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Episode 12 Laura MacGregor and Janet Hardy
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On this episode we speak with Laura MacGregor and Janet Hardy, two authors from the Fall 2021 issue of The Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability.
Laura's paper: A Present Absence: The Spiritual Paradox of Parenting a Medically Complex Child, Parenting a medically complex child is associated with physical, emotional, financial, and spiritual stressors. Despite research indicating that faith and spirituality can be a powerful coping mechanism, the spiritual experiences of parents caring for complex children is not well researched. Drawing on personal experience as the parent of a medically complex child, this phenomenological study explored the spiritual experiences of nine parents. Parents described spiritual confusion and a perceived absence of God that was exacerbated by theodicies offered by members of their faith community. Rather than theodicies that rationalized God amid suffering, the participants of this study described yearning for an elusive God amid the constant paradoxical tension of a frustrated faith where the Divine was a present absence.
Janet's paper: Hope As Community: Spiritual Care for Families with Members Who Have Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) In our present culture, many people feel that life in the shadow of death with its pain and suffering is no life at all. Yet we all approach that shadow eventually and then, people who were previously healthy learn to appreciate the many good things in life that they’re still able to have. The prospect of death, our own or that of a loved one, brings the blur of life into sharp and brilliant focus. In that respect the dying and their families may be more alive and awake to the truths that emerge at the end of things and more aware of the elements of life that lend existence its meaning. Sorrow can move us to participate in moral obligation to a full encounter with life or shut us down with a hardened heart. How we live in death’s wake is a deeply personal consideration. When confronted by a terminal illness with a timeline that provides for contemplation, adjustment and a runway to influence quality of life, there are opportunities for a patient, their family or community surrounding that family to determine how best to positively influence the end of life experience. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is such a disease.
Read full papers here
https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cjtmhd/issue/view/2302
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