Tool: Provide Support
Support can be offered to veterans and their families in many ways through a congregational ministry. Ask these questions to discover how you can provide the support needed.
“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul” – Simone Weil
Ways in which you can do this:
- Provide liturgy in a new setting
- Ask preference for and provide reserved “safe seating” in the sanctuary (Near the exit? With back to the wall?)
- Link and network with community organizations: VFW, Wounded Warrior Project, American Legion, Disabled Veterans of America
- Link to Veteran Centers
- Link to local social services
- Give pastoral and congregational care
- Participate in traditional practices or rituals
- Conduct a circle process
- Have a foot washing ceremony
- Provide a “love feast”
- Provide communion
- Conduct a flag pole service/prayer
- Design a worship service: welcoming, healing, reconciliation
Articles
- Moral Injury Shows the Limits of Forgiveness – an article by Max Lindenman posted on Patheos
- Richmond Times Dispatch – In rural Loudoun, a refuge for combat vets and their families
- FOX News Health: US veterans find combat-related stress relief in holistic-medicine retreat
- The Atlantic – Healing a Wounded Sense of Morality
- The Huffington Post – Moral Injury
- 7 Practical Things the Church Can Do for Veterans
- Formed by War
- Art Therapy, Gets to the Soul of the Matter
- United Methodist Endorsing Agency: War and the Soul – Book Review
- General Board of Higher Education and Ministry: From Warrior to Citizen
Organizations
- Make the Connection
- REZVETS
- Military Outreach USA
- Boulder Crest Retreat
- Military and Veteran Caregiver Network
- Wesley Theological Seminary – Health Ministry
- Caregiver Community Program
- Soldier’s Heart
- Combat Trauma Support Group
- Minnesota National Guard: Beyond the Yellow Ribbon
Curriculums
- Bible Study curriculum: A Theology of Exile for Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan
- Returning veterans. Returning hope.
- Evangelical Lutheran Church of America: Care for Returning Veterans (Workshop and DVD Resource)
Congregational Resources
- Soul Repair Center: Moral Injury Worship Guide
- Memorial Day Sunday Worship Celebration
- Veteran Spiritual Mentoring
- UMEA: Empowering Ministerial Reintegration and Resilience
- Vet to Vet Peer Support
- Veterans Day Sunday Worship Celebration
- Service of Healing, Experiential with Non-traditional Liturgy
- Service of Healing for Combat Veterans, Experiential with Liturgy
- Service of Healing (Experiential) – Preparation and Process
- Service of Remorse, Resolution and Restoration – Experiential, non-traditional liturgy
