Grief Support Ministry 2018
St. Edward’s Grief Support Ministry Team:
Frances Hart, Ministry Chair and GriefShare Program Coordinator
Michael Lyons, Co-Chair and Leader
Hillary Saunders, Leader
We have had a successful 2018, in spite of our low numbers. We diversified our GriefShare program by using materials from other sources. We developed a program of Special Days of Remembrance which was well received by our participants. This activity caused us to change the name of our ministry from GriefShare to St. Edward’s Grief Support Ministry. We have added “Loss of Spouse” by GriefShare, a book study series on “Option B” by Sheryl Sandberg. We plan to offer GriefShare on Friday mornings in January 2019. We hope to serve the people who do not get out at night.
In 2018 we offered the following events:
March – May 2018 Our 3rd series of GriefShare. We started with 4 participants and ended with 2.
May 2018 Special Days of Remembrance. We developed this event with the help of Barbara Rozier, former GriefShare leader for First United Methodist Church. We had a guest panel of 3 former participants, with Barbara serving as moderator. There were 12 participants at this seminar.
August 2018 Our 4th series closed after our single participant decided not to remain with us.
September 2018 We offered our 1st Loss of Spouse, a one night seminar. We had 5 participants.
October 2018 We offered a book study for 4 weeks of Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant. We had 2 participants attend from our Loss of Spouse workshop. One has attended church services.
November 2018 We held our 2nd Surviving the Holiday Program. We had 5 participants. They all expressed interest in future events. 3 participants were returning from previous groups.
December 2018 We will hold our 2nd Loss of Spouse, a GriefShare program. We expect 2 -5 persons.
Looking to 2019: Our team will offer the following events, depending on interest:
January – April 13-week series, From Mourning to Joy, will be offered on Friday mornings
February We are working on a night program but will be announced at a later date.
May Special Days event #2 will be offered at the close of our January session.
July Loss of Spouse will be offered in advance of our August program.
August – November From Mourning to Joy, 13 week program, may be offered, day/time tbd.
September Loss of Spouse, 1 night seminar, may be offered to support our August series
October 4 week book study related to Dealing with Grief, book to be determined
November Surviving The Holidays will be offered
Your Grief Support team is committed to this ministry. We hope by offering a variety of seminars and workshops, we can reach out to people in ways that help them deal with grief.
Respectfully submitted,
Frances Hart, Grief Support Ministry Chair and GriefShare Program Coordinator