Spiritual life

Corinne Lesley Cameron D.Min.

This thesis explores how Canadian Salvation Army mothers in ministry who follow a rhythm of life experience an abiding relationship with Jesus that deepens a sense of abundance in life and ministry. The thesis begins with exploring the social contexts of The Salvation Army, North American clergy, and working mothers. The thesis progresses to delve into John 15:1-17 and the historical examples of Susanna Wesley and Catherine Booth. The research methodology includes two Lenten-abiding groups and thirteen interviews. This research affirms how rhythms of life tend to the soil of the soul, enabling an abiding relationship with Jesus to grow and flourish.

James Henry Wise

Dying is now a chronic illness, artificially extended through an ethos of denial of death, resulting in significant and substantial spiritual needs for the patient and their caregivers currently being unmet. Dying is a lonely process owing to its nature as a process each must traverse by oneself, within one's self. The pain and suffering inherently present is the most private experience, but their causes demand public accountability. Current medical practice and technology, intentionality or unintentional, serve principally to needlessly prolong the dying process without any purposeful positive impact on the underlying disease process, and resulting on the dumping of the moral responsibility for the death of the patient onto the medically and theologically unprepared familial caregivers. A continuing litany of "Patient Satisfaction Surveys" report "Unmet Spiritual Needs" as a principal source of patient/caregiver dissatisfaction. By the end of the twentieth century, advances in medical life-support techniques have allowed the artificial extension of human life. However, this prolonged existence may usually presents increasing incapacities at the end-of-life. Death now medicalized and delayed, dying is now riddled with unwarranted, useless, and meaningless suffering and limited to no spiritual support. Yet physicians report, "We can always keep doing things!" The tortuous journey of dying, for both patient and caregivers, is a destabilizing maelstrom of emotional pain, psychological terror, and physical suffering. Compounding the misery of the journey is the absence of the church, of spiritual support, resulting in unmet spiritual in many patients and families. The process of dying leaves patients and caregivers with feelings of loss, darkness, and disconnection. The focus of this project discovers and reports on the unmet spiritual needs of the dying from a true spiritual perspective, previously unreported in the literature.

Janet Marie Breneman

Having lived and worked with the Mennonite churches in Central America for twenty-five years, I became very interested in women's practice of prayer, why they pray, and how their prayers are influenced by the cultures and spiritual backgrounds from which they come. This dissertation investigates how the spoken prayers of first generation Mennonite Ladina and Q'eqchi' (Maya indigenous) women in Guatemala reflect and integrate their Maya and Roman Catholic heritages, as well as their life realities within situations of violence, prejudice, recent civil war and poverty. The dissertation includes, as background for the investigation, brief descriptions of early Maya and recent Guatemala history, and sixteenth century Anabaptist history and thought.

The investigation was carried out through personal interviews conducted with forty women, in either Spanish or Q'eqchi' language; the recording of prayers in the interviews themselves, various church services, women's gatherings and retreat settings; and bibliographical research. The data from the interviews and prayers was compiled and analyzed through the creation of lists of content and themes which occured most frequently within the interviews and prayers, and their comparison to the most prominent aspects of Anabaptist, Q'eqchi', and Catholic faith heritages and the life realities in which the women live. The findings indicate that, in part, these Guatemalan women and the early Anabaptists share analogous social and spiritual life circumstances, and that Anabaptist understandings of the Gospel are being inculturated into their Q'eqchi' and Ladina culture and way of life. What is more, the Guatemalan Mennonite women's prayers, with their own accumulated spiritual depth and heritage, and the inclusion of cultural practices that are consistent with Christian faith, enrich the Anabaptist practice of prayer.

David Eastman Lovelace

An ever-increasing level of busy-ness pervades the culture of this region of America, aggressively encroaching on the domains of the church, the family, and the individual. There not only seems to be less time for the service of God, but also insufficient time for the periods of personal restoration and the nurture of interpersonal relationships which permit us to be truly human.

This project seeks to explore "rest" as an essential aspect of God's gracious intention for humankind and - hence - as an integral part of an appropriate personal response to God's grace; i.e., a more enjoyable and effective life of discipleship. It will also consider the theological, practical and personal implications of this divine intention and, then, attempt to develop creative materials that may be used by the Holy Spirit to enlighten, entice and enable others to live into a more restful lifestyle as an aspect of their personal discipleship.

While the project will provide curricular materials for a five-session adult education experience, the final document may also be used for individual study and reflection.

Timothy R. Reichard

Warfare not only taxes a soldier physically and psychologically but spiritually. For Christian soldiers having to take the life of others or witnessing the tragic death of friends brings challenges that may alter faith, beliefs and practices. This study explores the relationship between combat experiences and changes in Christian religious practices among World War II veterans. Six Americans and one German veteran were interviewed and asked a series of questions assessing the impact of war on their religious beliefs and practices during and following the war. The goal of the questions was to determine if there were changes in religious practices that resulted from: a previous practice taking on a new meaning in light of their experiences, a sense of thankfulness for having survived the war, or a sense of guilt for having killed another human being. Three areas of Christian practices were explored: practices related to church community, practices related to personal spirituality, and practices related to forgiveness of self and others.

