Some wounds of war are all too visible — a missing leg, a shattered arm. The invisible wounds of mind and soul are often more difficult to spot, and equally hard to treat.

But those who know where to look can help them heal, and it’s a message that is hitting home for U.S. congregations as more than 1.35 million veterans adjust to civilian life after deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affecting an estimated one-in-six returning service members, congregations are coming face-to-face with the tolls of war.

Experts say faith groups have much to offer, even when the wounds include PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

“Churches are kind of in the dark about how to help, unfortunately,” said Peter Bauer, an ordained minister and clinical social worker with the Veterans Administration in San Antonio.

“But they don’t have to stay there. There are some very easy things that churches can do to be proactive and help with this population.”

Bauer, a former Navy chaplain, recently convened workshops on PTSD and traumatic brain injury for pastors and seminarians at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Mass. His educational outreach builds on other small-scale initiatives that have gained momentum in recent years.

Since forming in 2009, the non-profit group Care for the Troops has equipped 37 Georgia congregations to convene peer groups, identify local clinicians with military experience and otherwise support soldiers’ families.

The project is now adding congregations in Tennessee, California and other states.

Illinois-based Wheat Ridge Ministries has been circulating Lutheran liturgies and other resources to help churches build bonds with military families.Point Man Ministries in New York has partnered with about 250 U.S. congregations to host veteran-led, peer support groups for those dealing with PTSD.

Last year, Army Chaplain Jeremy Pickens launched the Massachusetts Military Spiritual Strength Network, where clergy and laypeople receive training in how to make religious programs more military-friendly. The network now includes 60 local churches.

“Sometimes we hear people say, ‘We don’t have the training to deal with PTSD,’” Pickens said. “But (to minister effectively), I don’t need to know what it means to have PTSD. I just need to know how to listen. It’s a matter of providing open space where people can talk.”

In his presentation, Bauer shared sobering facts about struggles faced by those returning from war. Example: in 2010, the military had more suicides (468) than deaths in combat (462).

The roots of trauma often go back to childhood, Bauer said, where 60 percent of veterans experienced physical abuse and 40 percent experienced sexual abuse. Such psychological wounds can get re-opened in combat, and by the time a soldier comes home, mental and emotional patterns can be habitual and difficult to overcome.

Hidden wounds can be tricky to manage, Bauer said, in part because they’re not easy to diagnose. Depression is common in the 3.2 million Americans who’ve suffered traumatic brain injury, he said. He urged members of faith communities to take note when someone seems overwhelmed by normal levels of light or sound, and make referrals for medical evaluations.

Congregations, however, can do much more than refer. Bauer suggested helping veterans find contemplative or more traditional worship services as an alternative to contemporary services where loud bands and bright lights can trigger anxious reactions.

Churches can show ongoing care in simple ways, Bauer said, such as hosting a monthly support dinner for military family members.

They should also appoint a volunteer sponsor to check in monthly with a deployed serviceman or woman, and a second sponsor for his or her loved ones at home, during deployments.

“It’s unforgiveable in 2011 that someone (who belongs to a church) would be deployed to Afghanistan, and no one from that church would be willing to step up to the plate, be a sponsor and make sure they’re OK,” Bauer said. “That is a crime.”

Veterans say churches are finding their way in a new ministry landscape, though not always with success. James Knudsen, a Vietnam War veteran and PTSD sufferer in Marion, Iowa, says churches in his area have resisted requests for them to host support groups for veterans.

“I have not heard of any churches in my area that are helping veterans,” Knudsen said.

“They have other interests.”But in western Massachusetts, 29-year-old Robert Henry Hyde, an Air Force veteran who served from 2000 to 2004 and deployed to Iraq, helped raise awareness in local churches before he left the area to attend seminary.

“Ministers, though they might not have served in the military and might not understand it, have the tools to help people handle PTSD or brain trauma, or at least refer people to the right professionals to get help,” Hyde said.

“So in that sense, churches need to be a part of this” healing effort.Even churches with a history of ministry to veterans see new opportunities now to branch out. The Rev. Jeremi Colvin, assistant rector for mission in homeless ministry at the (Episcopal) Church of the Holy Spirit in Fall River, Mass., hopes her church will soon begin hosting peer support groups for veterans.

“There could be more outreach,” Colvin said at Bauer’s workshop. “We have a ministry of outreach to veterans and military families, but we need to spread out, talk to people, talk to hospitals, and make it more known that we’re there.”

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Ireland’s Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny still maintains the Vatican interfered in a government investigation of clergy sexual abuse of children.

The Irish prime minister asserted the Vatican failed to fully cooperate in the government’s Murphy commission, which was tasked to investigate charges of sexual abuse of children by 19 priests in the diocese of Cloyne, that spanned over a decade.

“[My] claim in the Dail (Irish parliament) still stands. I made the point that this is a statutory commission of inquiry, and as such nothing less than full cooperation is required and anything less than full cooperation in my view is unwarranted interference,” Kenny told Irish Times.

Vatican statement

The Vatican responded last Saturday to the Cloyne report, which was submitted in July, via a statement handed by undersecretary for state relations, Ettore Balestrero, to Ireland’s deputy ambassador to the Vatican, Helena Keleher.

The official statement noted that the Holy See is “sorry and ashamed” by the findings of the report, which investigated over 10 years of child sexual abuse by 19 clergy in Cloyne.

The Vatican admitted that the Church handled the matter poorly, but rejected accusations that it covered up or tried to hinder the government investigation.

Lack of accountability, secrecy

“The document reveals the Vatican’s efforts to continue to absolve itself of any responsibility for the cover-up of the abuse,” victim Andrew Madden, who contributed evidence to the report, told Irish Times.

Advocate Maeve Lewis of One in Four told Irish Times the Vatican “[created] a culture where secrecy and cover-ups were routinely used to maintain the reputation of the church while placing children at continued risk of sexual abuse.”

Lewis further told Irish Central, “The Vatican is completely out of touch with public outrage regarding church management of child abuse.”

The Vatican furthermore denied that it undermined Irish civil law. In July, Ireland’s parliament rebuked the Holy See for undercutting child protection laws by referring, in a letter to Irish bishops, to government guidelines on reporting child sexual abuse as “study guidelines.”

The Cloyne report, which was published in July, slammed the Church for its poor response to the plentiful claims of child abuse in the Cloyne diocese, that were filed against 19 priests from 1996 to 2009.

The report also criticized former Cloyne bishop John Magee, who served as private secretary to popes Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II successively, for shying away from daily management of cases of child abuse. Magee resigned last year.

The Cloyne report is the most recent account among a string of clergy sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Irish Catholic Church for decades. Hundreds of claims of child sexual abuse by priests have been documented.

The report spurred Ireland’s prime minister, Kenny, to say in July that the Church had a culture of “dysfunction, disconnection, elitism and narcissism.”

Kenny reiterated his sentiments to Belfast Telegraph, adding, “As a member of the Catholic Church I want to see that the church … is absolutely above reproach.”

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An openly gay minister in Australia has been appointed to head a major branch of a Christian church in Sydney.

Reverend Ben Gilmour, 34, an Anglican minister for 10 years in Australia’s north coast, will head the Paddington Uniting Church in Sydney. Another branch of the church, Balmain Uniting Church, also in Sydney, is headed by Rev. Nicole Fleming, who is also openly gay.

Fleming, 36, was appointed to head Balmain church last month, while Gilmour, 34, joined Paddington one week later.

Gilmour admitted to the Sydney Morning Herald that the issue of homosexual ministers has been “the dividing issue of our time” within the Anglican denomination. However, he is grateful for the “immense hospitality that is being offered in Paddington.

Gilmour admits that for quite some time, he felt that his situation in his previous post had become untenable because of his sexual orientation. He told SMH, “It really got the point where if I was going to continue on the track I was, I wouldn’t be licensed.”

