The Compassionate Friends

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.
We are The Compassionate Friends.

The Compassionate Friends Credo, written by Joe Rousseau, USA TCF National Board Member, while attending a TCF National Board retreat in November of 1982 was unanimously approved as the “official credo.”