue
Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, BCJC; Kevin L. Ellers, Dmin; and Rev. John C. Wilson, PhD
14. Cultural and Religious Considerations
Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., DMin, DH; Roberta L. Samet, LCSW; Rev. Rebeca Radillo, DMin; Imam Ummi Nur Allene Ali; Rev. David Billings, DMin; and Rabbi Zahara Davidowitz-Farkas, BCJC
15. Attending to the Dead: Morgues, Body Identification, Accompanying and Blessing the Dead
Timothy G. Serban, MA, BCC
16. Working with Children and Adolescents after a Disaster
John D. Kinsel, MS, LPCC
17. The Work and Role of the College Chaplain Following a Disaster or Traumatic Event
Rev. Frederick J. Streets, MDiv, MSW, DSW, DD, LICSW
18. Working with the Elderly after a Disaster
Cheryl Guidry Tyiska
19. Working with Police, Firefighters, and Other Uniformed Personnel
Rev. Charles R. Lorrain, DMin
20. Resources in a Disaster: Accessing Them for the Congregation and Congregants—Suggestions on Ways for a Congregation to Get Involved That Strengthen It, Not Destroy It
Rev. Thomas H. Davis Jr., and Rev. Lloyd George Abrams, DMin

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Timely, compelling and valuable…. Provides congregational clergy and pastoral care professionals with the skill and wisdom needed to sustain and support their communities when disaster strikes."
—Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman, editor, Jewish Pastoral Care: A Practical Handbook from Traditional and Contemporary Sources

"Draws on a wealth of experience … presents a compassionate, comprehensive mandate to prepare for spiritual care after a disaster and an abundance of wisdom for our response to ordinary crises."
—Rev. Herbert Anderson, PhD, coauthor, All Our Losses, All Our Griefs: Resources of Pastoral Care

"A priceless compendium of realistic scenarios and needs, and of corresponding resources and personal and professional gifts or skills that can guide our preparations to serve most effectively."
—Rev. Thomas G. Landry, III, former executive director, National Association of Catholic Chaplains

From the Publisher

Responding to disasters is the next great need. Rabbi Stephen Roberts and Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley just edited an important volume entitled Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy. This is an important desk reference for all rabbis working in pulpits or schools or college campuses. Many of us have acquired pastoral skills in response to personal emergencies like a congregant's divorce or suicide. We have studied materials on grief counseling. We respond emphatically when we make a shivah visit. The next level is the pastoral response to a community tragedy and what is the appropriate pastoral response. Disaster Spiritual Care will answer our new questions and help us respond appropriately and wisely to community tragedy.

In the opening chapter, Roberts sets up a helpful context. Every disaster has a predictable life cycle. Every disaster goes thru six stages: threat, impact, heroic, disillusionment, recovery and then the coming to terms stage. In the heroic state, victims see the miracles around them. Strangers step in to save lives. But there is also the disillusionment phase when people realize the newspapers and TV reporters have moved on, the insurance coverage may be inadequate and dreams of quickly rebuilding will be delayed. The research shows that no matter how much adequate help arrives and no matter how much good work is done, the victims will feel disillusionment, anger and grief. The relief agencies and volunteers always move on too soon. Roberts teaches us that this is the point when rabbis have an essential healing role.

Rev. Julie Taylor who teaches the RA seminar on the Pastoral Response to Catastrophe wrote on "Spiritual First Aid." When we arrive at the disaster scene what should we do? Taylor instructs us in first steps—1) Stabilize, 2) Assess, 3) Provide care and comfort, and 4) Refer as necessary. 1) Stabilization is the action you provide when you are a calming presence and create a caring human connection. The wise rabbi may just stand by a person's side and not say anything until addressed. 2) The next step is acknowledgement which involves attentive and active listening to a person in crisis. Here is where the rabbi uses a reflective process to signal recognition of the person’s experience. 3) The next step is to facilitate understanding. The rabbi validates the experience and provides information. Here is where it is helpful to educate others about normal stress reactions. It is often calming to give information as a pamphlet or handout. The next step is encouraging adaptive spiritual coping which is when you promote positive coping skills and build on what works for the individual. For example, praying with a person can be a centering activity. 4) Finally, there is referral which is when you are a bridge to resources. Disasters are extremely chaotic and knowing the proper spiritual protocol will enable us to be effective and appropriate.

Our colleague Mryna Matsa contributed a chapter on healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms. Matsa teaches, "Respond pastorally to spiritual questions". She points out that when victims complain “why did God let this happen to us?” when they meet a clergyperson, it probably is not a theological statement but a means to express grief, loss and anger. It is a time for pastoral presence and not theological teaching or preaching. Matsa instructs us to offer worship in the traditional place of worship because immediately after the disaster victims will find comfort in that familiar place. Rabbis can be particularly helpful in the aftermath of disaster because many people can not process their grief. Because we already have the experience in normal situations, we can go deeper and help others in their grief.

This book will better prepare us to respond with effective spiritual care in difficult situations.

YITRO NEXUS - Rabbi Elliot Salo Schoenberg

Edited by the Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., DMin, DH, and Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, BCJC, Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy was written for religious leaders from all faiths who are involved with disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Contributors from a wide range of faith traditions offer their perspectives and insight about their experiences working with disasters. They address topics that are relevant to congregations and faith-based organizations, including understanding the impact of disasters on communities, being aware of coping mechanisms and recognizing compassion fatigue in caregivers. By integrating information about the physical aspects of disaster response with the spiritual and psychological aspects of people's reactions, this book is a valuable and comprehensive resource for faith communities. It is published by SkyLight Paths Publishing and will be available in March at www.skylightpaths.com.

