No, I outed the demons a long time ago. Boy that was a hard egg to crack. I must not be on my game.

The Bible actually is full of jokes. Jesus cracked them. Lots of puns and plays on words.The catch is, you have to translate it into Aramaic, the language Jesus actually spoke. Not even Greek or Hebrew.

I read a really interesting book about it.

TRY YOUR LOCAL HOSPITAL

Hi Hanna~~

Lots of great suggestions -- the library, hospital, more churches, schools.

I'm not trying to be dense, here, but I'm not sure I'm following. Are you implying that your room request was denied because the support group would be for those with depression and/or bipolar? That's harsh.

My face-to-face group meets in an Episcopal church ..... a very old stone church with magnificent stained glass windows and pews that smell of sin washed with grace. Hey .... if you've never smelled that, it's incredible!!

Good luck finding a space!

@ Gina- Thank you for all of your suggestions. I've been shot down by quite a few churches and was just curious. I wasn't ending the conversation, I just logged off to go to bed. Thank you though.

I'm not saying that my church shot me down b/c it's a BP group. I don't know what happened though. The secretary said it was available, she said she didn't see a problem with it and that it she is the only one who does scheduling in the church. I found it strange and wondered if my local church thought I was possessed or something. Not saying that's why they turned me down...I'm merely curious.

There's not a whole lot in my town, and if there were certain churches that think the mentally ill are possessed or something, I figured I wouldn't waste my time asking for support group space.

I definitely like the idea of using my local hospital though. :)

best luck getting this support group up & running hanna

Thanks Hanna, My first group I went too in Florida, DBSA was held in a conference room at the local hospital - LOVE IT... central location, everyone knows where the hospital is : )

My hospital said not : / Again, dealing with agency, one person can say yes, and someone else has the power to say NO!

Hospital is a great idea - its always open, no one needs to Come in to unlock door or stay - I wish you the best of luck!!!!

YOU will get a room - and after all the no's and hard work, it will feel like a orgasm of excitement!!!!

Your question seems so odd to me -- just not much of a connection between the first part and then your question.

And then later, if I understood you correctly, the church didn't tell you it believes 'we' are possessed by the devil.
By 'we', do you mean Bipolar Disordered people in general?

Why do you think of demonic possession as being the most likely cause for the church to have said 'no.'?

I'd go to the church (because I'd want to do it face to face) and ask them why I was turned down.
LOL!!!! It's pretty easy to tell when someone is lying to you, but it would be interesting to see what they say!!!

Maybe they think a group of 'nuts' would go crazy, howling at the moon, and tearing the church apart or bothering any 'normal' people who happened to be around, LOL!!!!

Good luck!!!! Keep a'lookin'!!!!! You'll find a place!!!!!! For your worthy cause!!!

(((((Hugs)))))

Episcopal--good with AA and NA

United Methodists are very good about allowing support groups.

I don' t know, but I would suspect that the larger more metropolitan of the Unitarian churches would encourage any type of support group.

Local regular hosptials should as well.

A Lutheran church near me hosts a NAMI support group, so I'd think maybe check with a Lutheran church?

Our Catholic church has a mental illness meeting, open to all illnesses, so I don't think it's the religion, Hanna...

Reading what you're doing is truly inspiring! Good for you! And good luck finding a venue!

I was thinking about this, and liability may be the issue. I know I have had to contact all kinds legal people and insurance and do due diligence.

Sometimes we just assume it is the stigma of mental illness, when in fact is about someone suing the church/denomination/pastor, etc.

LOL - every church has its own board of directors and makes its own decision

Denominations makes no difference!

My church is Lutheran. LCMC. the one thing that my Pastor had said was that we did need a therapist to be able to come to the meetings or someone along those lines, just in case things were to get "going" so that this person could calm everyone down. Which by the way, my Pastor totally understands because he is Manic Depressive. So just a thought here.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the denomination doesn't matter at all.

I was raised Methodist and it would not at all be in keeping with its basic tenets to refuse someone based on the fact that they were mentally ill.

And as someone else mentioned, it would be rather surprising for a Unitarian church to refuse based on the fact that the group would be made up of people with Bipolar Disorder.

I really don't know too much about all the other religions, but I know that some of the other faiths around here are pretty picky when it comes to letting people be part of the congregation at all, much less be allowed to hold any old meeting at all, if it didn't suit their fancy.

But churches are doing a LOT of changing now and the rules are so different than they used to be.
And when it comes to Methodists, some of the changes that were made in my mother's church were pretty horrifying.
For the first time in the 150 year old church, the minister (who was a conman and who made his living by changing religions and and ending up in charge of various churches), took away the Christmas Eve services!!!! Christmas wasn't celebrated or observed in any way!!!

And at another church -- I forget which denomination, but it was christian -- the new minister came in and made a lot of changes. One of them was to remove all pictures of Jesus.
And when some of the parishioners complained, he literally said, 'If you don't like it, there's the door.'
I could see him saying 'no' to a group who he probably would view as a pack of nutcases!!!