Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy

The first comprehensive resource for pastoral care in the face of disaster―a vital resource for clergy, seminarians, pastoral counselors and caregivers of all faith traditions.

This essential resource for clergy and caregivers integrates the classic foundations of pastoral care with the unique challenges of disaster response on community, regional and national levels.

Offering the latest theological perspectives and tools, along with basic theory and skills from the best disaster response texts, research and concepts, the contributors to this resource are innovators in their fields and represent Christianity, Judaism, Islam and more.

Exploring how spiritual care changes following a disaster, and including a comprehensive explanation of a disaster's lifecycle, this is the definitive guidebook for counseling not only the victims of disaster but also the clergy and caregivers who are called to service in the wake of crisis.

Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., MDiv, DMin, DH, a frequent speaker on the topics of leadership development, clergy resiliency and interfaith dialogue, is acting dean and associate professor of practical theology at New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He was the interim pastor at Union Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey, and is the founding pastor of Abundant Joy Community Church in Jersey City, New Jersey. He also serves as a consultant on disaster recovery and clergy self-care to congregations and Fortune 100 companies. He is author of Learning to Lead: Lessons in Leadership for People of Faith and coeditor of Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy (SkyLight Paths).

Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts, MBA, MHL, BCJC, is the editor of Professional Spiritual & Pastoral Care: A Practical Clergy and Chaplain's Handbook and coeditor of Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Response to Community, Regional and National Tragedy (both SkyLight Paths). He is a past president of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains. Most recently he served as the associate executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, directing their chaplaincy program, providing services in more than fifty locations throughout New York, and serving as the endorser for both New York State's and New York City's Jewish chaplains. Prior to this he served as the director of chaplaincy of the Beth Israel Medical System (New York), overseeing chaplains and clinical pastoral education (CPE) programs at three acute care hospitals, one behavioral health hospital, and various outpatient facilities served by chaplains.

Imam Ummi Nur Allene Ali is CEO and president of Malik Shabazz Human Rights Institute; a United Nations nongovernment representative for the African Committee on Health and Human Rights; a member of the African Woman Alliance NGO; a member of the Partnership of Faith of New York City; a member of the Woman Planning Committee, Auburn Theological Seminary; a member of the Clergy Advisory Committee for Organ/Tissue Transplant Network; a committee member of the Interfaith Advisory Council, Auburn Theological Seminary; and served as a Red Cross chaplain at Ground Zero, New York City.

Chaplain Therese M. Becker, MA, MDiv, is the manager of Spiritual Care Services at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara, California. She is a (joyful) Jew by choice. Her interest in disaster spiritual care began when she was doing her theological studies in earthquake country twenty years ago. A certified chaplain, she has worked in community hospitals and trauma centers. Previously, she was a machinist for United Airlines and a welfare worker in Manhattan. She was the first chaplain formally deployed by the American Red Cross to a train crash in Bourbonnais, Illinois, in March 1999. For her, disaster chaplaincy is an honoring of God in the stranger, the ger, which also means "convert."

Rev. David Billings, DMin, has been an antiracist trainer and organizer with The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond since 1983. After thirty-five years in New Orleans, he moved to New York City in the fall of 2004 to work with The People’s Institute’s New York office. In the fall of 2006 he was appointed the Pauline Falk Chair on Community, Race, and Mental Health with the Jewish Board of
Family and Children’s Services. Rev. Billings is an ordained United Methodist minister. He also is a historian with a special interest in the history of race and racism. Over the years, Rev. Billings’s organizing work has been cited for many awards, such as the Westchester County chapter of the National Association of Social Workers Public Citizen of the Year; the New Orleans Pax Christi Bread and Roses Award; the Loyola University of New Orleans Homeless and Hunger Award; and the National Alliance against Racist Oppression’s Angela Davis Award for community service.