Recovering from Spiritual Abuse is Summer Spirituality Series topic July 23

The Rev. Ray Michener will present Recovering from Spiritual Abuse at  7 p.m., Thursday, July 23, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church as part of the Summer Spirituality Series.

How does one recognize spiritual abuse and how does one recover from it? The use of God or religion to gain control or establish power over another individual or group can be defined as spiritual abuse.  While this abuse can be blatant and harsh (most easily recognized), it can also be subtle and easily hidden.

Michener will attempt to identify some forms of spiritual abuse as well as how to spot those who clearly, quietly or perhaps unknowingly are spiritual abusers. Spirituality is meant to be healthily and positive, yet often many feel as though it is something beyond them.

Michener is a retired Lutheran pastor and Navy chaplain. He is also licensed by the bishop of the Diocese of Delaware to serve in The Episcopal Church. After nine years in parish ministry, he entered the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps. Over the course of 20 years, Michener served as a chaplain with the U.S. Marines in a combat battalion during two tours in Beirut, Lebanon, with various Navy surface and submarine squadrons and ships, and an assignment with the U. S. Coast Guard, stationed at Fell’s Point, Md.

Seeking to understand the psychological and pastoral implications of trauma and stress, he received his MS from Loyola College of Maryland in clinical pastoral counseling with a two-year internship at a veterans’ center dealing primarily with post traumatic stress disorder.

Retiring from active duty in 1997, he began the first of six interim assignments in the Washington, D.C. Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Michener moved to Delaware in January 2014 and lives in Milton, where he and his partner, Tom, make their home in Paynter’s Mill.

The Summer Spirituality Series takes place at 7 p.m. every Thursday evening until Labor Day in the Parish Hall of St. Peter’s at 211 Mulberry St. in Lewes. All presentations are open to the public and free, although donations are gratefully accepted. Fellowship and ice cream cones will follow the presentations. For more information, call the church office at 302-645-8479 or go to www.stpeterslewes.org.