The Compassionate Friends Credo

We need not walk alone.
 
We are The Compassionate Friends.

We reach out to each other with love, with understanding and with hope.

Our children have died at all ages and from many different causes,
but our love for our children unites us.

Your pain becomes my pain, just as your hope becomes my hope.

We come together from all walks of life, from many different circumstances.

We are a unique family because we represent many races and creeds.

We are young and we are old.

Some of us are far along in our grief,
but others still feel a grief so fresh and so intensely painful
that we feel helpless and see no hope.

Some of us have found our faith to be a source of strength;
some of us are struggling to find answers.

Some of us are angry, filled with guilt or in deep depression;
others radiate an inner peace.

But whatever pain we bring to this gathering of The Compassionate Friends,
it is pain we will share just as we share with each other our love for our children.

We are all seeking and struggling to build a future for ourselves,
but we are committed to building that future together
as we reach out to each other in love
and share the pain as well as the joy,
share the anger as well as the peace,
share the faith as well as the doubts
and help each other to grieve as well as to grow.

We need not walk alone …

Written by Joe Rousseau
The Compassionate Friends, USA

Siblings Credo

We are the surviving siblings of The Compassionate Friends.

We are brought together by the deaths of our brothers and sisters.

Open your hearts to us, but have patience with us.

Sometimes we will need the support of our friends.

At other times we need our families to be there.

Sometimes we must walk alone, taking our memories with us,
continuing to become the individuals we want to be.

We cannot be our dead brother or sister; however, a special part of them lives on with us.

When our brothers and sisters died, our lives changed.

We are living a life very different from what we envisioned,
and we feel the responsibility to be strong even when we feel weak.

Yet we can go on because we understand better than many others the value of family
and the precious gift of life.

Our goal is not to be the forgotten mourners that we sometimes are,
but to walk together to face our tomorrows
as surviving siblings of The Compassionate Friends.

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