Florida's Healthcare Conclave
A Brief
History of the Florida Spirituality and Healthcare Conclave Process
In autumn of 2007, Renee’ Koenig and Carol Ludwig began discussing
(interestingly enough at the Long Point Bait and Tackle shop in
Melbourne Beach) something they were noticing about the Audire spiritual
direction formation program in Winter Park, FL. Each year, more people
coming to the Audire program from all over northern and central Florida
were involved in some aspect of health care: doctors, nurse
practitioners, nurses, therapists, chaplains, administrators, and
hospice and nursing home volunteers.
As they talked about this critical mass of people who embodied both
spirituality and health care expertise, they speculated that there might
be some value in bringing these people together in a neutral gathering
place. Although both Carol and Renee’ knew them all, they didn’t know
each other. The thought was that some special synergy might develop if
these people were gathered in one room. These conversations were also
shaped by an innovative protocol that the Audire program and Orlando
Health had developed early in this century.
On May 9, 2008, the initial “Conclave” meeting was held in Melbourne
Beach at the St. Francis Center for Reconstruction. About forty people
participated. They were from as far afield as Orlando, Tampa and
Jacksonville. That autumn, a follow-up meeting was held in
Tampa/Clearwater at the Franciscan Center and Hospice of the Sun Coast.
The group gained quite a few new members, and the facilitator was
Margaret Benefiel, author of Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in
Organizations and Soul of a Leader: Finding Your Path to Success and
Fulfillment.*
In February of 2009, another conclave group met in Orlando in
conjunction with the Spiritual Care Summit, a gathering of four major
U.S. and Canadian chaplains’ organizations. Some members of the conclave
community worked with Spiritual Directors International leadership on a
panel presentation, “Spiritual Care for Health Providers,” at that
conference. The presentation drew so many people that they had to move
to a larger room, and the panel was engaged with follow-up questions for
almost an hour.
Later that Spring, the conclave met in Jacksonville at St. Vincent’s
Hospital Spirituality Center. Former St. Vincent’s COO Jack Logue (also
an Audire graduate) hosted the group’s two day meeting. Logue has since
been named to the national board of Ascension Health.
In May of this year, the “Conclave” gathered in Gainesville, where Drs.
Dan Robinson, Dawn Grinenko, and Heather Spring, all Audire program
participants, put together a full schedule including an evening at the
U. of Florida Center for Spirituality and Health, a morning session at
the College of Nursing, and a Thursday evening/all day Friday conclave
on the campus of the University of Florida and at Kanapahe Gardens in
Gainesville.
This unique community of people with expertise in spirituality and
health care has become a template for Spiritual Directors
International's work in this field. SDI had devoted a whole day adjacent
to its annual conference for people working at the nexus of
spirituality/spiritual direction and healthcare for the past three
years. SDI’s program was based largely on the experience of the Florida
Spirituality and Healthcare Conclave.
* Benefiel is a Quaker who teaches at Andover Newton Seminary and the
Milltown Institute in Dublin. She has also bridged the field of
spirituality and health care by coordinating Spiritual Directors
International spirituality and healthcare institutes for the past three
years.