wfn.org | Workshop prepares dioceses for ministry in crises

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org (ENS)]

For further information contact:
Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
kmccormick@dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-148

Workshop prepares teams from Florida dioceses for ministry in 
crises

by Mary W. Cox

     (ENS) What if Hurricane Floyd had come ashore on the Florida 
coast? What if a massacre like the shooting in Littleton, 
Colorado, or a terrorist act like the Oklahoma City bombing 
happened in your community? Or suppose the trauma is on a smaller 
scale--a rector accused of misconduct, a parish leader's family 
involved in an automobile accident, the suicide of a youth group 
member? How can our church provide pastoral ministry in such 
situations?

     Fifty-five people from the dioceses of Florida, Central 
Florida, Southeast, and Southwest Florida gathered at the 
Canterbury Conference Center in Oviedo, Florida, September 10-12 
for training in Traumatic Stress Management. The vision of the 
four dioceses is to develop diocesan-level response teams, 
members of which will be part of a state-wide team prepared to 
provide pastoral care and support to congregations and 
communities dealing with trauma.

     Facilitators for the workshop were: James Horn, retired FBI 
Critical Incident Response Specialist, a Methodist layman who 
initiated the FBI's Advanced Peer Support Program and the FBI 
Chaplains Program; and Christine Prietsch of Professional 
Guidance Associates, who recently began working in private 
practice after 22 years with the Federal Government. Prietsch, an 
active Episcopalian, established the Peer Support Program for the 
Secret Service, and as Deputy Director of the Justice 
Department's Employee Assistance Program, coordinated the 
department's response to the Oklahoma City bombing.

     Horn and Prietsch both said they had previously conducted 
such training workshops only for law enforcement and government 

personnel, and were excited to be working with the church. "There 
is one organization in America that's everywhere, in every 
neighborhood," said Horn. "If the churches get trained in trauma 
response...we can really help the people who are going through 
these things."

Warnings of stress

     The workshop began with a discussion of stress--what causes 
stress, what helps to relieve stress, how to recognize the signs 
of stress in ourselves. "Change is stress," said Prietsch. "We 
are making more decisions in a day than our grandparents made in 
a year."

     Stress warnings, she said, are manifested in emotional, 
physical or behavioral ways. A person under severe stress for too 
long a time will become physically ill, mentally ill, violent or 
suicidal. Recognizing signs of stress and knowing how to relieve 
it--with such methods as meditation, exercise, rest, and the 
support of a peer group--make it less likely that someone 
involved in trauma response will suffer burn-out or "compassion 
fatigue."

     Referring frequently to their own experiences in working 
with the survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing and other 
traumatic events, Horn and Prietsch continued with presentations 
on human responses to trauma. Trauma, they explained, is not 
simply the facts of an event, but what the facts generate in the 
minds of persons experiencing the event. Real trauma is not what 
happened, but what they imagined happened.

     They emphasized the importance of validating feelings after 
a traumatic event, of giving survivors permission to express 
their feelings of grief, anger, fear or confusion-- permission to 
cry.  Quoting Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, they told the 
group, "Abnormal reactions to abnormal situations are normal."

Only a beginning

     In discussions that followed, workshop participants shared 
candidly some of their personal experiences of trauma and loss, 
as well as incidents in which they had been involved in ministry 
with trauma survivors.  

     Other topics presented included post traumatic stress 
disorder, the grieving process, death notification, communication 
and listening, overcoming adversity, forgiveness and crisis 
intervention.

     "Never waste a disaster or a tragedy," Horn repeated several 
times during the workshop. "We have to make something good come 

out of it." Giving survivors a place to talk about what's happened to 
them can help them discover what they've learned and 
begin to integrate the experience into their lives. 

     The workshop ended with an unexpectedly dramatic role-
playing of a Critical Incident Debriefing; the intensity of what 
participants had felt was as evident as what they had learned. 

     As he thanked participants, Canon Ernest L. Bennett of 
Central Florida, one of the organizers of the workshop, said that 
representatives from each diocese's Pastoral Response Team will 
meet together again in November. "One of the exciting things, "he 
added, "is that we could work together in the event of a major 
disaster. This is only a beginning."

     Bennett then thanked Horn and Prietsch, telling them, 
"You've not only given us some invaluable tools--you've given us 
yourselves."

     Prietsch responded, "My reasons are selfish--you'll be there 
for me, as an Episcopalian, if, God forbid, I need it."

--Mary Cox is acting communications coordinator for the Diocese 
of Southeast Florida.