Recorded presentation

Bethann Witcher Cottrell, PhD, Vine City Health & Housing Ministry, 2986 Country Squire Lane, Decatur, GA 30033, 770-908-1212, drbwitcher@earthlink.net

In a large 2001 Duke Divinity School study, 76 percent of the clergy were found to be overweight or obese. Ten percent were found to be clinically depressed and forty percent depressed some of the time or worn out most of the time. HealthFlex, a managed-care health plan reports that clergy are overweight, have high blood pressure and stress and depression levels higher than the general population. If we are to have healthy churches and healthy communities, we must have a health pastorate. It is, therefore, imperative that pastors take responsibility for their own spiritual, mental, social and physical health. The clergy is accustomed to hearing lectures filled with information that does not affect their lifestyle choices. An alternative to this usual, formal educational mode is that of popular education as developed by the Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire. In the context of clergy health, the process begins with their own health reality as they identify their health issues and then reflect on and analyze those issues by engaging in a problem-posing educational process that leads them to plan and implement action for change. Popular education takes the clergy beyond passive learner, beyond silence, beyond conformity to reveal and unleash their power to take health and well-being into their own hands. Popular education principles and process will be explained. Popular education tools utilized in clergy workshops will be presented and clergy responses will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• 1)Identify 4 principles of popular education
• 2)Recognize the process cycle of popular education
• 3)Articulate the value of popular education to engage clergy in taking responsibility for their own health

Keywords: Faith Community, Health Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation