Breaking the Taboos Around Alcoholism and Addiction in the Church (C6)

Network
Recovery Ministries

Convener
Sister Debbi Rhodes
 
Description
Have you or a loved one been affected by alcoholism or addiction? Are you seeking answers? Do you want to be part of the solution? Come to our workshop and together we can smash the taboos and begin a conversation that can then continue in each diocese in the province and hopefully in the wider church as well. 
Addiction is a public health crisis, but it is also a spiritual disease; one that the church continues to close its eyes to, despite the 2014 conviction of a bishop for killing someone with her car while under the influence. We want to provide information, resources, and support. To that end, our workshop will offer several features:

• A video display, along with instructions on how to create one in your own diocese, of the website used by the Diocese of Missouri, which has links to external resources for all different kinds of addictions: twelve-step meetings, support groups, treatment centers, etc. We hope this website can be a model for other dioceses so that anyone can anonymously find help for themselves or a loved one.
• Someone in recovery from addiction willing to share their story with anyone interested and shine some light on how addiction can hide itself inside a functioning person, as well as how much the church is in sync with the twelve steps of recovery and what each has to offer the other. 
• Sharing of ideas we have for our own dioceses and we hope to gather information from others to attend the workshop about what they might be doing in their dioceses to address this life-and-death issue. The point is to come up with as many resources and ideas as possible that we think might be useful to others and then share them across the province.
• Free pamphlets from several different addiction groups, including Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Sex Addicts Anonymous, and Al-Anon, as well as other written material that can be taken and used as a resource.