Ministry in Disaster Settings: Lessons from the Edge

By Stephen Robinson, Arch Hart and Ray S. Anderson

Ministry in Disaster Settings: Lessons from the Edge studies the issues for clergy and church leaders during disasters. It is based on interviews with a number of ministry agents who cared for their communities during and after major tragedies. It seeks to understand what were the issues for them, including how they were affected, if and how they were cared for, and what lessons the church can learn in doing this work and caring for the carers. this is a valuable resource to all people involved in ministry, chaplaincy and caring for pastors and other religious helpers.
Ministry in Disaster Settings came second place in the 2007 Australian Christian Book of the Year Awards. Since that time it has been republished four times and continues to be a standard text in well-regarded ministry and chaplaincy training courses.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 1, 1997
• ISBN: 9780646469973

Book preview

Seminary

Introduction

We live in a time of great uncertainty when whole communities live close to the edge. People are aware that a single traumatic event can tip a whole community into a sense of deep fear and turmoil. Recently, for example, people in the United States remembered the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the Oklahoma Federal Building. Whole communities are missing, and others still rebuilding along the shores of the Indian Ocean from the 2005 Boxing Day Tsunami. Memories of disaster are ever-present. Single words such as Granville, Port Arthur, Thredbo, and 911 trigger traumatic memories and impact many in ways previously beyond their imagining. Disaster changes lives.¹

In December 2004, the Asian Tsunami brought loss of life and property on a world-wide scale. The loss of life over a wide area and the drama of the event were without precedent in peacetime.² Since that time, Hurricane Katrina in the United States and Cyclone Larry in Australia have brought home the power of nature to overwhelm developed nations.

Since the 1980s, the fields of trauma management, critical incident management, and associated psychological disciplines have dealt with a growing societal current of fear and pain. In recent times, the impact of modern life, accidents, and disasters reported in the mass media have been compounded with the impact of terrorism. Bombings on trains in Spain and London have heightened this awareness and brought the spectre of potential disaster into the psyche of the western world.

The literature and psychology of trauma management recognises that trauma is subjective. The term psychological trauma is used to describe an acute emotional state of discomfort due to an extraordinary stressful event or situation which was overwhelming for the person involved.³ The inability to cope in a normal sense underscores this book's understanding of trauma. Trauma is personal. The term personal disaster has been used to describe a traumatic event such as a motor vehicle accident or assault injury, in comparison to a community disaster which affects a whole community.⁴ To many people who encounter a personal traumatic event, terms such as emergency, catastrophe, and disaster are interchangeable. The loss of a child will be more catastrophic and traumatic to the parents than reports of a thousand strangers' deaths.

On this understanding, ministry in disaster settings is a common occurrence for ministers offering pastoral care and will be encountered on a daily basis. Many books have been written in relation to personal and relational crises. This book deals with crises in contexts where traumatic and sudden loss of life has affected numerous people, often over an extended period of time. The definition of disaster used in this book is adopted from the Emergency Management Australia definition:

A serious disruption to community life which threatens death or injury in that community and/or damage to property which is beyond the day-to-day capacity of the prescribed statutory authorities and which requires special mobilisation and organisation of resources other than those normally available to those authorities. ⁵

Whilst case studies in this book deal with situations of ministry response and experience within this definition, many lessons gleaned from these disasters are relevant to ministry in traumatic situations no matter how small they may seem logistically. In writing this book it is my hope that a clearer understanding of ministry practiced in traumatic circumstances will minimise the price paid by those who minister and those who care for them.

The need for this book emerged from conversations and interviews with ministers and chaplains who had been involved in major crises. As one conversation followed another, patterns of experience became noticeable. Ministry in disaster comes at a great price, and some interviews demonstrated this as ministry agents shared their stories. All the ministry agents consulted have experienced some degree of personal trauma. Some have grown through their involvement and others have been crippled. My search in this was to understand what makes for good practice in such circumstances, and thus provide healthy care and support for those who undertake this work.

Since the 1980s there has been a growing recognition of the need for research in this field ⁶ but not a lot of practical material has been created in this specific area. While much interest continues in caring for the primary victims of traumatic events, the question remains: Who cares for the care-givers? This book looks beyond the need to explore the question: How can the care be delivered?

