Waking up on October 7, 2023, we could hardly have imagined the tragic events of the days, weeks, and months that followed. Stories and video of planned, coordinated attacks on unsuspecting victims in Israel flooded our computer screens, televisions, and newspapers, hour by hour, minute by minute. Glimpses of injured and starving children, of the sick and elderly lying and dying in the ruins of damaged hospitals in Gaza seem too much to bear. Interviews with victims recounting the destruction of their neighborhoods or the loss of a loved one add to their heartbreak and ours. As of this writing, terrorism continues to inflict havoc on thousands of Jews and Palestinians following centuries of animosity, and war threatens to consume the region as well as prompt protests—from both sides—around the world.
That conflict is the most vivid, current example of wounded communities. But terrorism and war are far from new, and while they may inflict the most visible, egregious, widespread harm, human communities experience traumain multiple ways.Footnote1 Shootings at schools, churches, grocery stores, and concerts are becoming almost routine; threats of violence against political, law enforcement, and governmental officials are common as well as the targeting of black, brown, Asian, and LGBTQ + groups. Climate change produces floods, droughts, wildfires, and avalanches that disrupt entire communities, and the historic effects of the Covid pandemic continue to haunt us.
Trauma research has exploded in recent decades as mental health and medical professionals have studied the ways human minds and bodies respond to severe emotional and physical wounding. War, childhood abuse, and sexual assault leave their indelible marks on victims. Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk’s well-known volume, The Body Keeps the Score,Footnote2 details the immediate and long-term consequences of trauma for individuals, and the clinical diagnosis of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder has become as familiar as cancer or heart disease. Footnote3
Religious leaders have taken notice. Theologian Shelly Rambo recognized the importance of trauma-informed theology in shaping ministry with suffering persons a number of years ago. “Knowing something about trauma should change the shape of Christian ministry. When we write sermons or offer pastoral care, we can keep in mind three lessons of trauma studies: The past is not in the past. The body remembers. The wounds do not simply go away.”Footnote4
As community, as neighbors, as friends, we are inclined to respond collectively and collaboratively. Three of the immediate consequences of trauma are disbelief, disorientation, and aloneness/isolation. And so we gather together to mourn, to protest, to remember, to comfort, to try to find meaning and hope. Cyclists gather around white painted bicycles marking the scene of the death of a lost friend; neighbors, families, and students gather around a growing shrine of candles, placards, and teddy bears at the site of a school shooting; an interfaith community gathers in a neighborhood church following a sniper attack on holiday parade watchers the day before. We need each other in the face of such devastation. As the weeks pass in the aftermath, we begin the hard work of orienting ourselves to a new reality. Together again, particularly with those we have known, we begin the slow process of reconnection and recovery. We confirm our fears, share our grief, and reconnect in the hope that someday this might all make sense.
This volume samples just a few of the many ways human beings respond to tragic loss collectively. Writers have been invited from among dozens of practitioners, scholars, and religious leaders who have faced trauma in the context of community and shared their stories with me. Several have focused their professional careers on disaster response, while others were drawn unexpectedly into the reality of collective trauma in their own communities.
Two articles will orient readers to the focus of this volume. Pastoral theologian and psychologist Kate Wiebe describes collective trauma and describes common phases of response to community disasters; she emphasizes how liturgical practices must evolve at each stage of the process. Disaster Assistance Specialist with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Kathy Riley focuses on the distinctive trauma caused when sacred spaces are violated by natural or human causes. She also provides invaluable ecumenical resources for liturgical responses. Both writers emphasize the importance of recognizing that individuals grieve and lament at different paces. Acknowledging the utter disorientation resulting from trauma, they counsel patience and careful attending.
Hebrew Bible scholar Denise Dombkowski Hopkins and pastoral theologian Michael Koppel next illustrate the powerful ways trauma studies of the past decades have informed our understanding of our sacred scriptures. From their forthcoming book, Biblical and Pastoral Bridgework: Interdisciplinary Conversations (Pickwick Publications, 2023), they present deepened interpretations of three Psalms in ways that inform worship and preaching, emphasizing the expression of a range of emotions such as revenge, confessions of responsibility, and anger over divine abandonment.
