Pr. Mandy Derr, St. Peter’s, Manhattan (Synod, ELCA); Pr. Ann Tiemeyer, Koinonia NYC; and Pr. David Elseroad and Ellen Bartoldus, MSW, of Lutheran Counseling Center, were among the presenters and group leaders at last week’s Manhattan conference, Living in an Age of Terror:
Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence.” Coordinated by the New York Disaster Interfaith Services (NYDIS), of which Lutheran Disaster Response of New York is a founding member, the conference brought together clergy, mental health workers, disaster response professionals
and others to discuss how to cope with today’s world.

                                                                          

Dr. John J. Scibilia, executive director of LDRNY,                           Pastors Khader El-Yateem and

back right, takes a moment with NYDIS' Peter                                                   Ann Tiemeyer

Gudaitis, back left, and Pastors Mandy Derr
and Ann Tiemeyer.

The goals of the conference were:

• To equip religious leaders and mental health providers with language and tools to engage the atmosphere of anxiety and the feelings of threat that are our current reality.
• To foster interdisciplinary and interfaith collaborations, engaging the ruptures 9/11 left in its wake across disciplines and faiths in order to better serve our communities.
• To provide a positive and supportive structure for caregivers from diverse backgrounds to look in new ways at their experiences in relation to 9/11.
• To explore the foundations of resilience and recovery and better serve the most vulnerable individuals in our communities.
• To examine and enrich our understanding and appreciation of the role of self-care in our work.

Breakout sessions included: Framing Trauma: Rituals, Communal Response & Normal Routines on 9/11; Post 9/11: Difficult Cases; Mind-Body Perspectives on the Response to Trauma; Post 9/11: First Responders; Trials of Faith & Existential Crisis: Questioning Meaning After Catastrophe and more.

                                               

Lee Ielpi of 9/11 Families' Association                                               Pastor Mandy Derr leads a group

and a conference presenter, with LDRNY                                                               discussion.

Coordinator Mikki Baloy