Studies of the effects of disasters have produced broad statistical resources, but individual experience can be lost under statistical weight. Trauma is ultimately experiential, ministry is interpersonal, and an understanding of these dynamics working together is often shared through story. This book shares some of these stories. It comes from a basic desire to understand what happens when people minister in disaster settings, and seeks to learn from their experiences, mistakes, and successes. This understanding may minimise the cost to those who follow.

Part One reports personal stories shared with me by those who have ministered in disasters. Some are emergency service chaplains who had been prepared to encounter hardship and are familiar with ministry in traumatic situations. Others are everyday ministers caught up in something unimaginably traumatic and disastrous. Lessons are drawn from their experience and reflections. Their quotes, as spoken during the interviews, convey the clearest understanding of what things were important to them as they ministered in four Australian disasters: The Granville Train Crash, The Kempsey Bus Crash, the Thredbo Landslide, and the Port Arthur Shooting. Beyond these accounts, the book draws on interviews with eleven chaplains, ministers, and Christian mental health workers who shared their experience of ministry in these and other disasters. ⁷

Part Two builds on the metaphor of ministry on the edge and describes ways crisis and disaster ministry differ from the ministry of everyday life. Most published studies have focused on the effects of disaster on local victims or on the victims' care. This paper focuses on what happens in these settings for the minister. Part Two discusses the field of trauma management and gives readers an overview of terms and issues important in this area. It surveys the effects of disaster on ministry agents. Crisis and disaster ministry comes at a cost, and it is hoped that a clearer understanding of the issues at hand will minimise the price paid by those who minister and those who care for them.

Part Three provides biblical and theological perspective of trauma and includes a survey of three biblical personalities who encountered and dealt with trauma issues. This survey of experience affords a better understanding of the theology of trauma to better equip ministers. Part Three also discusses issues of theodicy and develops a theology of chaplaincy within the context of the providence of God. These respond to the basic question: What is God doing in these times?

Part Four offers practical suggestions on how to prepare for, work within, and recover from ministry in a disaster situation. The practical lessons come from the experience of people who have ministered in traumatic conditions. This section contains anecdotes and personal examples that provide the context for the lessons. It contains lessons for pastors and other ministry agents and for those who care for them, especially denominational leaders.

This book shares instances of outstanding care in the face of great hardship. It also shares horror stories of the neglect and abuse of clergy following their work in traumatic situations. One of the common comments from ministry agents interviewed for this study was: I hope this makes a change. It is my prayer that this book may, indeed, be a blessing to many who will minister in situations of trauma in this broken world in which we serve.

¹ Disasters affect many people. The New South Wales (NSW) Disaster Mental Health Response Handbook notes: Between 1967 and 1991, disasters around the world killed 7 million people and affected 3 billion (Cater, Revel, Sapir, and Walker, 1993). In recognition of the human cost of disasters, the United Nations General Assembly designated the 1990's as the decade of natural disaster reduction (World Health Organization, 1988). New South Wales Government, Department of Mental Health, Disaster Mental Health Response Handbook (North Sydney: NSW Health, 2000), nswiop.nsw.edu.au/ Resources/Disaster_Handbook.pdf, 5 (accessed February 21, 2006).

² As at February 22, 2006, government agencies and the United Nations reported that the death toll stood at 169,752 with 127,294 people listed as missing. Tsunami Death Toll. Tuesday, February 22,2005, http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/tsunami.deaths/(accessed 30 February 2005).

³ Australian Government. Emergency Management Australia. Australian Emergency Management Glossary, Manual 3, Australian Emergency Manuals Series, Part I: The Fundamentals (Dickson, Australia: Emergency Management Australia, 1998), 90, http://www.ema.gov.au/agd/EMA/ rwpattach.nsf/ VAP/(383B7EDC29CDE21FBA276BBBCE12CDC0)~Manual+03.pdf/$file/ Manual+03.pdf (accessed February 26, 2006).

⁴ These terms are defined in NSW Government, Disaster Mental Health Response Handbook, 10

⁵ Australian Government, Attorney-General's Department, Emergency Management Australia. Psychological Services in the Disaster Context. Guidelines for Disaster Management Practice: Final Draft, n.c., n.s., n.p, n.d., http://www.ema.gov.au/agd/ema/rwpattach.nsf/ viewasattachmentPersonal/ E5C905C7D6319978CA256C85001C135B/$file/ GUIDELINES%20_FOR_DISASTER_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICE.PDF, 38 (accessed 20 February 2005).

⁶ Back in 1985 Rosemary Cinnici concluded her paper with the words ...much more research needs to be done in the areas of analysing reactions of ministers who have actually lived through a disaster, ,investigating ways of helping ministers respond more thoroughly following disasters, and understanding the pressures ministers experience in providing services when they themselves are victims. Rosemary Chinnici, Pastoral Care Following a Natural Disaster, Pastoral Psychology 33 no. 4 (1985): 253.

⁷ These include the Appin Mine Explosion, July 1979; the Ash Wednesday Bushfires, February 1983; the Bega Schoolgirl Murders, 1997; the Grafton Bus Crash, January 1989; the Waterfall Train Derailment, January 2003; The Strathfield Massacre, August 1991; the Asian Tsunami, December 2004; and many other smaller traumatic situations which have impacted ministers in profound ways.

Part One

Case Studies of Ministry in Disaster Settings

Chapter 1    Transport disasters

The Granville Train Disaster

The Kempsey Bus Crash

Chapter 2    Disasters in a recreational setting

The Port Arthur Massacre

The Thredbo Ski Resort Landslide

Chapter 1

Transport Disasters

The Granville Train Disaster

On 18 January 1977, an early morning peak hour train travelling from Mount Victoria to Sydney left the tracks on a bend approaching Granville Station. The train careered for forty-six metres before demolishing the eight steel stanchions of Bold St. Bridge, which had carried traffic over the railway line. The first two carriages lay clear of the bridge as the train came to a rest. After a moment's pause, carriages three and four were crushed by the weight of the 570 ton concrete bridge on them. Forty-four of the second carriage's seventy-seven passengers died, along with thirty-one of the third carriage's complement of sixty-four persons.

The massive resulting rescue effort faced enormous difficulties, including a teetering section of bridge threatening to fall onto the second half of the third carriage. The danger of further collapse and the sheer numbers of dead and injured in such a confined space were overwhelming. The mid-summer conditions and the high number of crush injuries added to the difficulty for rescuers. In total eighty-three people were killed, 230 injured, and 1,300 people directly affected by the tragedy¹.

The Experience of Milton Coleman

²

When Milton Coleman was first ordained in the Uniting Church in Australia, he decided he needed further preparation in pastoral ministry. Little training was available in Australia so he travelled to the USA for two years training in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Topeka State Hospital in Kansas. Milton also gained experience working with psychiatric and cancer patients. On his return to Australia, Milton served in a parish for two years and then moved through a special appointment to a hospital in Sydney as a psychiatric chaplain.

Immediately before this move, Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. Milton recalls how he felt powerless to help the cyclone victims. He had ministered to people traumatised through a diagnosis of cancer, which caused them deep despair and hopelessness. Having this experience, and thinking that he may be called upon to spend time with evacuees from Darwin, Milton prepared himself, but was not called to help. This was a formative time in Australia's response to disaster. Cyclone Tracy had destroyed a capital city and caused state governments across the nation to reconsider their emergency response capacity. In New South Wales, it stimulated the formation of a coordinated, interagency disaster plan (Displan), but this had not far progressed when the Granville tragedy occurred.

Milton was driving to work when he heard radio reports of the accident. First details were sketchy and reported that a train had crashed, part of a bridge had collapsed, and that twelve persons were dead. His first thought was to respond. Most of the morning he felt very frustrated as he listened to the radio, heard the death toll increase dramatically, and realised that this was a major disaster. Milton rang a number of Uniting Church people to see if they could use his expertise, but became more frustrated as he failed to contact anyone. Some of those responsible could not be contacted because they were at the scene. At about 5 pm, Milton made contact with a physician he worked with who suggested Milton might go to the city morgue. He was told that a team was being formed to deal with relatives who came to identify bodies from the accident.

