NC Clergy Poll: More Than 70% Say Opioid Crisis Has Affected Congregation
North Carolina's clergy are gathering in cities across the state to talk about the opioid crisis. A recent survey found more than 70 percent of clergy in North Carolina say their congregations have been affected by opioids.
Barriers to accessing substance abuse and mental-health resources make church one of the first places people turn to for help with addiction. Elizabeth Brewington, opioid response program coordinator with the North Carolina Council of Churches, is organizing the clergy breakfasts.
Read More
How Harm Reductionists Keep the Faith
Morning to evening, nearly seven days a week, Karen and Michelle endure taxing commutes to bring harm reduction services to drug users in North Carolina’s hard-hit, rural areas.
Read More
Pastors say to address the opioid crisis, expand Medicaid
The NC Council of Churches and others lobbied in Raleigh for Medicaid expansion as a way to get more people with substance use disorder into treatment.
Rebekah Paulson found God in jail. As a former heroin user with a criminal record, she faced a lot of barriers when she got out.
She wanted to attend church but discovered that many in the pews around her didn’t understand what she had been through. She eventually found Source Church in Dare County, where she said the pastors and members understood her story.
Read More
Faith leaders are fighting the Bronx opioid crisis on the ground
In 2017, some south Bronx neighborhoods experienced a rate of overdose-related deaths more than twice that of the citywide average. The opioid epidemic has devastated New York City, and no where more than the Bronx.
Read More
Offering Syringes Along With Prayers, Churches Help IV Drug Users
When Gov. Pat McCrory signed legislation in July legalizing syringe exchange programs in North Carolina, James Sizemore rejoiced.
The pastor of a small church, Sizemore had — with the tacit approval of some, but not all, local law enforcement — been offering clean syringes to drug users to help them avoid contracting HIV and hepatitis C. Now he could do so without fear of arrest.
Read More
Faith and Harm Reduction: The True Meaning of “All God’s Children”
At Catalyst, sex workers, drug addicts, the sick and homeless, populations that are often turned away from traditional churches, have a home in Pastor James Sizemore’s eclectic family. Pastor Sizemore believes that love and acceptance of all God’s children, regardless of where they are in their lives, is imperative to being a true Christian and he strives to create a space where all people feel welcome.
Read More
