Amy Panton

Most of the work in this issue relates to the ableist and racist impacts of Covid-19 on people with lived experiences of mental distress and disabilities, and on people in BIPOC communities. These categories are not mutually exclusive and we hope to present an intersectional approach as we consider these issues largely within a Canadian context. We will then be moving more broadly into wider mental health/disability topics. We encourage you to read the “author’s notes” that are at the end of each piece as they give more insight into their contexts and motivations for writing the work

Although Canada is a religiously plural society, interfaith theological learning remains uncommon. This reflective paper explores the experience of team-teaching at Emmanuel College’s Master of Pastoral Studies Program. The Master of Pastoral Studies is a professional degree with Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist streams that trains students to become chaplains, psycho-spiritual therapists and spiritual care providers in the Canadian context. Using anecdotes from our classroom experiences, this paper reflects on three values central to inter-religious learning: cultivating a vulnerable “open stance” in dialogue, understanding interfaith teaching as active resistance that contributes to spiritual transformation, and placing ourselves as instructors as the “guide within the group.” Interfaith learning calls us to risk and courage, believing that spiritual transformation happens as we encounter difference with openness and humility. As teachers, we model for our students how to engage wi...

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and Pastoral Ministry: Joining the Current Cultural Conversation on Self-Injury. Masters of Theology, 2017. Amy Elizabeth Panton, Knox College, University of Toronto. Nonsuicidal self-injury is a growing practice amongst young people in Canada. Young people as young as ten years old are engaged in self-injurious behaviours such as cutting themselves, burning their skin and poisoning themselves. Oftentimes these injuries are kept hidden from family and friends. Information relating to non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and self-injury (SI) is widely available in current psychological literature but is underrepresented in theological sources to date. This thesis examines how the conversation can be deepened between the psychological and theological communities relating to nonsuicidal self-injury. It also considers how existing theological resources concerning mental health, disabilities and ethics can inform and strengthen this conversation.

What are some ways that people from the Buddhist, Muslim and Christian faith traditions can reflect upon the coronavirus pandemic using a theological lens? How can Buddhist, Muslim and Christian practitioners respond in practical ways to the coronavirus pandemic, utilizing resources from their faith traditions? This contribution offers reflections on the worldwide suffering and challenges that the pandemic has caused from the perspectives of Buddhist, Muslim and Christian practitioners. Each writer offers practical resources and theological reflection from their vantage point as spiritual care providers and as people of faith.