Friends Journal Review, November 2002:

Sitting down with Grounded in God is like sitting down with 100 Quaker elders who, having already gained the spiritual maturity you hope to reach before you die, gently and compassionately nudge you in the right direction for both your own spiritual development and that of the larger Quaker community. Based on articles that initially appeared in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Pastoral Care Newsletter, the book is extraordinarily well organized around eight topics: the role of pastoral caregivers in a meeting; membership issues; meeting involvement in marriage and divorce; nurturing the meeting community; care for the terminally ill and their survivors; conflict in the meeting; meeting care of those with mental illness; and care of each member across the lifespan whether they be man, woman, or child. Each topic provides a general overview of the issues involved, practical pointers for meeting nurturers, questions for reflection by caregiving committees, and “one meeting’s experience”- a wonderfully straightforward recounting of the experiences a wide variety of meetings have had when they dealt with the topic under discussion. Grounded in God will be useful in the grounding of new members to committees on oversight, pastoral care and counseling, for small group discussion at committee retreats, and as a handy reference volume for those thorny issues that pop up with regularity in any meeting worth its benches.