He considered moving to countries where the Anglican Communion is more open about homosexuality, he told SMH. But in Paddington, “’I still identify as Anglican but I’m happy to journey into what Uniting Church means with an open heart and a sense of generosity of how that is.”

The Uniting Church, in its 2003 National Assembly, introduced the issue of ordination of people in same-sex relationships. In 2006, it determined that each congregation could make its own decision regarding the appointment of a gay minister.

Clergy supporting marriage for gays

The issue of openly gay clergy in Australia has been brewing for quite some time, as has the issue of marriage for gay couples. Christians have been divided on the issue. The movement, Christians 4 Equality in Australia has been lobbying for same-sex couples to have the right to marry.

In its website, Baptist Minister Rev. Rowland Croucher said, “How can I, a heterosexual who’s been very happily married for 50 years, tell anyone else they don’t have the right to form a loving, committed, lifelong union and enjoy the fruits of marriage as I have done? Marriage is not a club to be restricted to some. Like the Gospel, it is a blessing to be shared.”

Platform for respectful debate

Christians 4 Equality seeks to respect the “deeply and sincerely held beliefs of those who oppose marriage equality,” but provides a platform for respectful and mature debate that does not resort to denigrating other people’s views.

The website says, “Just as we acknowledge that it is possible to oppose marriage equality without hating homosexuals, so we ask those who differ with us on this important issue to acknowledge that it is possible to support marriage equality without seeking to undermine marriage, family or religion.”

“We can behave like people who believe in God’s reign, where all people have dignity and hope,” Anglican Rev. Chris Bedding of Perth said in the website. “I urge you … to subvert the narrative of exclusion and call forth a Christianity which rejoices in God-given diversity.”

A psychologist who was raised as an evangelical Christian said on the website, “I have seen the profound danger done by condemning, excluding and discriminating against same-sex attracted people,” Paul Martin, Centre for Human Potential said.

Martin added, “I have also seen the immense healing and wellbeing that comes from people of faith embracing their gay and lesbian Christian peers and standing up for equality.”

Gilmour told SMH that he became open about his sexuality because for him, it was an issue of integrity. “I feel as though I’m on the right journey. It’s about walking the path that’s in front of you with the light that you’ve got.”

At the same time, he acknowledged the issue remains confusing within his new denomination. He told SMH, “I think there are people in the Uniting Church who see this as a grave issue that will destroy the church.”

The issue of same-sex marriage is also undergoing debate in Uniting Church, which officially upholds the definition of marriage as a union between a woman and a man.

Nonetheless, some Uniting Church ministers have expressed support for Christians 4 Equality, as have other leaders of Baptist and Anglican churches.

While polarity exists for some, an underlying question remains: Can this subject be discussed in a mutually respectful way, where each side is given some benefit of the doubt?

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The story of the killings some 30 years ago of a Baptist minister and his wife, plus the life journeys of their two children who were shot but survived, was told on the Jan. 9 episode of Dateline NBC.

Over 30 years ago Pastor Richard Douglass and his wife Marilyn, former Southern Baptist missionaries in Brazil, were murdered when two transients chose their home at random and broke in with robbery in mind. The killers tied up the family, killed the parents, assaulted and shot daughter Leslie, then shot son Brooks, then 16, and left them for dead, 2News reported.

Brooks and Leslie survived the assault by murderers Glen Ake and Steven Hatch, Steamboat Today said. Ten years later, Brooks became Oklahoma’s youngest senator at the age of 26, and championed groundbreaking legislation for the rights of victims of crime, 2News reported. In 2002, Brooks left politics but found additional inner healing when he, together with Hollywood writer and director Paul Brown, co-wrote Heaven’s Rain, a movie about his life, The Associated Baptist Press said.

