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about the project
The Pain & Prayer Project will serve anyone with pain-related physical conditions including acute or chronic pain, post-surgical pain, and child-birth or C-section pain. In the Episcopal Church in Delaware, 34 parishes serve approximately 9,500 who will be directly invited to learn and participate in the project. Clergy, chaplain associations, seminarians, medical schools, healthcare providers, and medical societies will have access to the project data and bedside prayer tools. The project liaison and investigators will offer courses and workshops to the above-mentioned groups to embody the spirit of “sharing faith…and proclaiming the good news …with hope and humility.”
Healthcare goals: develop clinical measures encompassing types of pain-related prayer, which will allow continued research on the nuanced relationship between prayer and pain. The development of tailored interventions for those who pray in response to pain will follow academically validated processes.
Pastoral goals: reorient the compass of prayer petitions towards an “active prayer” that empowers the afflicted to
partner with God with hope and gratitude.
Success will be based on the final prayer scale/bedside tool. Training materials, handouts, and surveys will gauge the
clinical “acculturation” of these tools in health and pastoral care. Metrics will be tracked and reported to interested parties
within 3 years.