A regiment of Canadian army reservists can soon expect to have
greater access to mental health services with the launch this Autumn of a
new ministry in the diocese of Edmonton.
On Thursday (10 November),
Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Edmonton will hold its second
Pre-Remembrance Day healing service, an opportunity for people affected
by war to share their experiences and pray together.
The service will
also include the inauguration of a new church ministry – an outreach
program serving the mental health and other needs of the South Alberta
Light Horse, a reserve regiment of the Canadian Armed Forces.
“People come back from war, and from serving, with injuries.
Sometimes you can see the injuries and sometimes you can’t,” says
Archdeacon Chris Pappas, rector of Holy Trinity.
“Our hope is to help
people who’ve suffered traumatic stress in combat . . . whether it’s
post-traumatic stress, whether it’s anguish over what they did, or what
they saw.”
Part of the reason for the ministry is the fact that since reservists
don’t live on-base, mental health and other programs available to
people in the regular force are not as accessible to them, he says.
Soldiers may also be reluctant to take advantage of these services
because of the stigma attached to mental illness. “Sometimes they’re
worried about their career ending if they step forward, but it doesn’t
make the issue go away,” Pappas says. “They’re still affected . . . and
often it will affect their lives at home.”
But since services offered through the Holy Trinity ministry will be
independent of those offered through the military, they will not end up
on soldiers’ records, he says.
Like many units in the regular force, the South Alberta Light Horse
has served overseas – including in conflict zones such as Afghanistan
and the former Yugoslavia. For many of its members, the experience has
been scarring – not just outwardly, but inwardly as well, Pappas says.
“You can’t go out and be asked to kill, or see people killed, or see the
atrocities of war, and not come back changed, or hurt, and hurting,” he
says.
These inner wounds, he says, can harm the reservists’ relationships
with their spouses and children, or may result in increased alcohol use,
for example. Their effects can also disrupt the reservists’ finances,
he says. The hope is that the ministry will take a multi-pronged or
holistic approach, offering a range of services including psychological
counselling, pastoral visits, art therapy, financial advice and possibly
also social gatherings for reservists to attend with their families.
Part of this work will be taken on by staff at Holy Trinity and its
partners in the ministry – its sister Lutheran parish a few blocks away,
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church; the university chaplaincy at the
University of Alberta; and the Edmonton Interfaith Centre for Education
and Action, a non-profit organisation for educating the public about
Alberta’s various faith traditions.
Volunteers will assume other work. Third-party providers, whose fees
the program is expected to be able to subsidise, will also be tapped.
The ministry’s annual budget is around $15,000 [CAD, approximately
£9,000 GBP] with $8,000 contributed by Holy Trinity and $7,000 in the
form of a grant from the Anglican Foundation of Canada.
Holy Trinity will report back to the foundation at the end of the
next two years, and depending on the results of the ministry, another
$7,000 will be extended for each of those two additional years, Pappas
says.
Canon Judy Rois, executive director of the Anglican Foundation of
Canada, said the foundation had approved Holy Trinity’s request because
they believed the church was “extending their impact in the community
and meeting a very real need of chaplaincy to reservists.”
Holy Trinity’s outreach to the reservists, Rois added, was “a unique
ministry that speaks to the innovation that the parish is engaged in as
they live the gospel in their community.” She praised the many ways the
ministry plans to make “physical and emotional space” to address the
challenges experienced by those who have served in places like
Afghanistan, Bosnia and Haiti.
The ministry, Pappas says, represents just one of a number of recent
attempts to renew a long-standing relationship between Holy Trinity and
the South Alberta Light Horse. The regiment – in a variety of different
permutations – has been in existence for about 100 years, he says, and
Holy Trinity has been its regimental church for most of that time.
Rectors of the church historically have tended to be chaplains of the
unit, and at least one served with the regiment overseas during the
First World War. Regimental colours hang in the church’s nave. In the
late 20th century, Pappas says, the relationship fell dormant.
Then, seven years ago, when he himself had just become its rector, he
was approached by the unit’s commander about renewing ties. Pappas
liked the idea, and held a special Remembrance Day service at the church
the next year. Over time, the event would grow in popularity, from a
couple of hundred people in its first year to 500 people last year –
more than the church could hold, Pappas says.
The services try to avoid triumphalism, he says; they’re about
recognising the sacrifices of soldiers, but also a solemn reflection on
the failure of societies to preserve peace.
The 10 November healing service was begun as an attempt to further
demonstrate to the regiment that the parish honours its sacrifices and
wants to care for its soldiers, he says. It invites people – civilians
as well as soldiers – to speak before the congregation on their
experience with war and how it has affected them, “to connect with their
pain and offer it up to God for their healing,” Pappas says.
The idea of the new ministry, Pappas says, arose from talks he had
with the commander and chaplain about what more Holy Trinity could do to
support the regiment. Mental health and healing have always come up in
these talks.
Pappas says the soldiers of the South Alberta Light Horse are excited
about the new program. “They appreciate the fact that we care,” says.
“That really is a large portion of what helps – they know that we’re
thinking about them, that we care and we’re doing what we can to help
them out.” The regiment has about 120 people.