Edu-tainment
Sacred Milestones offers a variety of educational and entertaining experiences that allow children, youth, adults, and families to explore spiritual topics and have sacred conversations outside of a religious setting and where all opinions are welcomed. These programs are especially popular with groups of people of differing faiths and no faith at all, including social clubs, corporate cafeterias, councils on aging, and fraternal organizations.
Conversation Cafes
Our flagship spiritual edu-tainment program is our “Conversation Café.” These experiences are designed to feed the soul with fascinating stories, original videos, and a guided discussion on a popular life issue such as loneliness, natural disasters, guilt, regret, racism, PTSD, life after death, parenting, ethical questions, and current events.
Film Festivals
Sacred Milestones runs fantastic film series with guided conversations to educate the mind, enrich the spirit and engage the heart! Topics include character-building family films, the environment, food themes, diversity issues, and more!
Social Concerns and Diversity
As a Sociology professor, certified Social Justice Leadership Trainer, and former minister for African refugees, Rev. Lucca is passionate about trying to make the world a better place. She offers workshops, retreats, and training courses for children, teens, and adults on diversity issues including race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identification, body size and appearance, physical and mental abilities, and socio-economic status. Some of her previous work includes:
- How to Raise a Non-Racist Child: A Workshop for Parents
- Retreat for a local high school on race relations
- My Neighbors Faith and Mine, a 3-month educational program for communities
- Advising congregations on how to be more inclusive
- Conversation Cafes about a variety of social concerns and diversity issues
- Certificate programs in diversity leadership are also available for teens (impressive on a college application!)
End-of-Life
Sacred Milestones is widely renowned for its meaningful, inspirational, and practical offerings with regard to death education. Please contact us to learn more about how we can support your family or organization.
Workshops
Sacred Milestones facilitates workshops, retreats, and presentations on end-of-life topics including:
- Death Cafes (informal conversations about death over tea and delicious cake!)
- The 5 Wishes (health care proxies, pain management, care options…)
- Teen educational retreats including a visit to a funeral home.
- Coping with a Loved One’s Terminal Illness
- Helping a Child Understand Death and Dying
- Frankly Speaking: Caring Conversations about End-of-Life- Issues
- A Family Undertaking: Home Funerals
- Return Naturally: Green Burials
- Live, Love, Laugh: Life after Loss
- How to Comfort a Grieving Friend or Family Member
- Getting through the holidays when you are grieving
- The Funeral: What it is and What it does
- Life or Let Die: Ethical Issues Regarding Life Support
- 5-session death education courses for children, youth and/or adults.
- Certificate programs are also available for teens (impressive on a college application!)
Public Tragedies
Sacred Milestones works with town governments, clergy associations, and civic groups to create and lead interfaith worship services and other community healing rituals during public tragedies including missing persons, the death of a beloved teacher or municipal official, fires, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and other critical incidents.
Support Groups
For many years, Sacred Milestones has facilitated short-term (e.g. 8 weeks) and ongoing support groups for teens and adults related to serious illness, death, and grief on behalf of congregations, community groups, and councils on aging.
Programs for Congregations
Besides running support groups and making presentations to congregations as noted above, Rev. Lucca also routinely preaches about end-of-life issues during worship services and runs Sunday School classes, youth group gatherings, and adult Bible studies on topics related to death and dying.
Sacred Milestones is also available to help your congregation set up a “Ministry of Consolation” that is customized and appropriate for your particular religious philosophy. This might include training lay leaders, personalizing the wake service, making a funeral banner, presenting a model for grief care, creating a Blue Christmas or holiday service and more.
Individual and Family Sessions
Rev. Lucca is available for pastoral care sessions for individuals and families who are facing the challenges of a terminal illness and/or the death of a loved one.
Congregational Vitality
Rev. Lucca was ordained as both a Protestant and Interfaith minister and has experience pastoring at a traditional UCC (Congregational) parish and also at a start-up contemporary community chapel. For the past 10+ years, she has been assisting churches, nonprofit organizations, and faith-based schools and camps as a vitality consultant, substitute preacher, and youth/young adult minister, and is available for short-term and longer-term projects.
Worship Enhancement Coaching
Teaching congregations how to engage the senses, use multi-media and the arts, and incorporate interactive activities into the worship service.
Intergenerational
- Substitute preaching and sabbatical coverage
- From Generation to Generation: Honoring Tradition and Embracing Change (our most popular program!)
- Trends in Church Growth
- Family Retreat on the Church Year (seasons, colors, activities)
- Improving Communication: A Program for Parents and Teens
- Stations of the Cross for Families
- Stations of Creation
- Modern Labyrinth Walk with Visual Media
- First Communion Family Retreats
- 5-week Marriage Enhancement Series
High School Students and Young Adults
- Confirmation- Retreats and Online Classes available
- Sex and Sexuality as a Person of Faith
- Pop Culture and Spirituality
- Thinking Theologically about Money
- Finding God in Virtual Reality: Praying with the Internet
- Lent – What Is It and Why Should I Care?
- Prayer Stations Retreat
- Retreats on race relations, sexual orientation and other diversity topics
- Images of God and Self
- Good Grief: A Retreat about Death, Dying and Grieving
- “Just Us for Justice” Social Justice Worship Event
- The Justice Mission: A Retreat about Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery
- Life and Death (exploring issues like Abortion, Death Penalty, Assisted Suicide)
- It’s College, Not Heaven: Don’t Sweat the Admissions Process
- God on the Quad: Exploring Faith-Based Colleges
- Theology on Tap: Spiritual Conversations at Local Bars for Young Adults
Women’s Ministry
- Spiritual Spa Days
- Spiritual Retreat for Mothers of Pre-School and Elementary School Students
- Finding the Pray-er in You: An Overnight Retreat including art, videos, music and more
- Spiritual Autobiography – Journeys into God and the Self
- Cakes for the Queen of Heaven Women’s Educational Series
- The Stress-Free, Family-Friendly College Application Process
- Valentine’s Day Worship Led by Youth w/ Marriage Vow Renewals & Activities
- Intergenerational Spiritual Events for Lent and Advent
End-of-Life
To learn more about our end-of-life offerings, click here.
