Ministering While Grieving

A message from our guest, Jeremy Ng:

To the unnamed grievers.

Although there is so much more about grief, both individual and corporate, that we could have talked about, the one thing I wished I had brought more attention to was unnamed grief. The grief that is not socially acceptable. The grief that is not allowed to be talked about openly. The grief that we don’t believe is real. Maybe, like I mentioned on the podcast, that it’s children who grieve, and people think they are simply too young to grieve, that they don’t understand what’s going on. It could be expectant parents who experience a miscarriage.  It could be a death by a suicide. Sometimes, it’s just a really complicated relationship with that person, where it feels like they aren’t allowed to grieve. For so many reasons, grief can become unnamed, disenfranchised, it can be ignored, and the person is never seen, leaving them feeling further isolated and alone.

Our learning includes being aware that grief can happen in all sorts of unexpected ways.  Our response to grief is not based on whether we judge it to be valid or not, but by the experience of the griever going through it.  Our invitation begins with simply being present, seeing people in their grief, and walking alongside them.

Notes:

In this podcast, Jeremy mentioned specifically about children’s grief and wanted to highlight the importance of children being included in the grieving process.  Here are a few resources that he has found helpful in his work with the younger population:

Children and Youth Grief Network

Canadian Virtual Hospice

Dougy Centre

Addition Resource: Grieving Room: Making Space for All the Hard Things After Death and Loss - a book written by our Executive Minister, Leanne Friesen.

Blue Christmas Service -  a service to make space for your grief at Christmas.

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Website: ⁠baptist.ca⁠

Credits:

Host: Leanne Friesen

Guests: Tracey Bagley and Jeremy Ng

Recorded by: Josh Del Rosario & Kristina Gummatova

Edited by: Josh Del Rosario