New York Disaster Interfaith Services

ABCNJ is happy to announce that one of our pastors, Rev. Dr. W. C. Ashley Sr., has coedited an important new book on ministering to people who have experienced disasters, such as 9/11 and Katrina.

Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy, is edited by Rev William W. C. Ashley Sr., DMin, DH, and Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, BCJC. It is published by SkyLight Paths Publishing. It will be available in March and you can read more about it by going to the book's link on www.skylightpaths.com.

This first-of-its-kind, innovative, practical resource integrates the classic foundations of pastoral care with the unique challenges of disaster response on community, regional and national levels. This vital reference draws from the wisdom and experience of contributors from many faith traditions—Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and more. It is the definitive handbook for counseling not only the victims of disaster but also the clergy and caregivers who are called to service in the wake of crisis. Exploring how spiritual care changes following a disaster, and including a comprehensive explanation of a disaster's lifecycle, this handbook offers the latest professional perspectives and tools, along with basic theory and skills from the best disaster response texts, research and concepts.

W. C. Ashley Sr.,DMin, DH, is former staff psychotherapist at the Riverside Church, New York City, and founder and senior pastor of the Abundant Joy Community Church in Jersey City. He was the project director for Care for the Caregivers Project, created to assist caregivers in the 9/11 tragedy in New York.

American Baptist Churches of New Jersey

Formation & Supervision in Ministry (May 2008) The breadth of issues attending to means that there is something for everyone amidst the abundance of information and suggestions regarding Disaster Spiritual Care. Numerous full-page boxes summarize information about the response to disaster and the need for care that we need to know.

Reflective Practice

This book draws on a wealth of experience and provides a compendium of realistic scenarios and needs, and of corresponding resources and personal and professional gifts and skills that are needed in preparing for and meeting the needs faced in a disaster. It is a comprehensive resource for clergy, pastoral counselors and caregivers of all faiths. --(John B. Shewmaker)(September 2008)

Catholic Library World

This collection of articles provides guidance and information to clergy, preparing them to respond to natural as well as human-made disasters that might confront them. Written by clergy and mental health professionals from a variety of faith traditions, the information helps clergy to plan, as well as to implement strategies for roles they may be called to play in disasters. The book includes copyright permitted pages that can be photo-copies and used in reaching out to other clergy as well as in the direct work. --(ADS)(Winter 2008)

Jewish Book World

Oklahoma City, Andrew, Katrina, Columbine, 9/11, Valdez, and the Tsunami are names of recent tragedies that have heightened our awareness of disaster. Disasters are as old as war, pestilence and natural catastrophes. Human made disasters or inadequate response to natural disasters have intensified the suffering and made them more difficult to respond to in our time. The editors of this book have amassed a comprehensive collection of essays that address a wide range of issues they believe must be anticipated and prepared for before a disaster occurs. Such preparedness is both individual and systemic. Individuals need to have a "go bag" near your bed that you can take if you need to evacuate and go. Every religious congregation needs a disaster response plan. This preparedness has been proven to be necessary because the majority of people affected by a disaster realize at some point that they "do not have the strength, faith, and ability to cope."

Like any collection of essays, there is repetition and some unevenness of quality. However, the breadth of issues attended to means that there is something for everyone amidst the abundance of information and suggestions regarding Disaster Spiritual Care. Numerous full-page boxes summarize information about the response to disaster and the need for care that we need to know. They could also become a handout for a congregational discussion about the need for preparedness.

Interspersed throughout the book, I found wisdom that has application beyond preparing for a disaster. "Before you show how much you know, show how much you love" is wisdom for ministries of care wherever they occur. “Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken” is a truth that certainly applies every human crisis as well as to disaster spiritual care. Because of the diversity of the contexts in which we live and in which disasters may occur, we need to “demonstrate culturally competent hospitality.” After we decide as individuals and as congregations and communities what we can do, we must decide what we will do. “Stay where people can find you” certainly encourages restraint of our impulse to rush to the scene of any kind of crisis. Finally, the most compelling statement for me was this: “The willingness to be wounded may be all we have to offer.” Compassion that converts empathy into transformative healing begins with the willingness to be affected by stories we hear and the suffering we see.

The appearance of a book preparing for disaster is a reminder that there is a persistent level of fear in the culture. While there is ample reference to the importance of self-care for caregivers responding to a disaster, there is inadequate exploration of the implications of this mandate for disaster preparedness. The presumption that there will be a disaster for which we must be prepared creates a low level of anxiety or fear in the society. More discussion of the emotional consequences of this emphasis on disaster preparedness would have been beneficial. Not everyone can anticipate disaster in a comprehensive way and not be trapped in fear. The focus on fear in this volume of Reflective Practice is an invitation to consider to abuse of fear.

Even if you don't mobilize your family or congregation or community to the level of disaster preparedness mandated by this volume, it is an important resource for ministry with people crises. One of the side-benefits of mobilizing a community or town to a common plan for disaster response is that people will be talking across religious and cultures differences. In that sense, preparedness may also be prevention

Reflective Practice: Formation & Supervision in Ministry