“Sacred Conversations: Dialogues Between Community Based Clergy and Seriously Ill Congregants”

Rev. Gloria E. White-Hammond, MD, MDiv
Co-Pastor of Bethel AME Church and the Swartz Resident Practitioner in Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School

Thursday, May 3, 2018
12:00 noon
Meltzer Auditorium, 3rd Floor
Massachusetts Eye and Ear
243 Charles Street

Rev. Gloria E. White-Hammond, MD, MDiv, is Co-Pastor of Bethel AME Church and the Swartz Resident Practitioner in Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School. She retired from the South End Community Health Center in 2008 after serving 27 years as a dedicated pediatrician to families from some of Boston’s most challenged communities. In 1994, she launched the church-based creative writing/mentoring ministry, “Do The Write Thing” for high-risk adolescent females. Gloria co-founded My Sister’s Keeper in 2002, an initiative that champions human rights for women and girls in conflict zones.

Currently, Gloria’s work includes the “Planning Ahead” ministry at Bethel AME Church to encourage congregants to begin conversations about and document their advance care wishes. Along with a team of clergy, palliative care clinicians, and chaplains, Gloria has organized colloquia to equip multi-faith community-based clergy persons to engage in more effective discussions to support their seriously ill members. Gloria co-directs the joint Harvard Medical School and Harvard Divinity School course “Spirituality and Healing in Medicine.”