Confirmation Ministry in the Batak Church

Historically, confirmation ministry among Batak's took the form of missionaries presenting the Christian religion in an apologetic and persuasive tone, in an effort to ready Batak converts for Baptism. Today, confirmation ministry among Batak Christians is understood as a fleshing out of what it means to be baptized into the church community. This article explores the method and aims of the confirmation rite and ministry among Batak Christians.     

The Ministry of the Church to People with Disability

Jesus’ ministry on earth is meant to be a model of the ministry of the church. It affected all types of people regardless of their socio‐economic and religious status. Jesus regarded all to be made in the image of God and did everything possible to minister to everyone. He particularly went out of his way to reach those whom society marginalized, neglected, rejected, and deemed worthless. This study aims at generally critically evaluating the ministry of the church today. It specifically attempts to examine the ministry of the church to people with disabilities. While the study largely depends on existing literature, it also refers to observation of the status of people with disabilities in the church today, which on its own may not provide adequate information for solid, conclusive findings. In the church’s ministry to people with disabilities, dealing with barriers to their inclusion is core. The article not only examines the challenges faced by the church in addressing issues of inclusion, but identifies specific areas of improvement in the status of people with disabilities.     

中国教会圣经事工展将在美展出

本刊讯:一场旨在与美国基督徒们分享中国教会在圣经事工方面所蒙的祝福和恩典的“中国教会圣经事工展”,将于2006年4月27日至5月4日在美国洛杉矶水晶教会;5月19日至5月24日在亚特兰大第二庞塞里昂浸信会教会;6月6日至6月15日在纽约圣约翰主教座堂作巡回展览。这是自1979 年中国教会重新开放以来第一次在海外举办的圣经事工展,这次展览将分成六个展区。     

Measuring Stigma Toward Mental Illness: Development and Application of the Mental Illness Stigma Scale1

Guided by theory on stigma, a Likert‐type scale was developed to measure 7 factors of attitudes toward people with mental illness: interpersonal anxiety, relationship disruption, poor hygiene, visibility, treatability, professional efficacy, and recovery. The scale was validated among college students and community members, measuring attitudes toward people with mental illness, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. In a second application, college students completed the scale from their own perspective, then from an imagined perspective of someone with mental illness, while psychiatric patients completed the scale from their own perspective, then from an imagined viewpoint of someone without mental illness. Psychiatric patients assumed that they were stigmatized to a greater extent than was admitted by the student sample.     

The Minister and Mental Illness

Focusing on what I present to students on the first day of a seminary class on mental illness, this article cites six reasons why seminary students should learn about mental illness. In addition to noting that they are likely to have many experiences in their ministries of persons who are suffering from a mental illness, I also note the likelihood that some members of the class have experienced mental or emotional illnesses in their lives. These introductory comments emphasize the role that ministers may play in the prevention of mental illness and in supporting persons in the process of rehabilitation. The various roles that pastors may play in relation to mental illness are noted. Finally, I point out that, in the official roster of patron saints, mental illnesses are vastly underrepresented among the illnesses to which human beings are susceptible.     

Contemporary Thinking on the Role and Ministry of Women in the Orthodox Church

The article is concerned with contemporary Orthodox thinking on the role of women in the Church. This topic is explored in the context of Orthodox theology, tradition and history. The starting point for Orthodox theology as regards the division of humanity into masculine and feminine is fundamental to understanding the Orthodox Church's view on the past, present and future role of women. In particular, the current issues of restoring the female diaconate and ordaining women to the priesthood present a significant challenge to the Orthodox Church in its understanding of the meaning of faithfulness to tradition and its discernment of the work of the Holy Spirit.     

The Stigma of Mental Illness

Stigma surrounding major mental illness creates many barriers. People who experience mental illness face discrimination and prejudice when renting homes, applying for jobs, and accessing mental health services. The authors review the current literature regarding stigma and mental illness. They define stigma and review theories that explain its impact. Counselor training is a peak time to identify and begin to mitigate stigma related to people with mental illness. Implications for counselor training are addressed.     

California Firearms Law and Mental Illness

California provides numerous pathways by which people with mental illness can qualify for a state-level firearm prohibition. The state's involuntary detention for psychiatric treatment, or “5150” (CA W&I Code 5150) process, is often cited as one potential mechanism for reducing violence by dangerous people, though its use is limited to people whose dangerousness is due to a mental illness. Additionally, California has taken legislative steps to prohibit firearm ownership among other people who have an increased risk of violence, regardless of whether or not mental illness is a factor. This article compares the California firearm ownership disqualification system for mental illness with the federal system and those of other states, examines the strengths and weaknesses of this system, and reviews alternatives. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mental Illness and Mental Health: The Two Continua Model Across the Lifespan

Mental health has long been defined as the absence of psychopathologies, such as depression and anxiety. The absence of mental illness, however, is a minimal outcome from a psychological perspective on lifespan development. This article therefore focuses on mental illness as well as on three core components of positive mental health: feelings of happiness and satisfaction with life (emotional well-being), positive individual functioning in terms of self-realization (psychological well-being), and positive societal functioning in terms of being of social value (social well-being). The two continua model holds that mental illness and mental health are related but distinct dimensions. This model was studied on the basis of a cross-sectional representative internet survey of Dutch adults (N = 1,340; 18–87 years). Mental illness was measured with the Brief Symptom Inventory and mental health with the Mental Health Continuum Short Form. It was found that older adults, except for the oldest-old, scored lower on psychopathological symptoms and were less likely to be mentally ill than younger adults. Although there were fewer age differences for mental health, older adults experienced more emotional, similar social and slightly lower psychological well-being. In sum, today’s older adults have fewer mental illness problems, but they are not in a better positive mental health than today’s younger adults. These findings support the validity of the two continua model in adult development.     

Mental Illness and Psychiatric Treatment Among Women

When mental illness is precisely defined as a functional disorder involving acute distress or disorganization (or both), women are consistently found to have higher rates of mental illness than men. This sex difference appears to be real and not an artifact of response bias, patient behavior, or clinician bias. The higher rates of mental illness among women can be linked to aspects of their societal role and particularly to aspects of the marital role. Therapists who treat women whose mental illness is in part a response to the characteristics of conventional sex roles have no treatment alternatives that are not in some way problematic. The treatment alternative chosen has, in the broadest sense, political implications for the society at large.