WHAT’S NEW?
OHIO RELIGIOUS COALITION FOR REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE SPONSORS:
ALL OPTIONS CLERGY COUNSELING SEMINAR
What: The Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice invites pro-choice clergy to participate in a training and workshop session in All Options Clergy Counseling (AOCC). The purpose of this seminar is to prepare pro-choice clergy to provide spiritual counseling about all of the options available for women and couples who are experiencing problem or crisis pregnancies--usually unintended and unwanted pregnancies, but occasionally medical crises in intended pregnancies. Post-abortion counseling will also be discussed.
When: Wednesday, November 15, 2006, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Registration and coffee/tea start at 9:00 a.m. Session starts promptly at 9:30 a.m. Box lunch will be served during session.
Where: First Congregational Church, 444 E. Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio.Parking is available next to the church.
Who: The seminar leader is Barbara Kavadias, the Field Director from the national Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. (The Field Director provides services and education for the state affiliates.)
Why: To increase pastoral effectiveness in dealing with a crisis pregnancy for a pregnant woman, her partner, or family members who are congregants. In addition, after attending a training, clergy are eligible to participate as volunteer AOCC counselors in the Ohio Religious Coalition’s AOCC services, provided through its telephone Hotline—a free 800 number. (AOCC services will be explained at the seminar.)
How to participate: Pre-registration is required. Send the attached form with a $25 check to defray the cost of lunch and copies of the AOCC manual. Space is limited.
For more information: Call Barbara Avery, Director of Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, at the Ohio RCRC office: 614-221-3636, or 800-587-2330 (in Ohio), or at the Director’s home business phone: 614-841-1994.
Attached: Registration form for All Options Clergy Counseling Seminar
Pre-registration is required! Please complete the attached form and mail it, along with your $25 check, to the address below by November 12, 2006.
- Or you may fax the form to 614-846-1244.
- Or you may email your information to: ohiorcrc@sbcglobal.net.
- Or you may call Barb Avery, Director of Ohio RCRC, at 614-221-3636, or 800-587-2330 (in Ohio).
If you fax, email or call, please promptly mail your check for $25 with the completed form to Ohio RCRC, P.O. Box 82204, Columbus, OH 43202. Pre-registration will be considered complete only upon receipt of your check. Please call regarding special needs: diet, handicapped needs, etc.
Registration Form
PASTORAL COUNSELING FOR REPRODUCTIVE LOSS:
A SEMINAR FOR PRO-CHOICE CLERGY OF ALL FAITHS
For many years, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice has been engaged in the work of training clergy to provide All Options Clergy Counseling to women and families who were facing unwelcome or problem pregnancies. Several affiliates of the Religious Coalition recruit clergy who have received this training to volunteer for the affiliate’s clergy referral service. In the course of providing this service, we have found that women also seek help for different types of reproductive losses; sometimes the same person can experience different reproductive losses at different times in her life. We recognize that men, gay and lesbian individuals, and couples also experience reproductive losses and often need counseling, help and support from the religious community.
Any loss, whether through miscarriage, infertility, stillbirth, adoption, or abortion, can carry with it a range of feelings, including feelings of grief, loss, loneliness, regret, relief, and sadness. While all these are normal responses to loss, women and men often feel the need to talk to someone about their feelings, and need to find a sympathetic and supportive clergy person to help them. People who experience different kinds of losses share common feelings. Our skills as pastoral counselors can do much to help restore emotional health for those who have experienced these losses and are coping with one or more of these feelings.
A person who hurts after any reproductive loss deserves our compassion, attention, and skill. That person deserves to be counseled by clergy who will show respect to a woman’s pregnancy experience and to a man’s grieving, who will hear both the good and the bad as they see it, and who will support and not judge them. People deserve religious counseling and ritual which will rejoice with them when they want to rejoice, and lament with them when they want to lament. People need to know that the pro-choice religious community can be a place to turn for support and healing. Gay men and lesbians have the same feelings after reproductive loss, and, in addition, go through experiences unique to the GLBT community. They, too, need to know they can turn to their clergy and be treated with respect and dignity.
This curriculum, “Pastoral Counseling for Reproductive Loss,” provides clergy with the information and skills they need to be an effective pastoral presence for people mourning a pregnancy loss. Covering medical, emotional, and spiritual issues, the curriculum also includes rituals and an extensive bibliography of both print and on-line resources.
May God bless and sustain our work.
Rabbi Bonnie Margulis
Director of Clergy Programming
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
608-827-9668 (voice)
608-827-9643 (fax)
Registration Form
Our stories: Written
accounts of abortion experiences. Sponsored by Ohio Religious
Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
Accounts of abortions may be submitted anonymously
to our email address or faxed or mailed to Ohio Religious Coalition.
It may be educational for persons who did
not live before 1973 or were sheltered from this information
to hear about it.
To read an example of an account of a pre-Roe
abortion, click on Education,
and see “My Abortion.”
For the information of those persons who
grew up after Roe v. Wade: some women who were unable to find
doctors or trained medical personnel who would perform an abortion
used the metal hook on a clothes hanger to induce an abortion—a
dangerous technique which could result in permanent injury
or death.
Please keep your account to less than 500
words.
Please email your account to ohiorcrc@sbcglobal.net,
or fax it to (614) 846-1244, or mail it
to: Ohio Religious Coalition, Box 88204, Columbus,
Ohio 43202.
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