Finding Hope:
Talking About Addiction,
Suicide, Domestic Violence
and Mental Illness
By Bronwen Mayer Henry
In April, 2016, and April, 2017, the Bryn Athyn Church coordinated a powerful
annual event, Finding Hope, addressing important topics we don’t usually talk
about (addiction, suicide, domestic violence and mental illness). Here, Bronwen
Mayer Henry, event coordinator, describes some of the inspiration behind this
annual event, how it has been received and grown, plans for the future, and how
other churches can get involved.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew
11:28)
F
inding Hope is an event born out of crisis. In the beginning of 2015 in
the Bryn Athyn community there were a series of deaths from overdose,
suicide and domestic violence. These events and these losses broke the hearts
of many people connected to Bryn Athyn Church, and in many ways the
community was shaken.
In this vulnerable moment, a neighboring church and a behavioral health
center reached out and offered to help our grieving church. (“Love is itself
turned to mercy and becomes mercy when anyone who is in need of help is
regarded from love or charity; hence mercy is the effect of love toward the
needy and miserable.” Secrets of Heaven 3063)
From this offer of support, individuals from both groups and from the
Bryn Athyn Church came together and began meeting as a team to find ways
to offer care and support to the community, and to start candid conversations
about these important topics that are culturally often hidden in shadow. With
time and prayer, a jointly coordinated event came about: Finding Hope.
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