Healing invisible wounds
How does one care for people who have lost their homes or their families? - Displaced people inside one of the makeshift shelters in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Photo taken during the 2009 Living Letters visit to the DRC
by Walt Wiltschek (*)
If someone has a headache, they usually take an aspirin or other pain reliever. If someone has a cut, they might put a Band-Aid on it, or get stitches.
Other types of pain and wounds, however, often are not so easily cared for. How does one care for people who have lost their homes or their families? What does one say to a fellow Christian who is suffering? How is God’s love communicated amid violence?
An effective “medicine” in cases like this, some say, comes in the simple gifts of accompaniment and listening. That belief stands at the heart of the “Living Letters” programme of the World Council of Churches’ Decade to Overcome Violence, which has sponsored nearly 20 visits around the world thus far.
Each visit includes four to six people who are engaged in peacemaking and can journey with those facing challenging situations. Teams have visited Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, the United States and southern Asia to be a presence and bear witness while strengthening ecumenical contacts.
“I find the Living Letters visits deeply meaningful,” said Alison Preston, a youth member of the WCC central committee from the Anglican Church of Australia. “In some way those visits are visits in my name and in the name of my parish and my church in Australia. It’s reaching out to people I simply couldn’t reach on my own.”
The visits have been important to WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, part of the “pastoral dimension” of his work. In his 26 August address to central committee members, he called the visits “expressions of the fellowship we share, of the commitment and care we show to and for each other. They demonstrate that our common hope in Christ empowers us to accompany each other in hard times and challenging situations.”
Again during a central committee Church & Society plenary on 31 August Kobia identified “mutual learning through deep listening to one another”, accompaniment and solidarity as “key elements” for the ecumenical fellowship. He affirmed the Living Letters and other methods of storytelling and “breaking bread together” as ways to do this.
“By accompanying each other, we are also mutually inspiring one another,” he said.
For Preston, hearing reports from a recent Living Letters team visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa’s Great Lakes region had special meaning, as she previously spent two years there and in neighbouring Burundi and Rwanda as a photojournalist. She had heard firsthand stories of suffering, especially from women who were victims of sexual violence, children who had lost parents and those with HIV/AIDS. Encountering such trauma was sometimes difficult.
“There can be a deep cost in being willing to really listen to the pain of others and walk with them,” Preston said. “From my personal experience, I realized I was bearing some of that pain myself. But that doesn’t mean we walk away from the call to listen, the call to accompany others. That’s part of following Christ.”
With growing maturity over the years, she adds, “I have learned when to debrief those painful stories with others who can receive them. It’s also part of a growing process of (understanding) who God is, knowing that God is there in that context of suffering, and that God is able to bear this pain rather than carrying it all myself.”
Her experiences led her to the Institute for the Healing of Memories, based in South Africa. The institute “seeks to contribute to the healing journey of individuals, communities and nations”, according to its website. While it’s not specifically Christian, it embodies many Christian principles, Preston said, such as truth-telling and reconciliation, and it draws on traditional pastoral skills.
“I realized the importance of group-based processes for healing,” Preston said. “I saw people who were needing ways to face what had happened to them, but the one-on-one therapist model of the West or North was not viable or appropriate in that context.”
She has become part of an effort to sponsor such healing workshops in Australia, bringing together indigenous people, members of refugee communities and others from a variety of experiences to work together in a “safe space” for sharing.
Preston said the key principles of that process could be incorporated with the Living Letters visits, or into other efforts of the churches.
“The Living Letters can be the beginning of a listening process and of witnessing to truth”, she said, “but they can also open up opportunities to begin a conversation: ‘Would you like to embark on a process of healing?’ It’s a great opportunity for the churches to get involved.”
(*) Walt Wiltschek is an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren in the United States. He serves as editor of the denomination’s magazine, Messenger.
Stories and photos from the Living Letters visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo
More information on the Decade to Overcome Violence
More information on the 26 August - 2 September 2009 Central Committee meeting
