Caring for the Caregiver Town Hall, April 7, 2020

This Chaplaincy Innovation Lab town hall featured a panel of chaplaincy leaders and educators, and invited participants to join the Lab’s private Facebook group for chaplains.

Phillis Isabella Sheppard is Associate Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture at the Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion of Vanderbilt University.

Shelly Rambo is Associate Professor of Theology at Boston University School of Theology.

Phillis began the webinar with her original poem:

June 16, 2016 and April 5, 2020

Holy grief
and Spirit-filled mourning
Righteous love
and justice-seeking anger:
Guide my steps, gather my thoughts
and form the words ofmy mouth:
Always and in all ways.
As the sun rises and the moon calls forth rest:
May my life be a liturgy of love: walking in the path of justice:
Making the pilgrimage to be:
in community and communion,

In commitment
and on the ground
The blood, sweat, and tears
the pain induc.ed lesions
that are now and again
carved into our bodies and psyches,
and in the spaces between us
this liturgy life path
is changing us
demanding our love
requiring our tears
reforming our prayers

We are still
on the/a pilgrimage
in a world we barely
recognize
in world we must build anew.
Guide my steps, gather us in
This liturgy oflove
Ritual for now.

Phillis Isabella Sheppard, 2016, 2020