The film premiered in Hollywood last September and was shown in Oklahoma in limited release. It will be shown in theaters on February, ABP said. Adam Wald, associate producer of Dateline, told Steamboat Today that the movie is one reason for the Dateline special adding, “We had a great story to tell that took us through Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming. On top of that, there’s this great senator who took something terrible in his life and turned it into something positive for himself, his family and families to come who may unfortunately have to deal with similar circumstances.”

Wald added, “At Dateline we do a lot of true crime stories. That’s our bread and butter. What people want to hear is not necessarily about the crime that was committed, but rather the relationships that happened between the killer and the victim, or between victims, or between killers. I think that’s what makes a great story,” Steamboat Today reported.

According to Wald, even the story about the arrest of the murderers is compelling. He told Steamboat Today that Hatch and Ake raided the home of Mike Pondella with intention to steal, and pointed a gun at him. Pondella, however, managed to befriend the two. They drank beers until Hatch and Ake passed out, then Pondella ran to the office of the Sheriff.

The sheriff and some men headed to Pondella’s isolated ranch and captured the fugitives when the latter tried to escape. Jeff Corriveau, who was sheriff at the time (now retired), told Steamboat Today, “They had no plan whatsoever. It still amazes me that they both ran from the house when they had every reason to stay there. They had food, they had firearms, they had ammunition.”

Ake was handed a life imprisonment sentence, while Hatch received the death penalty and was executed, Steamboat Today said. Ironically, Brooks Douglass said that when he finally met with Ake 15 years later at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, he forgave the triggerman, ABP reported. “I said, ‘for 15 years I just wanted nothing more than to see you dead.’ Just hearing myself say that, I knew I had to let go. Did I get off that floor to go kill him? Is that what my parents would have wanted for me? The power of forgiveness—if we’re going to move on past, we’re going to have to find a way to forgive.”

Leslie, the other victim, told ABP, “If you have hate for people it makes you a hateful person. I don’t want to live like that the rest of my life.” Leslie was not involved with her brother’s movie. After the tragedy she finished college, graduate school, became a teacher and then an assistant principal. She is married with two children.

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Iraqi authorities said recently that captured Iraqi insurgents have confessed that Al Qaeda is planning coordinated suicide attacks in the U.S. and Europe this Christmas season.

A senior US intelligence official said the threat is credible, but added that he has no knowledge of any specific plot, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Digital Journal said the planned attacks by Al Qaeda seem to have followed soon after the CIA provided their Pakistan partners with a list of 30 members of Al Qaeda and Taliban, with plans to step up drone attacks on the operatives.

Iraq’s interior minister, Jawad al-Bolani said the captured insurgents also revealed the botched bombing attempt in Central Stockholm, Sweden over the weekend, the AP reported.

The attack was intended to punish Sweden for allowing the publication of caricatures by a Swedish artist that were critical of prophet Mohammed, and to drive the Swedish military away from Afghanistan, Digital Journal said.

The AP reported that Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said they have relayed the information to the U.S., some European countries and Interpol. No specific European country was mentioned by either Zebari or Bolani.

However, the AP said an Iraqi intelligence official said Denmark may be attacked, but would not issue details. A senior US intelligence official in Washington said two suspects in Europe are being monitored, adding that they did not seem to be homegrown terrorists.

According to Bolani, several insurgents said they are with a cell group that takes direct orders from Al Qaeda’s central leaders. At least one suspect came from Tunisia, the AP reported.

Bolani told the AP that they were able to elicit the confessions due to stepped up efforts by the Iraqi security forces these past two weeks to capture terrorists, resulting in the arrest of 73 terrorist suspects.

The WSJ noted that Western counterterrorism operatives are usually on high alert during the Christmas season, more so after the failed Dec. 25, 2009 attempt by underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to demolish an airplane bound for Detroit.

The WSJ quoted a US official who said several branches of Al Qaeda are plotting attacks actively. As for al Qaeda in Iraq, the source said, “They’ve been down, but nobody should count them out.”

