Images from Grief & Loss 2025

From April 3 to 9, eleven CCS students in the Diaconal Ministries program took a deep dive into grief and loss and how to offer meaningful spiritual care in time of grieving. They were accompanied by program staff members Janet Ross, Alcris Limongi, and Scott Douglas, along with chaplain Leila Currie and occasional guests along the way. The topic was heavy, but there was time for laughter and joy.

On the first day of the circle, students shared the “pathographies” they had prepared. A pathography is a timeline of losses you have experienced in your life. In order to be fully present to someone in their grief, one needs to be prepared to examine one’s own grief as well. Students listened compassionately to each other’s accounts – which included deaths of family members, ending of relationships, loss of pets, loss of identity or an imagined future – and reflected back skills or strengths for ministry they heard in each others’ stories.

Early in the circle, one of the groups leading morning worship and check-in broke clay jug and invited us to work together to repair it, noting that often the healing of brokenness makes us stronger. As one student phrased it, “We do pastoral care not from our wounds but from our scars.”

The second day of the circle was focused on societal attitudes toward death, theologies around death, and the grief that comes from non-death experiences. Students explored the way some griefs are societally sanctioned while other griefs are disenfranchised, and the impact of racialization or neurodiversity on the grief experience. That evening the circle attended the play “Casey and Diana” at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, a moving – and often funny – drama sparked by the visit of Princess Diana to a Toronto hospice during the height of the AIDS crisis. The play gave us lots to discuss (and a number of good quotes to sprinkle throughout the week).

The Saturday of the circle was an opportunity to explore the biblical genre of lament as a tool for expressing and working with grief. In the afternoon students worked through case studies involving grief and had a conversation with our wonderful chaplain for the circle, Leila Currie, and guest Noelle Bowles about their extensive ministry experience offering pastoral support to people who are dying and/or grieving.

After a needed Sunday off, the student-led planning team led a thoughtful session exploring the practical, ethical, and theological considerations around Medically Assistance in Dying (MAiD). In the afternoon we went on a field trip to the Neil Bardal Funeral Centre to see facilities, including the crematorium and embalming table, and to talk with funeral director Josh about his experience.

On our second last day, guest Julie Baker led students through the process of crafting a funeral, from the meeting with the loved ones to distilling all those notes into sermon themes, prayer language, hymn choices, etc., as well as various practical tips for dealing with unexpected situations. In the afternoon, students got a brief history of the afterlife as the idea has evolved through various cultures and religions, explored their own theology and beliefs about eternal life, and considered how these beliefs might impact spiritual care for the grieving.

On the final day, after a morning of reflecting on their learnings from the week, students took the opportunity to celebrate life with dance, music, laughter, and prayer.