By Mary O’KEEFE

The Clergy Council is looking for members to continue their mission of helping those who need spiritual support.

The Clergy Council has been on again/off again for many years and has been a volunteer support program for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept./Crescenta Valley Station.  The Council had been in place in the past but in the late 1990s had faded away. Then when David Silversparre became the Captain of the Crescenta Valley Station in 2008 he reached out to Reverend Beverly Craig, known as Rev Bev, with the Center for Spiritual Living to head the renewed council.

She reached out to spiritual leaders of all faiths to come together to help residents and those who serve the community.

The Council members would be called to support personnel at the CV Station, but also to be on hand to help anyone who needed them.

The members spiritually support the community in a variety of ways  including support for those who have been in a traffic collision to those who have suffered a violent crime.

But most of their focus is to be available for the Sheriff Station staff.

“We pray for the deputies, we pray for the community, and we’re available for one-on-one if any deputy wants to call us or any volunteer wants to call us, we are available to talk and pray with them,” Craig said in an earlier CVW interview. “I think [it is important] because I believe everything, everything, can be handled in prayer. I honestly believe that. And we pray daily for our deputies, we pray daily for them — individually and then when we are in our meeting, we pray for them there. So our Clergy Council, besides doing the spiritual work, we’re volunteers.”

Craig knows how valuable the program has been and wants to keep it going. Unfortunately she is not able to be as active with the Clergy Council as she once was, and there are only a few members left to do the work.

Craig wants to invite individuals to join whether they are part of an organized religion or not but want to show support through spiritual guidance. Church congregational leaders can volunteer to help as well.

“Basically what we are is spiritual back-up for the deputies,” Craig said.

For more information or to join the Clergy Council contact community deputy, Sgt. Armstrong at the Crescenta Valley Station, (818) 248-3464 or email   jm1armst@lasd.org

  Mary Okeefe