The AP quoted a senior US intelligence official who noted that in recent years local insurgents have been running Iraq’s terrorist activities. As a result, it is likely that any links that may exist between Iraq’s terrorists and Al Qaeda’s leadership are tenuous.

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A British vicar was sentenced recently to jail for conspiracy in a huge marriage scam involving the fake weddings of hundreds of African men to European women so they can gain permanent residency in Britain.

The Rev. Alex Brown, 61, had over the last four years presided over some 360 sham marriages in his small parish, Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in St. Leonards-on-Sea, some 60 miles south of London, The Daily Mail said.

Brown, along with two others were convicted with conspiracy in the breach of immigration laws in what is perceived to be the biggest wedding scam in Britain, involving payment of up to 3,000 pounds ($4,600) to EU women to marry African men, mostly Nigerians, according to Reuters.

Also indicted were immigration solicitor Michael Adelasoye, 50, and Vladymyr Buchak, 33, a Ukrainian factory worker who was also staying in Britain illegally. Buchak’s role was to enlist Eastern European women for the sham marriage, according to The Daily Mail.

Brown, Adelasoye and Buchak will serve prison terms of four years each, even though both Brown and Adelasoye claimed that they had no knowledge that the marriages were false, the AP stated.

Brown denied performing the marriages for financial gain, and said he sometimes forgot to check the passports of the couples. Out of 383 weddings that he performed from 2005 to 2009, (a 30 percent increase in the number of marriages he conducted in the preceding four years), only 23 did not involve African grooms, the AP reported.

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A study by the United Methodist Church was conducted recently to learn what factors determine whether or not a church is healthy and vital.

The study, which cost several hundred thousand dollars, surveyed more than 32,000 Methodist respondents. It included bishops, churchgoers and district superintendants from Methodist churches in North America. The objective was to discover the facets that contribute to making churches more robust, Religious News Service said.

The study, made with Towers Watsons consultants, applied a “vitality index” by which each congregation was measured. It was conducted in response to a weak economy which has contributed to an ailing church budget. It is hoped that the survey findings will guide Methodist churches on a more energized pathway, RNS said.

Among the church survey findings were:

• All types of Methodist churches were deemed healthy with no specificity to size, ethnicity or setting, RNS said.

• Four characteristics that were found to promote church health are: Programs for small groups; pastors who focus on counseling and nurturing churchgoers; praise and worship services that combine modern and traditional styles with relevant teachings; and a focus on developing successful lay leaders, RNS said.

• Church health depends upon the combination of all four abovementioned characteristics. One cannot isolate any one or two of them and still be deemed a healthy, vital church, RNS said.

• It does not make a difference if a minister has a seminary degree, or whether ministry is his second career. Neither does it matter how much experience a minister has had on the job insofar as determining whether or not a church is healthy and vital, RNS said.

• Having a lot of outreach programs, whether global or local in scope, does not affect the vitality and health of a church. What is important is that the church has at least one or two outreach programs, RNS said.

The United Methodist Church has some 7.8 million members nationwide, with its strongest growth taking place overseas with a current additional membership of 3.3 million, RNS said.

One foreseen problem that may affect future UMC growth is the fact that both clergy and church members are getting older. As a result, there has been fewer baptisms and less attendance at church services. This is one of the factors that led researchers to do a more widely comprehensive study on church vitality, RNS said.

A second problem is the rising cost of infrastructure, which is negatively impacting on the church funds. The third problem cited was a shortfall of relevancy. This was indicated by the fact that church membership among younger people shows little growth, RNS said.

According to RNS some parallels could be seen between the UMC survey and that of The Faith Communities Today survey which was commissioned by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. That study revealed that 64 percent of congregations had changed to more contemporary worship music in the past five years. This had resulted in an increase of church attendance by 2 percent or above, RNS said.

The UMC report will be distributed to all Methodist bishops and select lay and clergy globally for their comments. They hope the study will serve as impetus in re-strengthening and reinvigorating the UMC, RNS said.

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