The Dec. 24 edition of The Living Church is available online to registered subscribers.
In the cover story, Matthew Townsend reports on writes about Episcopalians’ efforts to help those who struggle with addiction:
The Christmas season can be a hard time for addicts and their families. Seasonal stresses, often compounded by the ghosts of traumatic holidays past, can raise tensions even for those with years of sobriety. And those still struggling with alcohol, drugs, or gambling may run deeper into addiction as a means of escape. Nowhere is this pain more poignant than in places like the Lake Traverse Reservation in northeastern South Dakota. In many ways, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate (formerly Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe) struggle with American problems that are not at all uncommon: alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling, broken families — but the stakes are raised by a distressing suicide rate, high unemployment, and a struggle for identity that only indigenous peoples can likely appreciate.
Jamie German, communications coordinator for the Episcopal Sisseton Mission and a member of the tribe, told TLC that everyone on the reservation has battled to hold on to a loved one in the throes of addiction, and that everyone she knew had lost a loved one, usually overcome by depression and substance abuse, to suicide.
News
- A Sacred Fire | By Matthew Townsend
- ‘We Get to Be the Church’ — Serving the Displaced | By G. Jeffrey MacDonald
- Conference in Boston: Uncovering Roots, Raising Questions | By G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Features
- St. Martin’s: A Texas-Sized Growth Story | By Kirk Petersen
- Gift Ideas from Friends of The Living Church
Books
- Commentary on Isaiah | Review by Philip Harrold
- Look! and Kristoph and the First Christmas Tree | Review by Melissa Sims
Cultures
- Magnificent Gems | Review by Pamela A. Lewis
- A Prayer for Christmastide | By Russell J. Levenson Jr.
Other Departments
- Sunday’s Readings
