In December we open our hearts to the love of God as we enter the season of Advent while also reflecting on the past year. We hold in our hearts the collective pain and grief of this year, breathing deep and offering ourselves grace. Amidst this collective pain, though, there is hope, and celebration.

I have felt so much love from the actions we have taken together. This year we have had sacred conversations on topics such as trauma, food accessibility, loneliness, and COVID, just to name a few. From these conversations, our team has built tangible resources based on the needs you expressed. Most importantly, you all have mobilized in this time of crises to serve and support your communities. 

The new year marks a time to enter our next season of life with fresh goals and "reset." As we wrap-up 2020, we hope you'll join us in reflecting on this important work we have done together. We will continue to embrace virtual gatherings until it is safe to be together in the same space once again. 

This year we have overcome challenges together, mourned together, and grown together. We look forward to learning, healing, and spiritually growing together. 

- Lindsay Barth, PHW Communications Associate 

"When I was asked to serve as the director for PHW’s new Healthy Aging initiative, focused on those in life’s second chapter (fifty-plus), I thought I had a good grasp of what healthy aging involved. I’m in this age group myself, have parents in their late eighties, and in my work in parish ministry and as a hospice chaplain, I’d ministered with a lot of older folks.

I quickly realized, however, how much I didn’t, and needed, to know. In these past months I’ve read books on aging by everyone from Richard Rohr to Parker Palmer to Mary Pipher; attended webinars on topics ranging from dementia to elder abuse to trauma experienced by older adults of color; compiled an ever-expanding North Carolina Healthy Aging Guide, and met (if virtually) so many wonderful professionals serving in this field. 

In this year of Covid, one of the topics I found most concerning was the high incidence of loneliness and social isolation in those fifty and above. This past October, the PHW team hosted our first Sacred Conversation with spiritually integrated psychotherapist Caleb Pusey to address this issue through a spiritual lens. When our participants were asked if they’d like to learn more, 100 percent responded yes --  resulting in our planning for Part II of this Sacred Conversation, scheduled for January 29, 2021. 

Our team has many healthy aging topics we’ll be covering next year, and please consider yourself pre-invited as we delve into them; we’ll keep you posted!  And we want to hear from you, our PHW network, as to topics on healthy aging you and your congregations would like to see us explore. For now, we are honored and grateful to serve alongside you this year, and we look forward to continuing that connection in so many ways in a hopeful, and brighter, 2021."

To learn more about PHW's Healthy Aging work, please reach out to Karen at karen@ncchurches.org. 

"This year has been challenging, isolating, and even sacred. God has anchored our PHW work in hope and care for one another. I am deeply grateful to focus on mental health work with our faith communities across the state. With all that 2020 has brought to our lives, and what we already held both mentally and emotionally, this work is needed.

I’ve been honored to share space with faith communities virtually. We have discussed crucial topics while equipping each other with resources, tools, and ideas. Some of these sacred conversations have been about: becoming a trauma-informed community (including the PHW Becoming a Trauma-Informed Faith Community Toolkit), race and mental health, climate anxiety, isolation, loneliness, destigmatizing mental health, and inviting all of this into the life of a worshipping community.

Faith communities have tremendous opportunity to be agents of compassion, healing, hope, and peace for those living with mental health concerns. This is needed and sacred work that God joins us in. I look forward to continuing mental health work with faith communities, and deepening our compassion for all lived experiences in our communities."

To learn more about PHW's Mental Health Advocacy work, please reach out to Jessica at jessica@ncchurches.org.