Camberwell Grief Sanctuary helps find hope and healing
by Rick Tipton
Ten years ago, the unthinkable happened. Kelly and Mark Parrish lost their daughter Kaytryn in a tragic car accident and brought them to a place where “everything we knew about our world disappeared in one phone call”. This is a journey no one wants but eventually the Parrish’s came to believe that God could make something good out of their tragedy, and they committed to its realization.
Camberwell Grief Sanctuary was created by grievers to respond to this sad, often debilitating, deeply personal crisis. Grief is a long and personal journey, fraught with painful, and even lethal, dangers. The data is jarring - there are 78 sudden deaths daily in Kentucky alone, suicides outnumbering homicides. And with the twin crises of opioid addiction and the COVID pandemic, grief is becoming one of the most prominent mental health problems of our day.
This is a watershed moment, the outcomes of which will be with us for a long time, and caring people must address it in a thoughtful way. Camberwell’s message to their community is that “God has not abandoned you; rather, He is very near.” Camberwell Grief Sanctuary wants people to find help, hope, and healing and want grievers to have someone to walk with them on that tortuously difficult journey.
Camberwell became a reality with the purchase of 18 acres in Bedford, KY, just a 25-minute drive from Louisville. This Sanctuary is the beginning of the fulfillment for the vision of a setting where grievers can find hope, help and healing through the powerful combination of the science of mental health principles and practices, and the solace of the spiritual benefits of beauty and peace of nature. Comprising woods and trails, river and fields, Camberwell is the place where “Heaven and nature sing”, where survivors of sudden loss learn to live again. Programs include grief counseling with licensed therapists, trauma-sensitive yoga, art workshops, Bible studies, meditation trails and memorial gardens, events, and remembrance activities, and much more.
Camberwell’s services are primarily to the Louisville community, but they hope to reach much of Kentucky in the years to come. Camberwell Grief Sanctuary is a response to and a resource for people who, like the Parrish family, find themselves on the unwanted journey of learning to live with their devastating loss. Camberwell has attracted fellow grievers, empathetic friends, compassionate philanthropists with gifts large and small, and people near and far touched by the stories of grief and recovery.
Camberwell is using Wholeness Grant in 2021 to support the Spiritual Directions component of their program. To address the issues grievers face, devotional materials including Bible Studies are researched and prepared, then shared, both in group settings and in one-on-one encounters, with people who have suffered great loss. These people want to know what to do now, how proceed, and how they may find and appropriate spiritual help in their lives.
The wholeness grant used to fund this ministry was made possible through your faithful financial support of our church and its ministries and help fund a variety of efforts to make our world a better place.
You can find more examples of those efforts or apply for a grant to make the world a better place by clicking here.