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This article discusses some of the possible advantages of a poetic representation of social experience through a selection of four poems based on the words and organized by the salience and time sequence “logic” of participants in a study of formerly homeless mentally ill men and women who are currently housed. The initial report was a qualitative evaluation of the perceptions of this sample of formerly homeless mentally ill people of the benefits of the housing currently provided. It offers a categorical analysis of personal, relationship, and resource issues across childhood, adulthood, and since supported/supportive housing. The present analysis, based on the same interviews, destabilizes the original findings and offers a different window into the lives of the study participants. It does this through prose poems that replicate the language, the central issues of the participants, and their braided logic-in-use among other things.

We present the findings of a narrative approach to the evaluation of supportive housing for formerly homeless people who have experienced serious mental illness. According to the accounts of 11 men and 9 women, their youth and adult years were filled with personal problems, troubled relationships, and a lack of adequate social resources. Since entering supportive housing, participants noted more stability in their lives and the beginning of journeys to recover positive personal identities, restore or develop new supportive relationships, and reclaim resources vital to leading lives with dignity and meaning. The findings add to the literature on housing interventions for this population in suggesting many positive gains beyond reductions in homelessness and hospitalization.

In this qualitative study the authors examine the Scriptural images that 10 Lutheran pastors employed in describing the ethical challenges in the pastor-congregant relationship. The analysis of Scriptural images is part of a larger study on pastors' experiences of a mandatory workshop, "Crossing the Boundaries (CTB),"which is required of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) seminarians. The pastors' images were analyzed from the four perspectives of depth psychology, theology, social ethics, and sociology. In commenting on tensions in the pastors' Scriptural images the authors note commonalities among the four theoretical perspectives and discuss implications for practice and future research.

The Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) sponsors the Crossing the Boundaries (CTB) workshop, a program that focuses on the maintenance of appropriate boundaries in clergy-congregant relationships as a means to prevent clergy sexual misconduct. Drawing primarily on an analysis of the synod-sanctioned workshop materials, an observation of the workshop, and interviews with 10 pastors who have attended the workshop, this paper explores differing conceptions of power and gender held by the synod officials and workshop participants.