By Rev. Mark Stephenson Executive Director, Pathways to Promise Companionship is a way of presence, a relationship responding to isolation and suffering and supportive of healing and recovery. Companionship is rooted in five practices which build on one another, beginning with Hospitality which offers a safe, sacred space in the personal sense. Companions respect every person as an equal, endowed with dignity and agency to set their own course for their lives. Craig Rennebohm, founder of...

By Rev. Mark Stephenson Executive Director, Pathways to Promise In the last blog, I gave an overview of Companionship, and promised to describe its five practices, which begin with hospitality. When picturing hospitality, most of us see ourselves extending an invitation to our homes where we share a meal and conversation. As the first practice of Companionship, The Companionship Movement founder, Rev. Dr. Craig Rennebohm, envisions rest and refreshment flowing out of a much broader...

By Rev. Mark Stephenson Executive Director, Pathways to Promise In his book, Bowling Alone, Robert Putman wrote, “As a rough rule of thumb, if you belong to no groups, but decide to join one, you cut your risk of dying over the next year in half. If you smoke and belong to no groups, it’s a toss-up statistically whether you should stop smoking or start joining. These findings are in some ways heartening: it’s easier to join a group than to lose weight, exercise regularly, or quit smoking.”...