Death Education: Because we all, eventually, have a date with death.

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WELCOME to Date with Death Club

Date with Death Club is an opportunity to explore mortality in community.  Through educational discussions, conversation, and reflection, you will have space and support to learn, share, and deepen your own understanding of what death means to you and how you want to approach death — particularly your own.  

Informed by spiritual sensibilities, DwDC has no specific religious dogma.  The DwDC concept, branding, curriculum, and the slides we will use in the program were created by Karen G. Johnston, MSW, M.Div.  To learn more about DwDC and Karen G. Johnston’s work, please see https://datewithdeathclub.com/

Designed as a multi-session learning experience, DwDC invites participants to attend one, many, or all of the offered sessions.  Each session has been developed with an intentional anti-oppression approach and with a strong pedagogical container to help create the necessary safe[r], brave[r] space for best exploration.

DwDC is not a bereavement or grief support group.  While it may be healing of the human condition, the nature of the DwDC is not specifically therapeutic. 

Sessions will take place online via Zoom, starting at 2:00 pm on select Sundays, and will typically run about 2.5 hours long.  Sessions will be facilitated by First Church JP’s resident death doula, Minda Sanchez Jariwala, with support from Rev. Elizabeth Bukey Saunter.  The Zoom link and other information will be sent to pre-registered participants prior to each session date.  To register, click here.

All sessions are free of charge.  Participants are welcome to make donations to First Church JP, but donations are not required to participate.

Session Schedule:

The topics on each of the scheduled dates may change, based on the interests and priorities of the group, and based on the availability of guest speakers.

July 16, 2023 – Planning Your Own Memorial Service (Hybrid)

You can leave it for those who survive you. Or, you can spend some time now planning your memorial service, leaving helpful information for your loved ones when the time comes. We’ll use a specially developed worksheet that you can take home. 

This session will run from 2:00pm to 4:30pm. The workshop will be at this Zoom link or in person at the church.

August 13, 2023 – Getting Comfortable with “Death Talk” 

Death has become hidden, making it harder for us to come to terms with the reality of it. It hasn’t always been this way. The modern death-positive movement creates ways for those who want the chance to talk openly about mortality. We’ll explore how the Date with Death Club provides a chance to grow our comfort and knowledge about this topic. 

Sept 10, 2023  – Resistance & Acceptance: The Mortal Dance 

Our attitudes toward our own mortality are a dance between resistance (do not go gentle into that good night) and acceptance (no one gets out of here alive). This session will use music and reflection to explore death anxiety and the new science around the use of psilocybin (“magic mushrooms”) to help ease the fear of death in those with terminal diagnoses.

Oct 29, 2023  – Remembering our Dead: shadow boxes, shrines and altars

In this in-person and online workshop, we will sit in a remembrance circle to share names and stories of dearly departed ones, and then craft commemorative shadow boxes, shrines and altars to remember them.

Nov 19, 2023 – Claiming Your Death 

Death as a general concept is one thing; our own death is a whole other thing. In this session, we’ll talk about possible ways to face our own death with intention. We will explore the process of holding deathbed vigils, as well as home funerals. We will talk about the role of End-of-Life doulas and other community support resources for reclaiming this aspect of our lives. 

Dec 10, 2023 – Dying, Death, & Poetry 

Reflecting upon dying and death can sound morbid, but really it can connect us with what is truly meaningful in our lives, as well as with beauty in the world and gratitude in our hearts. This session will use easy-to-understand poetry to help us find our own way of understanding our mortality. 

Feb 25, 2024 – Hospice, Palliative Care, & End-of-Life Documents, Oh My! 

More and more people are using hospice at the end of life and doing so sooner, which can be helpful to them and their loved ones. Yet, most people who want to die at home end up dying in a facility. In this session, we’ll hear from an expert on hospice and explore end-of-life documents like advance directives. Here is the resource list from the session.

March 10, 2024 – Good Life & Good Death 

What do people mean when they say “a good death?” And how is that connected to having “a good life?” Is it the same for everyone? Are there barriers to a good life? What do these terms mean for you?  Join us online on Zoom at 2:00pm.

April 14, 2024 – Medical Aid in Dying / Death with Dignity

What does death with dignity mean? We’ll explore the in’s and out’s of Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD), including its legal status in the United States and what it means. We’ll also review other legal, ethical ways to hasten death, being sure to explore concerns about ableism that are a part of this landscape.

May 12, 2024 – Afterlife / Afterlives 

What happens after we die is a mystery. There’s lots of speculation and theory but no concrete evidence. In this non-dogmatic session, we’ll explore concepts of an afterlife (or not) through an interfaith panel representing different traditions and outlooks, then engage in personal reflection on what our beliefs are, where we got them from, and how they have held up over our lifetimes. 

June 16, 2024 – Writing your own obituary

Just like planning your own memorial service, you can spend time now putting together your obituary. We’ll explore both traditional obituaries (the kind you are likely to find in the local newspaper) and more story-based obituaries that can help us connect with our own deeper purpose in whatever time we have left on this earth. We’ll use a specially developed worksheet to guide us that you can take home. 

To be scheduled

Aging: Better Than the Alternative 

In this life, there’s no escaping aging or declining health. It is part of the mortal dance. In our youth-oriented society, one must be intentional to feel good about aging or about health challenges. We’ll use this session to explore what it means to come face to face with the two realities of aging and getting sick, lessening fear by facing it. 

Grief: Loving & Losing, Learning & Living 

With love comes loss. With living comes dying. This session explores how grief and disenfranchised grief work and what it means in our own lives. While our focus is grief, and there may be grieving people in the room, this is not a grief support group.

Facing Extinction: Processing Eco-Grief

Due to the climate crisis, we face not our own mortality, but questions about our collective existence as a species and whether the planet is dying (at least as it is inhabitable by humans). Using concepts from the “Work That Reconnects,” developed by Joanna Macy, we’ll bravely explore this emotional terrain.

What to Do with a Dead Body?

After a death, the body must be taken care of— “disposed.” Common means are burial and traditional cremation. But may you want to donate your body to science? Yet there are evolving technologies and new choices to be made. Perhaps you want a green burial? Or you want your body to become compost? We’ll explore what’s out there and what choices you may want to make now to get what you want then.

Want to join us? Sign up here.

For more information about the DwDC at FCJP, contact Minda at minda77@gmail.com