St. Paul the Apostle Parish will hold a day-long conference Saturday on addiction and recovery at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Brewer.
“God’s Grace: Addiction and Recovery Through the Lens of Faith” is designed to help people of faith learn more about how the opioid crisis and addiction is affecting Maine’s residents and communities.
The conference follows an interfaith opioid healing service conducted in April at St. John Catholic Church in Bangor that drew about 500 people.
Leaders in law enforcement, health care, substance abuse recovery and government joined religious leaders from the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish communities to seek healing and hope.
Shelly and David Yankowsky of Glenburn, who spoke at the service in April, will be part of Saturday’s conference panel. They will discuss how devastating the loss of their two sons to drug overdoses has been on their family and how their faith has helped them cope with the loss.
The conference organizer’s goal is to end the day with a brainstorming session about how people can “become a beacon of hope, mercy and support to those striving for sobriety.”
Ideas to be considered include distributing a resource guide listing services for those struggling with addiction and their families, training recovery coaches to offer support to people in recovery, creating faith-based support groups for people who have lost family members and friends to addiction, and other ideas that may come up during the conference.
The conference will open with remarks from the Rev. Ragan Schriver, former director of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee and director of the Master of Science in Social Work program at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Schriver will focus on the role of faith in recovery and “the essential dignity of all people as well as the enormity and great mercy of God’s love.”
Other topics will include understanding addiction, substance use care and the landscape of recovery. A panel that includes a local prosecutor, a physician and a social worker will discuss the impact addiction is having on individuals, families and the community.
The conference is free and includes lunch. People are asked to register by calling the parish office at 217-6740 or visiting this link.
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