At the tail end of 2020 I was chatting with a friend who is a counselling psychologist and she said something that really struck me. She shared that never in her life had she been in a situation where the things that her clients were unloading were the very things that she herself was also struggling to carry and process. Fortunately, clinical best practice recommends that therapists have therapists—those with whom they can unload their own burdens and process their work and lives. But it does beg the question: what do we do when we, who are in caregiving or leading roles, are struggling ourse ..read more

Wait for the Lord: be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14 After many years of living with bipolar disorder, I have come to see that my ability to cope with this chronic mental illness correlates with my knowledge of the nature and character of God. When I was first diagnosed, I felt such confusion and despair—the prospect of living with a mental illness shattered my self-image and hope for the future. In desperation and with nowhere else to go, I turned to my latent childhood Christianity in search of a lifeline. My quest has resulted in a strong faith, forged through recu ..read more

Interview with Rachel Greaves-Brown  Reverend Rachel Greaves-Brown is a priest in the Church of England. Rachel is the Post-Ordination Training Advisor in the Diocese of London, and she continues to be attached to St John’s Hoxton where she was Associate Vicar. St John’s is located in Hoxton, East London. It’s a vibrant and creative district, yet among one of the most under-resourced areas in the country. Rachel says that the congregation reflects the diversity in the wider community, which presents unique gifts and challenges for the church. We spoke to Rachel about the impact The Sanctu ..read more

This time last year, I found myself in a place of languishing mental health. As a graduate student, my days were filled with online classes, homework, teaching and grading as a TA, attending church meetings as a pastoral intern, and navigating community-house dynamics at home—all from the desk in my bedroom, which overlooked my backyard through a large window. Since September of 2020, I had been filling multiple roles while sitting at that one desk in that one bedroom in that one house. The only variations in my routine came from going for walks, grocery shopping, one in-person afternoon class ..read more

Although the person traveling alone may travel fastest, the company of friends allows the traveler to go further. So says South African poet Breyten Breytenbach, in his 1993 essay in the New York Times Book Review. Justin Barringer (in the previous Sanctuary blog post) also advocates for journeying with the accompaniment of friends. As you reflect on your own experiences of friendship, what difference has the accompaniment of friends made during your life journey thus far? In what ways has friendship been a source of mutual practical, emotional, and spiritual support? Friendship can be a chall ..read more

Once, while I was living in Wuhan, China, I rode my moped a bit too far beyond the area of the city I knew, and I realized that I was lost and alone. As I imagined how my situation might play out, nearly all of the scenarios I could think of were unsettling. I had no one else there who could come and help me. This city that was my home had suddenly become a place that might as well have been on another planet. Theologian Jessica Coblentz describes depression in her book Dust in the Blood as “unhomelikeness,” and this is exactly how I felt that day when I got lost. I was “at home,” but I felt a ..read more

It’s been seventy-five years since the poet W.H. Auden described the times we’re living in as the age of anxiety. If there were any doubts about his assessment then, the last few years have erased them. Fear and worry have spread as quickly as the virus during the pandemic. According to the CDC, over 30% of Americans have been battling anxiety due to COVID-19, let alone the myriad of other reasons we lose sleep. For many Christians, the mere presence of these negative emotions brings its own set of concerns. Not only do we have to contend with the anxieties themselves—we face the additional bu ..read more

Proverbs 20:12, “Ears that hear and eyes that see—the Lord has made them both.”  School is starting back up. For those of us who no longer attend school, how would we know? Besides the pumpkin spice lattes and cooling weather, the “Back-to-School sales” get my attention the most. And this year, I couldn’t resist—I bought the long-coveted AirPod Pros. When they were first released, I was working at the Apple Store. In a packed pre-pandemic store, I put in these earphones and heard nothing—not my colleagues asking me questions, not the customers trying to get my attention, nor the crying ch ..read more

What does it look like to make spaces where all are accepted and loved in a way that demonstrates and reflects God’s own love for us? Isn’t that what we all crave ultimately—to be seen, known and accepted for who we are?” In her book, A-Z Of Wellbeing: Finding your Personal Toolkit for Peace and Wholeness, author Ruth Rice emphasizes sharing wellbeing habits within community. The gold here is that Rice doesn’t just write about wellbeing but helps the reader engage in practices which help us enter into wellbeing. She unpacks an alphabet of life-giving ways to enter into wellbeing.  Each le ..read more

I have a strangely vivid memory of getting sick with strep throat when I was in seventh grade. My sister, who was then a junior in high school, was babysitting my two younger brothers and me. It was the kind of New England cold that is particular to being on the coast: the wind is saltier, the air crisper, the houses old enough that the slightly salted air bleeds in through the thin glass of the windows and the tiny cracks by the doors. I wasn’t feeling well, I remember, but pushing through some homework while sitting on my bed. At some point I told my sister that my throat hurt, and she put h ..read more