By Suzanne Haugh, Staff Writer

MARIETTA—Sally Putney, a breast cancer survivor, remembers sitting in the doctor’s office two weeks after her first chemotherapy session when a huge clump of her hair fell out.

“It was right before Christmas (1999) and I was told that it’s better to shave it all off, don’t let it fall out.”

A parishioner at the Church of the Transfiguration, she quickly made an appointment with her hairdresser and had already ordered a “neat wig.” One of Putney’s two daughters photographed her at the salon in new hairdos, including the “G.I. Joe cut,” before it was completely shaved off. “We laughed and cried,” she recalled.

A lot happened that year. Putney had gone to an internist in June who gave her a clean bill of health. At her gynecological appointment in October “everything was fine,” she said. She was doing her own monthly self-exams as well.

But a November appointment with a mobile mammography unit at Transfiguration, scheduled through the parish Health and Wellness Committee, brought to light a growth in one breast that others had missed.

“Probably had it not been for that (mammography), I would be dead now,” she said. “I want to be a message-bearer to other people, especially if you have a history (of breast cancer) in your family, which I do.”

She can think of about three dozen women “who have scurried off to their own churches or doctors’ offices (for mammograms)” after hearing her story. “If I can put the scare in them, I will. It’s an easy exam and I don’t understand why more women don’t get it.”

Sister Celeste Schoppy, IHM, pastoral associate at Transfiguration Church, is making sure that women—and men, too—have access to important medical screenings at the church, a place where many go to experience spiritual healing, but wouldn’t necessarily expect medical help.

Creating a sense of total well-being, accounting for all aspects of the human person, is the goal of the Health and Wellness Committee.

“The physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, vocational, environmental, when each is in harmony and balance, you experience better health of mind, body and spirit,” said Sister Schoppy.

That goal translates into handling lifestyle issues that parishioners confront every day. This can range from how to combat holiday stress and how to nurture the caregivers of dependent loved ones to coordinating a bereavement support group. The church has scheduled vaccinations, flu shots, mammograms and screenings for prostate cancer on site and has purchased a defibrillator, which the average person can use should someone suffer a heart attack on church property. Committee members orchestrate hospital visits by eucharistic ministers and requests for the sacrament of the anointing of the sick for those facing surgery or some other medical crisis.

All of this is clothed with the veil of prayer.

“I try to emphasize, so much, the belief in how prayer affects people, even if they don’t know they’re being prayed for,” said Sister Schoppy, who added that the committee works in conjunction with prayer groups and prayer lists. “It’s certainly part of the total program.”

Sister Schoppy brings to the ministry much work experience and a firsthand look at how one’s spiritual and physical well-being are intertwined. As a nationally certified hospital chaplain, she has been involved in hospice and bereavement services and worked as a chaplain in many settings. She has witnessed how those who have a faith life and are faced with illness or death deal with these crises much better than those who do not profess a faith. She described studies that link physical recovery with spirituality.

Before the Health and Wellness Committee officially kicked off its ministry, Msgr. Pat Bishop, the pastor, put together a slate of speakers who addressed issues surrounding total well-being to ecumenical gatherings starting in 1998. He also created a think-tank of healthcare workers and others, Sister Schoppy said, as he laid a foundation for the ministry. Pivotal to the effort was finding someone to lead the committee.

With her medical and spiritual training and experience, Sister Schoppy’s presence at Transfiguration seems providential. “We were lucky to find Sister Celeste,” said Msgr. Bishop, who wanted someone knowledgeable about health issues and theology for the position of pastoral associate.

The Health and Wellness Committee is Msgr. Bishop’s brainchild and a facet of parish life beginning to take hold nationally.

“It came from a personal conviction that we’re not a body and soul dichotomy, but total well-being extends to the whole person. Physical health affects the spiritual and spiritual health affects the body.”

The fusion of body, mind and spirit is nothing new in recent years, but where it’s recognized and nurtured is.

“I think this concept is emerging (in other churches),” Msgr. Bishop said. “It makes so much sense to go in and coordinate an outreach to those who are ill or are shut-ins. To go in and see if the elderly are doing okay, if they’re taking their medicine and also to coordinate special ministers of the Eucharist.”

“I think parishes, ironically, down here are going back to what churches used to be in the old days—a center for religious and social activities, a center of life.”