The results demonstrated a number of things: warfare deepens Christian practices, there are spiritual costs and questions associated with war, there are spiritual experiences present that serve to deepen or reinforce faith, practices change as expressions of faith, and there is little time for reflection on spiritual matters during times of war.

The study has implications for understanding the struggles of faith that soldier's have during times of war and when they return home. It also illuminates that there are special considerations that need to be taken into account when providing pastoral care to veterans. Finally it offers suggestions for including veterans in the on-going conversation of warfare in general.

Eugenia Wei-Kuen Lai D.Min.

In Asian cultural contexts, women's voices are often neglected, unnoticed, or actively suppressed in church and society. This thesis-project aims to examine the relationship between the spiritual well-being and the praxes of resilience engaged in by Asian immigrant women to the United States in the context of cultural loss. The interview outcome revealed the praxes of spiritual resilience of Asian immigrant women through their integration of faith and culture. Spiritual resilience is an ongoing living praxis that calls men and women to their prophetic calling in building up the kingdom of God, in whom Jesus is the Triumphant Living Praxis.

Philomena Ofori-Nipaah D.Min.

This research examines how a Reformed understanding of prayer can be enriched by the use of the Prayer of Nehemiah and the Lord’s Prayer. The project demonstrates that a better-informed theology of prayer results in a deepening of the spiritual practices of clergy and church leaders, allowing them to slow down and be involved in a faithful and sustained discipline. This helps them develop a deeper relationship with God. The results are established by a comparison of participants’ surveys taken before, during, and after they have practiced different prayer rules and through the interviews I conducted with the participants.

Philip G Schairbaum

The purpose of this project is to explore how visual art can help individuals and local congregations move in some new directions as they seek to reclaim the essence of their calling--namely, the life-long process of growth toward the fullness of Christ.

Part One is a general inquiry into the place of aesthetics in the Christian life. Its conclusion is that art is a gift which God has given to humankind in order to glorify God and to refresh and strengthen the Christian life. A case is made that we are called to seek out and involve ourselves with works of art as they inform us theologically, enrich us spiritually, and serve as channels through which God may speak.

Part Two addresses how spiritual formation takes place in individuals and congregations. The work of Urban T. Holmes and Corrine Ware is used as a foundation for identifying different types of spirituality and for exploring how visual art can assist people in their spiritual journeys. The spiritual discipline of "Lectio Divina" is re-defined and re-interpreted as "Visio Divina" for use with visual art.

Part Three is a presentation and analysis of actual experiences individuals and the congregation at large in Charlevoix have had using visual art in religious education, corporate worship, personal prayer, and outreach--categories that parallel the spiritual components of Holmes' Circle of Sensibility. Some examples are offered as to how visual art has been used to enhance spiritual formation in the First Congregational UCC in Charlevoix.

This project gives evidence that utilizing visual art in more intentional ways will not only bring a renewed sense of spiritual vitality to those individuals who engage it directly, but can move whole congregations through its power to awaken, inform, illuminate, and deepen our life in the Spirit.

Philip A Shangraw

Living with God in Our Culture: A Manual for Directors Facilitating an lgnatian Group Retreat is a practical and creative guide to directing an eight day, values clarifying retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The manual succinctly illustrates the interplay of values, culture, and spirituality for contemporary Americans using clear, pointed examples. This blend grounds the author' s basic assumption : values determine what people notice and influence their spirituality.

The principles of Ignatian spirituality-awareness, intelligence, reasonableness, responsibility, and love-as postulated by Bernard Lonergan, S.J., and five basic Lucan values-dependence on God, compassion , inclusiveness, right use of possessions and nonviolence-are highlighted in the manuscript and provide a manageble retreat framework for both director and retreatants.

The manual includes prayer exercises, guidelines for the discernment of spirits from a cultural context, practical suggestions for preparing and directing the retreat, and examples from the experience of retreatants.

Gerard John Vanden Bylaard

This project is the product feelings of restlessness while Presbyterian Church in Canada.
of my response to deep ministering within the Something essential to my pastoral and theological work seemed to be missing. One day, while visiting the local library, I came upon John Sanford's helpful book entitled The Kingdom Within. In this volume, the author stresses the need to "journey inward", that is, to listen to· the "inner voice" of the unconscious. Here the work of the Holy Spirit may be experienced as a gentle· prodding toward growth and wholeness, a wholeness such as is perfectly seen in Jesus Christ. Here there may be found a whole realm often denied by the proponents of a more materialistic and scientific view of life.

Within modern times, Sanford points out, "the importance of humankind's inner world has been lost." But the early church always held that humankind's "conscious life was immersed in a sea of spiritual reality." The discovery of the unconscious, Sanford holds, has challenged the materialistic view of humankind and its negation of the New Testament.