In This Issue: "Revival Through Trauma-Informed Worship: A Theologian’s Guide to Practical Matters"
The issue of Liturgy entitled “Revival,” guest-edited by Melanie Ross, explores the meaning of Christian revival in the multiple forms that have used that term. This excerpt by Jan Rippentropp Schnell entitled “Revival Through Trauma-Informed Worship: A Theologian’s Guide to Practical Matters” explores the hallmarks of worship practice that attend to the needs of people experiencing trauma. Those practices intend to “settle the body” toward healing. –– Melinda Quivik
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How might trauma-informed practices in worship provide the conditions under which internal transformation may occur? . . . I propose four aligned trauma-informed practices…acknowledging brokenness, nurturing connectivity with God and others, noticing God’s movement, and settling bodies for ease of receptivity of God’s free promises…
While there are many signals of trauma’s presence, it is crucial to know that trauma may be
present without any of these signals being perceivable, and, on the other hand, any one or more
of these signals could be present without there being trauma. In a list that is not meant to be
exhaustive, the following can be external or internal signals of the brokenness and disconnection
trauma causes. Some external signals include constant busyness or repetitious, sometimes inju-
rious behaviors. Other externals might be attempting to control others, sabotaging the self,
staying in dysfunctional relationships, or people pleasing. Much less visible internal signals
include perfectionism and attempts to prove oneself worthy. While all people are inherently
worthy of love, some people mask most of the time because they have received messages that
they appear more lovable when not showing certain real aspects of themselves. In addition,
some people internally experience envy, a foreshortened vision of life, resentment, or core beliefs about the self that are not true. Sometimes people will ignore feelings that erupt or will dull feelings so they do not erupt—either of which can decrease access to feelings of joy, anger, etc…
Acknowledging trauma does not erase trauma, but it does help one live with wounds. People
reclaim autonomy over how their body feels and their connections with self and others. With
acknowledgement, wounds below the surface can become wounds on the surface, which can
become, with more recovery, scars on the surface. Emerging from the harrowing of hell did
not erase Jesus’ wounds. The injuries to his wrists, feet, and side remained and were visible…
Nurturing connectivity is a trauma-informed practice that gets at the heart of what trauma
threatens. Connections are endangered when trauma is near. This goes for one’s relationship to
oneself, as well as to others (including creation) and God. When dealing with trauma, one often
feels like a less loveable version of oneself, which affects how easy or hard it is to be with
oneself and how it feels to be in the company of others. Psychiatrist Judith Herman in her book
Trauma and Recovery says, “Traumatic events call into question basic human relationships. They breach the attachments of family, friendship, love, and community. They shatter the construction of the self that is formed and sustained in relation to others. They undermine the belief systems that give meaning to human experience. They violate the victim’s faith in a natural or divine order and cast the victim into a state of existential crisis.” Trauma can make a person question whether she is who she had thought she was, whether others are trustworthy or good, whether one’s beliefs are based in reality, whether one is excluded from familiar communities, and whether God cares…
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Jan Rippentrop Schnell is a Lutheran (ELCA) pastor, liturgical theologian, and religious ethicist, and the associate professor of liturgics at Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.