FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                                               

Contact:         Kate Treworgy   Tel:                  (802) 457-4000   publicity@skylightpaths.com

 

 

WHEN DISASTER STRIKES WILL YOUR SPIRITUAL LEADERS BE PREPARED?

A First-of-Its-Kind Resource Your Community Leaders Can’t Afford to Live Without

 

Disasters are unending. They can range from community tragedies to national events. It’s vital to recognize that the first place most people turn to in recovery after disasters are their spiritual leaders. Disaster spiritual care—an essential activity of pastors, chaplains, priests, rabbis, imams and many other community and government leaders—is spiritual accompaniment for people and communities in crisis. What information do pastoral caregivers need to face the challenges of disaster response? How does spiritual care change following a disaster? How do we counsel not only the victims of disaster but also the clergy and caregivers who are called to service in the wake of crisis?

 

“Disasters produce a ripple effect,” write Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, BCJC, and Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., DMin, DH in the Introduction to DISASTER SPIRITUAL CARE: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy (SkyLight Paths / May 2008 / Hardcover / $40.00). “The number of individuals affected by disaster and in need of spiritual care is often dramatically greater than the number of people killed or injured. Spiritual care in the context of a disaster responds to this poignant need for spiritual meaning and comfort by providing accompaniment and prayer, both individual and communal. It is often the simple presence of a person of God that provides healing and comfort.”

 

Innovative and comprehensive, DISASTER SPIRITUAL CARE is a one-of-a-kind resource for pastoral care in the face of disaster. With a “who’s who” list of contributors representing many faith traditions, this sourcebook is designed to help spiritual leaders plan and prepare for the unexpected.

It covers a wide range of disaster situations, time frames and areas, and includes many easy-to-use checklists and charts designed for emergency response. Offering the latest theological perspectives and tools, along with basic theory and skills from the best disaster response texts, research and concepts, it gives today’s pastoral caregivers specialized conceptual and practical guidance.

 

 

 

About the Editors

 

 

Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, BCJC, is chairman emeritus and a founder of Disaster Chaplaincy Services, Inc., a partnership program within the American Red Cross in Greater New York. He is the associate executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis overseeing the Jack D. Weiler Chaplaincy Program and a past president of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains. He was the first to set up American Red Cross spiritual care provisions in New York City after 9/11. He has taught extensively on disaster spiritual care and was the primary researcher for the only published peer-review research on the impact of disasters on spiritual care providers.

 

 

Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., DMin, DH, a psychotherapist, is the founder and senior pastor of the Abundant Joy Community Church in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was project director for Care for the Caregivers Interfaith Program, the largest clergy resiliency program in the United States, created to assist caregivers in New York after 9/11. He also serves as a consultant on disaster recovery and clergy self-care to congregations and Fortune 100 companies; and is a board member of Disaster Chaplaincy Services. Ashley is an ordained minister in the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.; Disciples of Christ; and the American Baptist Churches, USA.

 

 

Contributors

 

 

Rev. Lloyd George Abrams, DMin (Destin, FL)	Rev. Kevin Massey, BCC (Chicago, IL)
Imam Ummi Nur Allene Ali (Orangeburg, SC)	Rabbi Myrna Matsa, DMin (Gulfport, MS)
Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., DMin, DH (Guttenberg, NJ)	Pamela Norris Norwood, LCSW (Silver Spring, MD)
Chaplain Therese M. Becker, MA, MDiv (San Jose, CA)	Rev. Naomi Paget, DMin, BCC, BCETS (Fountain Hills, AZ)
Rev. David Billings, DMin (Bronx, NY)	Rev. Rebeca Radillo, DMin (New York, NY)
Rev. Greg Bodin, BCC, MDiv (Maple Grove, MN)	Tanya Pagán Raggio, MD, MPH, FAAP (Teaneck, NJ)
Rabbi Zahara Davidowitz-Farkas, BCJC (Oro Valley, AZ)	Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, BCJC (New York, NY)
Rev. Thomas H. Davis Jr. (Roseville, MN)	Rev. John A. Robinson Jr., MDiv (Louisville, KY)
Kevin L. Ellers, Dmin (Algonquin, IL)	Roberta L. Samet, LCSW (Brooklyn, NY)
Rev. George Handzo, BCC (Cos Cob, CT)	Rev. Arthur Schmidt, DMin, BCC (Tacoma, WA)
Imam Yusuf Hasan, BCC (Bronx, NY)	Timothy G. Serban, MA, BCC (Everett, WA)
Imam Muhammad Hatim, PhD, DMin (Maplewood, NJ)	Rev. Julie Taylor, MDiv, CTR (New York, NY)
Rev. Earl E. Johnson, MDiv, BCC (Arlington, VA)	Cheryl Guidry Tyiska (Annapolis, MD)
Rev. Lorraine Jones, MDiv (Laurel, MD)	Rev. Beverly Wallace, PhD (Atlanta, GA)
John D. Kinsel, MS, LPCC (Beavercreek, OH)	Rev. John C. Wilson, PhD (Park Ridge, IL)
Rev. Canon William V. Livingston, MDiv, MEd (Christian, MS)	Rev. Frederick J. Streets, MDiv, MSW, DSW, DD, LICSW
Rev. Charles R. Lorrain, DMin (Destin, FL)	(New Haven, CT)

 

 

 

 

 

Praise for

 

DISASTER SPIRITUAL CARE

Practical Clergy Responses to Community,

Regional and National Tragedy

 

Edited by Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, BCJC

and Rev. Williard W. C. Ashley Sr., DMin, DH

 

 

 

 

“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

 

 

 

 

“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, co-author, All Our Losses, All Our Griefs: Resources of Pastoral Care

 

 

 

 

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DISASTER SPIRITUAL CARE: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy

(6" x 9", 384 pp., Hardcover, ISBN-13: 978-1-59473-240-9, $40.00) is available from Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, Cokesbury, Doubleday, Indigo/Chapters, Waldenbooks, B. Dalton, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and many other booksellers, or directly from SkyLight Paths Publishing, P.O. Box 237, Woodstock, VT 05091; Tel: (802) 457-4000; Fax: (802) 457-4004; www.skylightpaths.com. For credit card orders, call (800) 962-4544. Add $3.95 shipping and handling for the first book, $2.00 for each additional book.