Sunday, February 1
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Health was once understood as the absence of disease, an understanding that imagined a “normal” body and mind with a one-size-fits-all model for what the healthy person ought to be. Beginning with an overview of the radical way in which early Christian communities tended to imagine health and disease, Dr. Deane will then challenge you, against the backdrop of our multifaith settings, to explore the implications of diverse religious traditions on how we care. With a firm belief that health should not be defined by consumer capitalism that promotes “survival of the fittest,” Deane will invite attendees to explore how faith communities and traditions can both participate in and maintain responsibility for imagining well being. Dr. Deane is assistant professor of theology, specializing in systematic and historical theology, at Atlantic School of Theology in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Monday, February 2
8:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

Throughout the continuum of care in health care settings to pastoral counseling centers to the communities we all serve, all disciplines are called to embrace diversity as an element of our caring. Dr. Isasi-Diaz will encourage attendees to embrace why diversity is preferable to sameness, calling us to re-conceptualize differences as enriching elements for any and all communities. Believing it’s a matter of justice, her presentation will promote the absolute need to open ourselves and our communities to our unique differences and diversity. And in so doing, we strengthen our solicitude – our ability to care about, care for, and care with. Dr. Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz is professor of ethics and theology at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. An innovative Hispanic theologian, she is founder and co-director of Drew’s Hispanic Institute of Theology.

Tuesday, February 3
10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Why is a good Jewish boy from Brooklyn quoting the Gospel of Matthew? Why is a cancer specialist with expertise in a high-tech segment of medicine emphasizing a low-tech aspect of clinical care like spiritual healing? Life is full of surprises and ironies. Join Dr. Corn as he encourages overcoming the obstacles that exist among physicians, patients and chaplains/pastoral counselors. He believes a better understanding of these intricate relationships will allow us to break down the barriers and de-triangulate the players. From his own experience in end-of-life care, Corn will offer models of care that effectively cross disciplinary boundaries. Dr. Corn is the chairman of Radiation Oncology at Tel Aviv Medical Center-Ichilov Hospital in Israel and maintains academic appointments at Tel Aviv Medical School and the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a leading lecturer in the scientific community, he has authored over 150 publications in the medical literature and built an international reputation as a dynamic speaker.

Wednesday, February 3
10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.

As the village weaver, Dr. Pamela Cooper-White will circulate among attendees and listen to the insight offered in plenary sessions, workshops and informal gatherings each day, weaving together the strands of the spiritual and theological journey that the conference as a whole represents. As the speaker in our closing gathering, Cooper-White will offer back to the conference her creative interpretation of our time together in the village and her charge to the Spiritual Care Collaborative as we move into the future. An Episcopal priest and pastoral psychotherapist, Dr. Cooper-White is a professor of pastoral theology at The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is certified as a clinical fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, and serves as co-chair of the Person/Culture/Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion.

In addition to her presentation, Dr. Cooper-White will also hold listening sessions on Sunday through Tuesday evening.