By CAROLINE CARMICHAEL / Staff Writer

Clanton Church of Christ is providing its second annual Help for the Holidays: Growing Through Grief workshop on Oct. 28 from 9 a.m. to noon for individuals experiencing any variety of grief.

Admission is free.

“It’s to help people who have gone through any kind of death process — a death, a divorce, illnesses — helping them learn how to work through it,” Barbara Terrell of Clanton Church of Christ said.

“For some, it’s not a very merry Christmas,” Gary Bradley, associate minister of Clanton Church of Christ, said.

Bradley and Clanton Church of Christ Minister Bob Carroll will lead the workshop.

“The emphasis is that grief is unique to the individual,” Bradley said. “Consequently, no two situations are the same.”

The workshop is scripturally based and will explore 10 stages of grief, Bradley said.

“We’ll emphasize why it hurts, where it hurts and what can I do about it,” Bradley said.

Refreshments will be offered during breaks between material covered.

“What we’re trying to do in grief recovery,” Bradley said, “[is to] come alongside people and be a visible representation of God’s love.”

“I’ve been through a lot of training in this regard,” Bradley said of grief. “I worked my way through college in the funeral business, then went into law enforcement and then ministry, and then back into law enforcement.”

Besides his role as assistant minister, Bradley is an assistant district attorney in Shelby County, and has gathered 37 years’ worth of varying experiences and encounters with grief.

Bradley was recently declared cancer-free, after undergoing eight operations. In 2002, he suffered a stroke.

“I don’t tell people I know how you feel,” Bradley said, encouraging others to do the same.

“Because you don’t [know].”

Bradley said it is also important to acknowledge a bad situation.

“Let’s call it what it is: This is bad,” Bradley said. “But God is good, and he’s going to get us through it.”

For more information about Clanton Church of Christ, visit ClantonChurchOfChrist.com.

Clanton Church of Christ is located at 1111 Lay Dam Road in Clanton.