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Partners in Health & Wholeness

Partners in Health & Wholeness

An initiative of the NC Council of Churches

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Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

June 4, 2020 · by Rev. Karen Richardson Dunn, Associate Director, Partners in Health and Wholeness, Healthy Aging

As of this morning, Thursday, June 4, the Raleigh News & Observer reported that Covid-19 has claimed the lives of 999 North Carolinians. 

We, the staff of Partners in Health and Wholeness, join with all those across our state in grieving not only this staggering, collective loss — but the loss of each, unique, individual life — each precious story.  From our retirement homes, our prisons, our churches, our factories and plants, our classrooms, our grocery stores and hospitals and post offices and all places that provide services we too often take for granted — their stories have defined our own in ways that we can’t even always see or understand. They have shaped us as a people, as North Carolinians. They have shaped our faith. And today, we hold the pain of their families and loved ones as our own.

We also remember that love, the essence of the Divine, is stubbornly resilient.  And that the Paschal Mystery always — always — leads to resurrection.

Blessed are those who mourn — for they shall be comforted.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Christian Unity, Health, Mental Health

About Rev. Karen Richardson Dunn, Associate Director, Partners in Health and Wholeness, Healthy Aging

Karen Richardson Dunn is a native of North Carolina. Although she currently resides in Asheville, she has also lived in New York City, Edisto Island and Charleston, SC, and Northumberland, England. Karen received her MDiv from Wake Forest University School of Divinity in 2011 and was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 2013. She has served as a parish minister, hospice chaplain, and as the director of the Creation Justice Network of the UCC's Southern Conference. She most recently has worked as the program coordinator for Wake Forest School of Divinity's Food, Health and Ecological Well-Being program. Karen is also an editor and writer, and mom to two fine sons, Dylan and Roan. They are members of First Congregational UCC in Asheville.

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Partners in Health & Wholeness
27 Horne St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 828-6501
info@ncchurches.org

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