A church community is often the first stop for people moving into the area.

“I don’t know of any place where a person can turn to and belong to immediately, find day care, adult education (and other ministries),” Msgr. Bishop said.

There is an inherent ease in assessing one’s physical condition, in certain areas, at the same locale as addressing one’s spiritual needs. “We’re not trying to be a hospital or health center, but to make it easier to take care of yourself all around.”

“It’s much easier to come into the parish center, where you’re familiar, than go to a health center or to an elementary school (for screenings) where they don’t know anything about you.”

Thankfully this rang true for parishioner Bob Cantwell. While he had had a few work-related physicals, when he heard about a screening for prostate cancer at church he decided to sign up. When he didn’t show up for his appointment, Sister Schoppy called his wife.

“My wife said, ‘Sister, you have a better chance of getting him there than me,’” Cantwell said, jokingly. Fortunately the doctor stayed beyond the allotted time to see Cantwell, whose test, it turned out, indicated that he had prostate cancer. Since his screening in late 1999, Cantwell has successfully undergone treatment and has shared his story at Masses to encourage other men to sign up for PSA screenings since his own.

“To be truthful, I don’t know if I would have done it if it were not for the church,” Cantwell said. “The church looks after people on the outside by gathering food, clothing and cars through groups like St. Vincent de Paul. I think they also need to think about their own parishioners.”

For parishioners Diane and Jerry Stapleton the opportunity to serve on the Health and Wellness Committee not only fit well with their work in health care fields but with their lifestyle and principles.

He recently retired from the Air Force after many years working as a medic.

“It was a very interesting job,” he said. “I did everything from delivering two babies to being the only medical personnel for 300 people in a 500-mile radius.”

During their time in the military, he and Diane lived in Greenland, Alaska and other locations within the United States.

“I like helping people,” Jerry Stapleton said. “I enjoy working with people and seeing things get better by what I’m doing.”

He now manages the couple’s home-based business of holistic, alternative health products called Nikken Independent Distributors. They are glad to have found a spiritual home that lets them share their beliefs concerning holistic health through the Health and Wellness Committee.

Recalling how Transfiguration “spoke to us,” Diane Stapleton believes in divine intervention. “To come to Atlanta, to Kennesaw, to Transfiguration, it’s no coincidence. It’s all supposed to happen.”

The couple, who were high school sweethearts, uprooted themselves from Illinois after “a major epiphany in 1999” spawned by a medical crisis in their own lives.

“At the time, we were maxed out,” she said. “We needed a change in lifestyle. We knew everything had to change . . . Life is too dang precious.”

With her husband’s retirement, she accepted a less stressful job in Atlanta and the couple changed their eating habits. “I try really hard to have some down time,” said Diane Stapleton, whose experience in the allied health field has convinced her that total well-being is not just a matter of tending to medical concerns.

“A balanced life is the key to wellness of mind, body and spirit,” she said. “One’s spirituality, the power of prayer and a positive attitude play a big part in wellness,” adding that the church plays a big part in life.

And that’s where all aspects of one’s being can converge.

Jerry Stapleton talked of the committee’s current program and future plans. “We try to look at the population of the parish and then gear what we do towards them,” he said.

The committee of about 12 people includes physicians, nurses and others inside and outside the medical profession who meet once a month.

For Putney, she has enjoyed “getting on with life” and has noticed a change in her priorities since her experience with breast cancer.

“I try to get out of the office on time to be with my family. It also makes God more special to you, to know that he never lets you go it alone.”

Her cancer remains close in mind and has affected her spiritual life. “I prayed a lot to get through that with dignity no matter what the end would bring.”

She recalled how the healing prayers of the pastor before any major medical treatment always calmed her. She also felt the support of the church community and others in her life.

“People care about you,” she said, fondly recalling “the telephone calls, cards and comments like, ‘You look beautiful!’ even though I was wearing a silly hat.”

While she cannot donate her blood during blood drives, she clears her calendar to donate her time as a volunteer. Now she tries to “be there for other people.”

“I feel good, emotionally and physically. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but I pray to be continually strengthened to handle it with dignity and get through it. We’re put on earth to go to heaven. It can be a struggle.”

But through the efforts of those who make possible “attention to all aspects of holism, especially the spiritual,” as the mission statement for the Health and Wellness Committee reads, lives are touched, treated and transformed.