Carleton Alumnus and Mental Health Chaplaincy Pioneer to Present Convocation

 Carleton alumnus Craig Rennebohm, Class of 1967, will kick off the College’s spring term weekly convocation series on Friday, April 3 at 10:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel with an address is entitled "Recovering Human Neighborhood: From the Street to Systematic Change." Renowned throughout the world for his work with the homeless mentally ill, Rennebohm’s appearance is free and open to the public.

Rennebohm is a pioneer in the field of mental health ministry. Founder and chaplain of the Mental Health Chaplaincy in Seattle, for over twenty years Rennebohm has developed his unique ministry, focusing primarily on homeless people who suffer from serious depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, substance addictions, and other illnesses. Although his efforts were initially received with skepticism on the part of the professional mental healthy community, he soon won over supporters among psychiatrists, nurses, and other medical professionals. His Mental Health Chaplaincy now has strong working relationships with several leading local hospital centers.

Rennebohm is an ordained pastor with the United Church of Christ, but his approach emphasizes social and mental care in addition to spiritual counseling. His work as a street chaplain does not have to do with “saving souls” in the Evangelical sense, but rather focuses on forming supportive relationships with people who are extremely hard to reach, helping them get medical treatment and housing, and ultimately integrating them back into the community. Rennebohm’s intensive, highly effective work has garnered national and international acclaim.

After graduating from Carleton in 1967, Rennebohm attended the Chicago Theological Seminary and received his Masters in Divinity in 1970. While in Chicago, he worked with the Blackstone Rangers, a street gang confederation on the city’s South Side. He was ordained by the United Church of Christ, and served for 16 years as a minister in parishes in Lowell, Mass., and Seattle, before pursuing a Doctorate of Ministry in Pastoral Care at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif.

Rennebohm serves as a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Faithnet Advisory Board, the Disabilities Ministries Board of the United Church of Christ, and as a consultant for Pathways to Promise, a national interfaith mental illness ministry. He has been awarded the Tipper Gore Award of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council and a Seattle Post-Intelligencer Jefferson Award. L bold">ast year Rennebohm wrote Souls in the Hands of a Tender God: mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">(Beacon Press, 2008), describing his work with the Mental Health Chaplaincy. In 1997, Carleton College honored Rennebohm with its Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award.

bold">This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Office of College Relations. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-4308. For more information on Rennebohm, visit www.mentalhealthchaplain.org.