Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we start the new year, I want to raise the issue of mental health and the Church. Though not as familiar and apparent as general medical problems, mental health disorders are equally important and present unique challenges and burdens. It can strike deep within our soul, impacting and influencing our thoughts, emotions and behaviours, and thereby affecting all aspects of our life – work and rest, family life and relationships – even prayer and our relationship with God.
A recent global study in 2023 found that over half of adults will experience at least one mental health concern – this includes (but is not limited to) disorders such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, self-harm, post-traumatic stress and eating disorders.
It is important for us as the Church to realise that Christians are not immune from having mental health struggles. A mental health diagnosis is not a moral failure or a character defect. To suffer from a psychiatric disorder is not a sign of insufficient faith or weakness of will. Indeed, many of the most famous characters in the Bible struggled with their mental health. King David wrote of this in the Psalms, saying “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear” (Psalm 38:4, NIV used throughout) and “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” (Psalm 42:11).
Several of the prophets also had their own mental health struggles: Elijah is recorded 1 Kings 19:4 as feeling suicidal when he declares “‘I have had enough, LORD,’ he said. ‘Take my life’”, similar thoughts are expressed by Jonah in Jonah 4:3 and even Moses despaired after seeing the sins of Israel upon his return from Mount Sinai (see Exodus 32:32). Jeremiah once declared “Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?” (Jeremiah 20:18).
In the past the Body of Christ sometimes has had three dominating approaches when dealing with mental illness:
- Treat it exclusively as a spiritual issue.
- Ignore it completely.
- Treat it exclusively as a medical issue.
People struggling with their mental health often suffer in silence, hidden and unrecognized by others. Consider this stark contrast: a person with a medical illness, such as cancer, will usually receive an outpouring of sympathy and support from their local congregation and community; a person diagnosed with a mental health issues – such as depression, crippling anxiety, or bipolar disorder – may frequently experiences isolation and inadequate support, often because of the unjust social stigma associated with mental health disorders. This should not be so in our communities and should especially not be the case in the Church. Those living with ongoing mental health concerns should never bear these burdens alone, nor should their families who struggle heroically to assist their loved ones. As Christians, we must be with them, accompany them, comfort them and help bear their burdens in solidarity with them – offering our understanding, prayers, and tangible and ongoing assistance.
This also includes encouraging ourselves and others to seek therapy and medical intervention as necessary. Medical science and faith, mental health care and pastoral care, can and should be in dialogue; they are complementary – we must work together to support those in need.
We do not know the reasons why there is so much suffering in the world. Our lives unfold according to a plan that often seems mysterious and, sometimes, painful. In so many situations, the meaning of events is not clear at the time when they occur. We are living in a fallen, broken world, and each of us is broken to some degree. Yet, we know that God never allows us to suffer alone. We believe that in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, God took on our humanity: he comes to meet us in our suffering, our illness and our affliction. We profess that God walked among us as one of us: In the person of Christ, he endured our human pain with us to the end. On the cross and in his agony, our Lord suffered not just our physical afflictions, but our mental anguish as well. Out of the depths we cry to him and he reaches down into these depths to raise us up. Christ’s kingdom has not yet reached its fullness, but we know in faith that it will at the end of time. On that day, all things will be made new.
Included with this letter is a leaflet (click here to download) which includes some helplines that people can call for help with their mental health. Let us together strive to create an environment within our congregations of support and mutual care for one another.
Warm regards from Sinead and me,
Gavin Henderson
National Ministry Leader
P.S. I would like to thank Irene Tibbenham for helping to raise awareness of mental health issue and for providing the links and resources that are included in the enclosed leaflet.