If you are suffering from grief through the loss of someone close to you or are going through a hard time in your life, the Moose Jaw Alliance Church (MJAC) and Minto United Church (MUC) will be holding upcoming grief support groups through the GriefShare.org program.
The MJAC will be offering support through in-person group meetings held every Wednesday beginning on February 22 at 6:30 p.m., facilitated by Ralph Magnus, MJAC Grief Share Coordinator.
In co-ordination, coordinator Leone Townend at MUC will manage the online group meetings on Mondays at 7:00 pm beginning Feb. 20. Townsend has been leading the Grief support ministry at MUC for several years.
Both hope to reach and support as many people as possible by sharing this Grief Share program.
“Grief Share is a church-based Grief Support Program that’s been used around the world,” said Magnus. “A significant number of churches in North America use it for all kinds of demonstrations and anyone is welcome to attend.”
Magnus has recently moved to Moose Jaw from the Edmonton area, and brings his experience in leading a Grief Share ministry to the Alliance Church. He and Townsend decided to offer thirteen weeks of grief support through the group meetings in the community
Magnus said this thirteen-week course will give individuals a better chance to get to know each other, which is also important for grief recovery. “It’s not only dealing and processing your feelings of grief, but also beginning to support others as well,” he said.
He also said church programs help people to get over their grief and maybe some difficult moments they are experiencing in their lives. All griever’s experience loss, so when people get the chance to share and hear that they’re not the only ones who feel the way they do, it helps them recover through the compassion shared.
The program is divided into three parts: video teaching by pastors and counsellors, a weekly group discussion, as well as individual workbooks with self-reflection exercises for participants to complete between meetings.
The video presentation will share videos about different experts in grief counselling – counsellors and pastors, and how they are teaching about the various aspects of grief, along with testimonies from people who have experienced a level of recovery through the program.
The second part of the program is all about sharing grief experiences within the groups. This process is to express their compassion and empathy for each other as part of their healing process.
In the third part, each participant will receive a workbook containing individual exercises to do between sessions. These materials are for self-reflection and come from the Scriptures.
Magnus states, “One does not need to be part of a church to participate, even to learn from those Scriptures.”
Registration is required for participating in this Grief Share program. For registration, simply go to https://www.griefshare.org/. Within the registration page, you will be able to choose whether you want to participate in the in-person group (at MJAC) or the online group (MUC) sessions.
This website is international, therefore, anyone from any part of the world can join the online sessions.
