The Rev. Rob Baldwin, pastor, Trinity Episcopal Church, 1011 Vermont St.:

I would like to respond to the question with another question: what would the answer be if the question was “do you think faith can help fight diabetes?” A reasonable response to that question might be, “well, if a person’s faith imparted enough of a sense of self-value to see medical attention, and perhaps the strength to get through difficult parts of treatment, then yes.” But most people wouldn’t say that faith alone could treat a medical malady. And depression, true clinical depression, is a medical malady, not a matter of a lack of perspective on life or a flaw in one’s character. And the earlier we stop mis-characterizing depression, and in the process stigmatizing it, the better.

So often the healing that God has prepared for people lies in the hands of medical professionals, including talented therapists and psychologists. These people are given tremendous gifts by God to help people. The best thing we can do as Christians, and for that matter as a society, is to stop looking at people who suffer from depression as being flawed or selfish or lost, and started seeing them as being people who need and deserve sympathy, compassion, understanding, and medical care. There is the role of faith in the life of a person suffering from depression: to promote wisdom and love in the people around them.

Robin Williams once wrote a piece entitled “Top 10 Reasons to be an Episcopalian,” (you can find it easily online) and my denomination mourns the loss of a wonderful member of our faith community. He was a person of faith, one whose relationship with God and the Church brought him amusement and appreciation. If you are suffering from depression, just know that there are caring, sympathetic people out there ready to help, and that what you struggle with is not of your own devising, but something that will care can be managed and overcome.

— Send email to Rob Baldwin at rb@trinitylawrence.org.

Edna Mosher, minister, Unity Church of Lawrence, 900 Madeline Ln:

Absolutely yes, faith can help fight depression. However, faith may be too far a stretch when we’re deeply depressed. After all, we may be depressed because we’ve lost faith in whatever we thought was our safety net: a career, an income, a family role, a belief system, or a God that protects us from harm. Yet, we may be able to latch onto hope.

Hope that there’s a better way, hope that we can accept our new circumstances, hope that no matter what loss our family endured, we can go on because that is what our loved one would have wanted, hope that God will forgive when we cannot forgive ourselves.

Hope proclaims we are willing to re-engage with life in a new way. Hope lights our way back into a faith filled life and relationship with family, friends, and God, Allah, Divine Mind, or any other name we give the Divine Creative Force in the Universe.

As we restore our relationship with God, we can find our way back to the Truth of who we are: a beloved, eternal child of God, no matter the circumstances. Developing a daily spiritual practice of prayer and meditation, reading sacred scripture, or whatever healthy practice we engage in to experience our connection with God, we become more likely to rely on this Divine Love connection when earthly challenges crash in around us.

Combining restored faith with other tools, such as wise counselors, loving and accepting communities, friends, family, nutritional and biochemical support, exercise, and the opportunity to serve those in more need than us, we are more likely to rise up and experience a fuller, more joyful life.

I Corinthians 13:13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (NRSV.)

— Send email to revedna@unityoflawrence.org