Center for the Study of

CHURCH AFFECTIVE DISORDER

The Center for the Study of Church Affective Disorder was founded on March 31, 2007, (the eve of Palm Sunday according to the Western Liturgical Calendar) with seed funding from the Erehwon Foundation and the Institute for Ecclesial Melancholia of the SARSSK (Society of Angst-Ridden Siblings of Soren Kierkegaard). The vision for the Center came upon us as we realized that we had a strong yearning to sleep in on Palm Sunday, read the Sunday paper, and go out to brunch with some agreeable folk (including some friends in our congregation who we suspect are also afflicted with CAD). We found our desire to avoid worship (to say nothing of a major observance) strange, because at the core of our faith is the belief that we are meant to gather for the weekly remembrance of Our Lord's Resurrection to be nourished by Word and Sacrament in order to live the Gospel for the rest of the week. Lately we have found ourselves alienated from the Church as organization while yearning for the Church as Corpus Christi. We asked a friend with the Center for Disease Control to look into this. He laughed. Although we took that as joyful agreement to our request, we made immediate grant applications to EF and IEM/SARSSK just in case.

Does our dyspeptic attitude sound familiar? If so, you may suffer from CAD. If this sense of discomfort is limited primarily to your ecclesial involvement, continue to the links below.

The Rant That Led to Our Self-Diagnosis
Some of the Symptoms of CAD
History and Dialogue as Therapeutic Agents for the Relief of CAD
Other Conditions Misdiagnosed as CAS
Free Life-Time Membership in the Society of the Angst-Ridden Siblings of Soren Kierkegaard
(SK is the Patron Saint of the Center)

WARNING: If you experience a sense of alienation in all (or even most) of your relationships and associations, seek the advice of a mental health professional as soon as possible. This self help program is limited specifically and exclusively to symptoms of Church Affective Disorder.