Description:
For people experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV), abuse can also affect their faith and religious beliefs. A partner may use Scripture or religious teachings to justify abuse, pressure someone to forgive or stay, or create feelings of shame and fear.
Designed for IPV survivors and those supporting them, this 2-hour workshop explores the spiritual dimensions of recovery from IPV, including challenging abusive spiritual messages and finding pathways toward healing and wholeness. Topics such as Scripture twisting, shame, justice, forgiveness, and prayer are included.
*This workshop is intentionally open to people from all belief systems and to those of no specific belief.
About the Presenter: The Rev. Anne O. Weatherholt, M.Div.
For more than forty years, Anne has led workshops for church leaders on Recognition and Response to Interpersonal Violence. She served as the faith representative on GOCI, was active with the Interfaith Domestic Violence Conference, and served on the board of CASA in Hagerstown, Maryland, as well as teaching prayer and spirituality for Faith Community Nurses for 25 years. The second woman Priest ordained in the State of Maryland, Anne is now retired from active ministry but keeps up her work to break the pervasive silence surrounding IPV in faith communities and assist advocates in understanding how to support survivors who desire a faith component in their recovery and healing.