Some wounded communities are liturgically rich, with traditions, ceremonies, and rituals ready-made for responding to the unexpected devastation of collective trauma. At times those liturgies must adapt to the disruptions like those of war. Liturgical scholar Nadieszda Kizenko provides a detailed description of the ways Orthodox churches in Ukraine have acknowledged the realities of war, both recent and historic, drawing on centuries of rich liturgical tradition. Seemingly subtle changes in ancient liturgical language and practice can attend to new realities of national trauma.
Other informal communities may rely on the hospitality of nearby venues and neighboring communities. Seminary intern Elizabeth Elliott describes the immediate responses of one Colorado Springs, Colorado, congregation to the unprovoked shooting of patrons at Club Q, long known as a “safe space” for the local LGBTQ + community. She emphasizes the importance of hospitality, of pivoting in the moment, and particularly of ensuring that the voices of members of the wounded communities speak for themselves.
Pastoral theologian and psychotherapist Danjuma Gibson provides compelling evidence that the displacement of black and brown communities, particularly in urban settings, is a distinct form of violence against marginalized communities, along with the physical violence that accompanies it. He notes black congregations that call on long-standing practices such as prayer and “townhalling” (local debriefing conversations) that give voice in the face of collective trauma.
Rabbi and social worker Steve Kaye draws on his experience as a regional coordinator of Disaster Spiritual Care for the Red Cross. Employing Rabbi Mordecai’s notion of “transvaluation,” he describes the way familiar rituals take on new meaning in the face of life-altering disaster.
Episcopal priest Lauren Stanley shares the story of the Lakota residents of the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota and their decades-long struggle to return the remains of children held at the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania. Her reflections on the strength of indigenous ceremonies to honor and embrace those children forcefully removed from their own homes demonstrate the healing power of ancient practices. This is particularly the case when those ceremonies were central to a culture that white officials had worked to obliterate. She also demonstrates the power of being included in some of these ceremonies as a representative of one group that was likely complicit in the original removal.
Finally, such a wide range of communities, collective wounds, and liturgical responses begged for reflection. The final epilogue was a late addition, prompted by the weight of the stories being told in this collection. I found myself moved by the many conversations with colleagues old and new leading up to this volume; I was reminded of my own closeness to trauma at points in my career as a pastor, hospital chaplain, psychotherapist, and seminary professor. I needed to process my own reflections on these stories, my own reactions, my own learning. I sensed this would become a larger project for me, this timely, needed pastoral response to the pain of communities. I wanted to imagine next steps.
Our collective rites give voice to lament for the familiar world which has been lost; we protest the personal and systemic injustices that enabled and empowered the trauma; we grieve the loss of cherished persons and objects. Our gatherings can indeed point us toward wholeness at some point in the future, moving us from isolation to connection, from alienation to belonging again, from rupture to reunion, even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
It is my hope that this volume will inform and inspire, challenge and motivate all who share in the privilege of leadership in our communities, and prompt ongoing collaboration.
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David Hogue
David Hogue, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who has served as pastor, hospital chaplain, pastoral counselor, and seminary professor, is now professor emeritus of pastoral theology and counseling at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL. The author of Remembering the Future, Imagining the Past: Story, Ritual, and the Human Brain (Wipf & Stock, 2009), he has published chapters and articles on pastoral care, liturgy, and the contributions of the neurosciences to both.
Notes
1 Definitions of trauma will be provided by several authors in this volume.
2 Bessel A. Van Der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma, audiobook narrated by Sean Pratt (US: Gildan Media, 2014).
3 As “trauma” becomes a more universally familiar term, there is danger that more and more areas of human experience—panic attacks, depression, even common sadness—will be assumed under that diagnosis. Stretched too far, the term is diluted; if everything is trauma, then nothing is. But rightly understood, trauma and PTSD research provide powerful ways to understand human suffering—and to respond.
4 Shelley Rambo, “How Christian Theology and Practice Are Being Shaped by Trauma Studies: Talking about God in the Face of Wounds That Won’t Go Away,” Christian Century, November 20, 2019, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/critical-essay/how-christian-theology-and-practice-are-being-shaped-trauma-studies.