Sue Regan, a member of the Rochester Friends Meeting, presented a two-day workshop on forgiveness at the Scipioville Presbyterian Church last weekend. The event was hosted by the Southern Cayuga Wider Parish, of which the Scipioville church is a member.
Sam Tenney / The Citizen
Sue Regen leads a workshop titled “Forgiveness as a Spiritual Practice” at Scipioville Presbyterian Church Friday evening in Scipio Center. The two-day workshop, sponsored by the ecumenical Wider Parish of Southern Cayuga County, focused on achieving spiritual healing and physical well-being through forgiveness.
Sue Regen leads a workshop titled “Forgiveness as a Spiritual Practice” at Scipioville Presbyterian Church Friday evening in Scipio Center. The two-day workshop, sponsored by the ecumenical Wider Parish of Southern Cayuga County, focused on achieving spiritual healing and physical well-being through forgiveness.
Although she is not an ordained minister, Regan said, “I have a ministry of forgiveness as a spiritual practice. I have a good support group and several people who help me when I travel.”
Since she started her ministry in 2002, Regan has traveled to Pennsylvania and as far away as California. She has also presented four workshops at Attica Prison.
Regan structured the Sciopioville workshop in two parts. The Friday evening session was a presentation about forgiveness.
“All of us humans experience hurt, anger and guilt,” Regan said. “And I believe we have all been in the position of being hurt, hurting others and being a bystander to someone being hurt.”
For the last presentation she gave the example of watching disturbing images on the news or seeing someone hurt, abused or being mean to someone else, but were unable to do anything about it.
Regan sees forgiveness as a form of healing, or at least a route toward healing.
“Forgiveness is internal work,” she said. “It's about changing the way we work with each other. Forgiveness is something I choose to do so I can look back on relationships with love. Do I want to dwell on the hurt, or do I want to release my pain and suffering? I must make choices to live in a more healthy manner.”
Dr. Frederic Luskin, director of Stanford University's Forgiveness Projects, believes that scientific research confirms that forgiveness can actually improve a person's health.
He has developed what he called “The 9 Steps to Forgiveness.” His theory about forgiveness is similar to Sue Regan's and can be summarized by his eight step, “Remember that a life well lived is your best revenge. Instead of focusing on your wounded feelings, and thereby giving the person who caused you pain power over you, learn to look for the love, beauty and kindness around you.”
Then during the Saturday session of her workshop, Regan gave the participants opportunities to break into small groups and to discuss their own hurts or moments of forgiveness, and to give them a chance to practice dealing with hurt and fostering forgiveness. She also asked them to list words that described how they felt when they were not feeling forgiveness (anger, resentment, pain were examples) and how they felt when they were (this list included health, and release).
Using her own life as an example, Regan said that the serenity prayer has been very helpful when dealing with her own hurts. The serenity prayer was written by Reinhold Niebuhr, and most people are familiar with the first four lines: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”
Regan recommends finding a positive outlet for dealing with negative feelings, whether it is doing artwork, dancing or enjoying nature .
Since she started her ministry in 2002, Regan has traveled to Pennsylvania and as far away as California. She has also presented four workshops at Attica Prison.
Regan structured the Sciopioville workshop in two parts. The Friday evening session was a presentation about forgiveness.
“All of us humans experience hurt, anger and guilt,” Regan said. “And I believe we have all been in the position of being hurt, hurting others and being a bystander to someone being hurt.”
For the last presentation she gave the example of watching disturbing images on the news or seeing someone hurt, abused or being mean to someone else, but were unable to do anything about it.
Regan sees forgiveness as a form of healing, or at least a route toward healing.
“Forgiveness is internal work,” she said. “It's about changing the way we work with each other. Forgiveness is something I choose to do so I can look back on relationships with love. Do I want to dwell on the hurt, or do I want to release my pain and suffering? I must make choices to live in a more healthy manner.”
Dr. Frederic Luskin, director of Stanford University's Forgiveness Projects, believes that scientific research confirms that forgiveness can actually improve a person's health.
He has developed what he called “The 9 Steps to Forgiveness.” His theory about forgiveness is similar to Sue Regan's and can be summarized by his eight step, “Remember that a life well lived is your best revenge. Instead of focusing on your wounded feelings, and thereby giving the person who caused you pain power over you, learn to look for the love, beauty and kindness around you.”
Then during the Saturday session of her workshop, Regan gave the participants opportunities to break into small groups and to discuss their own hurts or moments of forgiveness, and to give them a chance to practice dealing with hurt and fostering forgiveness. She also asked them to list words that described how they felt when they were not feeling forgiveness (anger, resentment, pain were examples) and how they felt when they were (this list included health, and release).
Using her own life as an example, Regan said that the serenity prayer has been very helpful when dealing with her own hurts. The serenity prayer was written by Reinhold Niebuhr, and most people are familiar with the first four lines: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”
Regan recommends finding a positive outlet for dealing with negative feelings, whether it is doing artwork, dancing or enjoying nature .
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CryinRyan wrote on Feb 21, 2009 2:10 PM: