Exploring Higher Ground
Violence & the Response of People of Faith

Thursday, April 25, 2013

6:30 - 8:30 pm

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church - Parish Hall

435 Peachtree Street NE

$35 ($45 at the door)

or order by phone: (404) 876-6266 ext. 2007

Imam Plemon El-Amin, Rev. Joanna Adams, Rabbi Alvin Sugarman & Rev. Joseph Roberts

 

In the wake of numerous recent acts of violence and religious discrimination, Higher Ground, an interfaith group composed of Rev. Joanna Adams, Imam Plemon El-Amin, Rev. Joseph Roberts, and Rabbi Alvin Sugarman will join TACC for a dialogue on violence and our response as people of faith.  These four faith leaders will challenge us to delve deeply into the difficult questions about how we as individuals and faith communities should respond. 

 

Questions we will explore include: How do we each play a role in perpetuating a culture that is desensitized to violence? What is our moral obligation to those in our community who are struggling with mental illness, ostracized or deeply troubled?  Are our fears preventing us from achieving spiritual wholeness as communities?   How can we of diverse faiths work together towards a better more unified response to violence in the Atlanta community and the world? Please join us for hors d'oeuvres starting at 6:30 p.m., and then engage in this challenging topic starting at 7 p.m.

All proceeds from this event will be used to support client services at TACC



Founded in 1976 in the basement of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, the Training and Counseling Center has served thousands of Atlantans in critical need of compassionate care and healing through its two-fold mission: Clinical Pastoral Education and Counseling. Today, the Training and Counseling Center (TACC) is an independent nonprofit organization in residence at the historic Edward Gay House on the beautiful campus of St. Luke’s. Click here to view our 2010 Form 990.

Executive Director & CPE Supervisor
The Rev. Miriam A. Needham

Miriam is an ordained United Methodist clergyperson having lived out many years of her ministry providing pastoral care in 3 local Atlanta hospitals (Grady Memorial, Emory University, and Crawford Long) from 1985 to 1997. During this period she was Hospice Chaplain and Bereavement Coordinator (Grady), Director of Staff Support (Emory), and Director of Pastoral Education (Crawford Long). Miriam was certified as a full supervisor by the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) in 1994 and started working with CPE students as a pastoral educator during her supervisory training process. She was appointed Executive Director of TACC in 1997 and is the first non-male, non-Episcopal Priest to hold this position. Central to any description of Miriam is to know of her Salvation Army rootage as a child of Salvation Army Officer parents. It was in the Salvation Army that Miriam learned the vital connection between faith and service.

Administrative Staff
Miriam A. Needham, Executive Director & CPE Supervisor
Mary Catherine Cole, CPE Director & Supervisor
Meg Moye, Clinical Director
Page Gardner, Administrative Director
Jen Moore, Development Consultant
 

2013 Board of Directors

W. Hampton Morris, Board Chair
Bill Willson, Treasurer
Rod Ganske, Secretary
Miriam A. Needham, Executive Director
Daniel Matthews, Jr., Rector, St. Luke's
Stuart Alston
Boyce Ansley
James Bland
Jane Bockel
Boyd Coons
Russell Currey
Sally Fielding
Robert Glenn
Deirdra D. Glover
Bette Hines
Mary B. James
Tim Killenberg
Whit Lanier
Jane Long
Robin D. Morris
Trey Shipp
Leandrew Tabb
Charles K. Wright, MD
 

TACC would like to extend a special thank you to all the folks that contributed to our 2012 Annual Fund Campaign. Because of your generosity we were able to: 1.) Expand our CPE Director’s hours which will allow her to train more students in 2013, and 2.) Continue to provide much needed therapy services to clients who otherwise could not afford counseling fees. Without the effort and gifts of so many we would never realize our mission. Thank you!

TACC Launches First-ever CPE Program in Jamaica

In 2009 The Rev. Dr. Marjorie Lewis, a faculty member at United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI) in Kingston, came to TACC to take her first unit of CPE. Marjorie loved her CPE experience so much that that when she became President of UTCWI last year she was determined to provide CPE to her students. Kingston has a growing urban context with many of the issues of poverty, homelessness and mental illness that are similar to the urban context in which TACC’s CPE students work in Atlanta. Although CPE has never been done in the West Indies Marjorie knew that clinical placements in Kingston would be rich places of learning for her students. And so TACC sent out the word that a CPE Supervisor was needed to go to Jamaica. Soon Rev. Deryck Durston, Associate Director of the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education called to volunteer his services. On June 1, 2011, the first unit of CPE in the West Indies began on the campus of UTCWI. There are 7 students in the group and each of them are providing pastoral care in 5 clinical sites which include a psychiatric hospital, a residential care facility for babies and children whose parents have died with AIDS and other outreach services to marginalized adults and children. The unit will go through the summer and Deryck is already reporting that the students are eager and grateful for the experience.