Grief Recovery Group

We each light a candle for the people that we are grieving. At the end of the meeting, we often leave them burning on the altar as a symbol of leaving our grief in the care of God at the end of the meeting.

We started the Grief Recovery group in November of 2023 after one of our homeless friends was murdered when he was only 22 years old. We grieve a lot at the shelter. Addiction and the lifestyle that comes with it take people long before their time. And addiction takes them unexpectedly, so we aren’t prepared for those losses. Iglutheca hosts grief groups in partnership with Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church. Our attendance has been great. We have been averaging approximately 13 people per week. On Monday the 13th, we had 18 attendees! If we can help people to grieve their losses and heal, we can help them get to a point where they no longer need to keep numb through self-destructive habits.

Grief recovery group is something that we developed ourselves. Our first meeting felt really rough because we brought up really heavy feelings and didn’t have a good way to leave those feelings behind. Now we have come up with a really good process that has helped so many people to move through their grief. We have people thanking us each week for the relief that the group gives them.