Theology and Medicine

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Caring Communities Vision and Practice Keith G.
Meador, MD, ThM Director, Caring
Communities Professor, Pastoral Theology and
Medicine Duke Divinity School
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Health ministries play an important role in the
lives of individuals, congregations, and entire
communities. The purpose of the Caring
Communities Program is to facilitate such
ministries throughout the Carolinas. We are
dedicated to the formation of nurturing faith
communities and health care practices that embody
Faithfulness devotion to God and commitment
among the members of the community, in good times
and in bad Gratitude a spirit of
thankfulness to God for the communitys life
together, in times of both strength and weakness
and Hospitality embracing others generously
and graciously, whether friends or strangers.
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A Health Ministries Resource Center (HMRC),
including a health ministries library, space for
meeting and community building, and an on-line
component providing resources, handouts, sample
forms, a newsletter, and a forum for sharing
ideas and innovations Consultation by a health
ministries educator for congregations and
hospitals, in order to provide experienced advice
on the creation or expansion of a health
ministries program Systematic assessment and
evaluation of health ministries within
congregations and the broader community
Providing educational opportunities in
spirituality and health in order to educate
clergy, laity, health professionals,
administrators, and community leaders in the
practice of health ministries A grants
initiative, supported through The Duke Endowment,
whereby congregations, hospitals, and related
organizations can apply for funding to aid them
in the work of health ministries.
The work of Caring Communities includes
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The Caring Communities Program is made possible
by the generous support of The Duke Endowment, a
vital partner in the development of health and
congregational ministry programs throughout the
Carolinas. The Duke Endowment is a private
foundation established in 1924 by industrialist
and philanthropist James B. Duke. The Endowments
mission is to serve the people of North Carolina
and South Carolina by supporting selected
programs of higher education, health care,
childrens welfare, and spiritual life.
the church is often the first
agency that people turn to in time of trouble.
Constance F. Gray Trustee of The Duke Endowment
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Keith G. Meador M.D., Th.M., M.P.H., Director of
the Theology and Medicine Program at Duke
Divinity School, directs Caring Communities. His
scholarship focuses on pastoral theology
interpreted through practices of caring and their
formation within the Christian community, as well
as the investigation of health ministries as a
manifestation of these practices. Anne A.
Packett B.S.N., M.A., serves as Health Ministries
Educator for the Caring Communities Program and
is the primary health educator and administrative
director of outreach and programming. She will
assist in initiating and supporting health and
caring ministries in communities throughout North
and South Carolina. William E. Pike M.Div., is a
recent graduate of Duke Divinity School. Prior to
his academic work at Duke, Bill was a fiscal
analyst for the South Dakota State Legislature.
He earned a bachelors degree in Government from
Harvard University in 1995.
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Just Believe in Something
Belief in something is crucial If you want to
experience the physiological benefits of the
Faith Factor and you have nothing to believe in,
it may be helpful to believe generally in the
power of life or perhaps even just in the power
of belief itself. Benson, 1984
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Formed spirituality claims us within a story and
community of faith to serve God with gratitude,
mercy, trust, and faithfulness embodied in
practices of caring for the suffering and the
vulnerable among us with a spirit of mutuality
and interdependence.
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Health is not just the sense of completeness in
ourselves but also is the sense of belonging to
others and to our place it is an unconscious
awareness of community, of having in
common Wendell Berry 94
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a community of caring is one which pays
attention to how its members are formed as moral
agents, it pays attention to where their hearts
are, what they care about most highly, what they
strive for
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a community that practices these patternsis a
community that fundamentally acknowledges mutual
dependence in all they do, rather than always
equating the best living with the most
independent living
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Communities of caring as a context for the
practice of health ministry cannot be created out
of nothing they require an ongoing commitment to
certain virtues in all aspects of the communitys
life and are formed through storied disciplines
and practices.
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Formation In Christian Practices of Caring
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Virtues of Caring Communities Formed in Practices
of Caring

• Gratitude/ hope
• Trust/ faithfulness/ steadfastness
• Hospitality/ compassion/ mercy

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Every day above ground is a good day-praise
the Lord Rev. Joseph Davis 2001
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Gratitudethe habit of thanks itself helps to
transform our life and enrich our relationships.
There is an expansive dynamicwhich can take into
its flow new people, events and practices.
Gratitude does, in fact, frequently surprises.
The urge to correspond adequately in words,
gifts, actions and even a whole way of life
inspires creativity in all those spheresDavid
F. Ford, 1999
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Trust/ SteadfastnessBut if a community
withholds trust, it withholds membership. If it
cannot trust , it cannot exist. Wendell
Berry, 1992
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Hospitality / Compassion It is the burden of
those who care for the suffering to know how to
teach the suffering that they are not thereby
excluded from the human community.
Hauerwas
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Because God is social, so are we called to be
social, to live our lives for God and for those
others for whom God has made room. Shuman and
Meador, 02
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Transforming Relationships and the Healing Care
of Naomi

• Ruth - faithfulness and steadfastness
• Boaz - compassion and hospitality
• Grandchild - gratitude and hope

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Who are You, My Daughter?Reading Ruth Through
Image and Text
Faithfulness
Hospitality
Gratitude
Ellen F. Davis, Translation and Notes Margaret
Adams Parker, Woodcuts
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But Naomi said, Turn back my daughters Ru
th 1 8
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... Ruth Said, Entreat me not to
leave Ruth 116
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Faithfulness
Faithfulness
Faithfulness
Faithfulness
Faithfulness
Where you die I will die, and there I will be
buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so
severely, if anything but death separates you
from me.
Faithfulness
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And Boaz answered her and said to her, It has
been fully reported to me all that you have done
for your mother-in-law Ruth 211
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Hospitality
Hospitality
Hospitality
Hospitality
Hospitality
I have told the men not to touch you. And
whenever you are thirsty, go and get and drink
from the water jars the men have filled.
Hospitality
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And Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife Ruth
4 13
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Gratitude
Gratitude
Gratitude
Gratitude
The women said to Naomi Praise be to the
Lord who this day has not left you without a
kinsman-redeemerHe will renew your life and
sustain you in your old age.
Gratitude
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Caring for others as we would be cared for...