MHF Annual Gathering 2013

MHF’s Annual Gathering 2013 was held June 21-23, 2013 at Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana.  The theme for the weekend was “Moral Dilemmas in Healthcare” and featured the following:

• Worship Sessions
• Plenary Sessions
• Workshop Sessions

Worship

Gwen and Les Gustafson-Zook

For Annual Gathering 2013, folk musicians, Gwen and Les Gustafson-Zook, led the worship times at the beginning of each plenary session.

They also presented the Saturday late evening entertainment following the plenary session and during the ice cream social.

Plenary Session Presentations

Challenges of a Changing Healthcare System

Timothy Stoltzfus Jost

This presentation discussed the moral issues that ground health care reform and the moral issues presented by that reform.

Don’t Be Afraid: Anxiety in a World of Moral Dilemmas

Patricia Ebersole Zwier

Living and working in a world filled with moral dilemmas can generate considerable anxiety in our professional, personal, and family lives.  How do we deal with the chronic anxiety that characterizes our humanness and our cultures? Can we name and respond to these anxieties in our own lives and in the lives of the people we serve? How do we transform fear into greater health?  The presentation looked at the moral dilemma of our worldview and suggested how we can move from a success story to being a community of faith.

Panel discussion:  Healthcare Access for All: A Community’s Response

J. Nelson Kraybill, moderator

Panelists:

• Randy Christophel, CEO, IU Health Goshen Hospital
• James Nelson Gingerich, Founder and Medical Director, Maple City Health Center
• Mark King, CEO, Greencroft
• Clare Krabill, Executive Director, Center for Healing and Hope
• Darrin Miller, Director of Access Services, Oaklawn

How does a community work together to provide healthcare access to the poor and uninsured in its midst?  A panel of leaders of healthcare institutions and agencies in the Goshen community discussed the models, insights, and challenges that the community of Goshen experiences.

Joint Worship Service with College Mennonite Church

“Healing as a Gift of God’s Grace”

Ervin R. Stutzman

The healing ministry of Jesus demonstrated the grace of God in the face of sickness and suffering in his day. In the same way, the multi-faceted grace of God enables us to work through the difficult dilemmas that we sometimes face in healthcare today.

MHF and College Mennonite Church held a joint worship service with Ervin Stutzman preaching.  Following a short break Ervin led a closing discussion, wrap-up, and communion session.

Workshops

• Challenges of a Changing Health Care System.  Timothy Stoltzfus Jost
• The Church’s Mission in Healing and Health Care.  Willard Swartley
• Don’t Be Afraid: We are a part of God’s larger story.  Patricia Ebersole Zwier
• Everyone Deserves to Die Well.  Glen E. Miller
• Trauma and Spirituality.  Lora Nafziger
• Enhancing Our Compassion: The Spiritual Practice of Gazing. Dan Schrock
• Dances of Universal Peace: Singing with the Aramaic Jesus, and other Blessings of Wholehearted Living. Mary Martha Metzler