After dinner at home, Milton arrived at the morgue about 7 pm on the evening of the accident and on arrival he met with Beverly Raphael, the most experienced member of the team, and three others who had expertise with people who were dying or bereaved. This team grew over the time of the disaster recovery, but the first five members remained the group's core. That first evening was spent organising how they would deal with the arrival of relatives who came to identify their loved ones, and they prepared for the arrival of the first bodies. Throughout the evening, they received reports that the bodies would be brought in from a temporary tent morgue at the accident site, but were eventually told that they would be held at Granville until the following morning.

The group completed the organization of the morgue team and Milton went home at 2:30 am ready to return at 6.30 am. On his return, Milton's specific task was to accompany a police sergeant who would gather information from visiting relatives, and to stand with the relatives or friends of the deceased as they viewed and formally identified the bodies. He related: Around about eight o'clock things started to happen. And over the next eight hours I would have seen something like twenty families and twenty bodies. So it got quite stressful.

Milton met people as they came into the morgue to identify their loved-ones, and it became apparent there were major limitations with the morgue facility. He described some of these issues:

The morgue, at that stage, had a very small waiting room area. It just wasn't equipped to handle big emergencies. The ambulances were coming into the side of the building from the main street . . . they could come in and transfer bodies into the work area. The main entrance [was] no bigger than the front door of [a] house. You'd walk through an ordinary door into a little reception [area] which had a glassed-off partition, with someone there, and a room which would not have been as big as [a] dining room with chairs around it . . . and we were immediately overwhelmed with people.

The morgue staff was extremely helpful and provided the team space in another area of the building and helped them avoid the more gruesome sights from the accident. Despite this, the team had to walk past some of the areas in use, and there was no way they could escape the physical reality of death around them. Milton described the process the team followed:

There was a viewing room which was private. It was very small, and the area which you were viewing from was even smaller. There was a glass window with curtains, and it was controlled by the person inside with the body. [The attendant] would bring the body in on the gurney, covered, and [then] expose the face (and only the face) for identification, unless the person making the identification was having trouble, then they would expose a bit more . . . clothing . . . or hands. . . .[The observer] would say: Yes, that is so and so, we [were] witnesses for that. We would come back outside. The sergeant would then go back with somebody else, and I would stay with the people in this little room where there were other people sitting around, waiting. It was very hard to do anything because it was just not set up physically for it. You couldn't go outside because there were reporters and cameramen. Sometimes, with some people, we were able to take them upstairs . . . but there was so much going on it was rather difficult. I would stay with the people until they were ready to leave. As I was the senior chaplain, unofficially I'd been asked to keep an eye on the other chaplains, and what they were doing. And there were some stressful situations . . . because people, who were acting as chaplains, were incompetent. They were eager to help, but they didn't have the skills.

Milton, when not engaged with the families of the deceased, took on the task of collecting the names and details of those who had come to help. The ones whom I knew, I would make sure were doing the work that I was (going with families) . . . there were chaplains from Prince Alfred Hospital, . . . psychiatric chaplains . . . and I knew what their capabilities were and then there were a number of other people.

The team developed procedures on the run, with very little time to prepare, and created a command structure. They were overwhelmed by the size of the task, and had to deal with the issues of quality control and involvement of volunteers, but had little authority to do so. ³

Other people who came in to help registered their names and details with Milton and other team members, and they were told they might be contacted later if needed. A lack of physical space made it impossible for them to help then. As he took their details, Milton noted who might be useful caregivers later on after the crisis ended. Some were later used in this way. For instance, some women served as supporters for widows as they adjusted to their loss.

Milton related that the expectations of his role changed during those hours. He began in a chaplaincy and support role, but he also found himself operating in a managerial capacity "which I wasn't expecting, and I don't think I was trained for.

I saw myself as a hands-on person. I was ready to do that. But, because I had more experience in dealing with the death situation, and more training in dealing with death there amongst the chaplains, I sort of fell into the role."

Milton described the first day's work as just horrendous. He worked constantly until about 5 pm, when something occurred which pulled him up short:

I walked up to a man [the next door neighbour of the deceased] who was sitting in this little waiting room. I was by this time collecting particulars. . . . It was a man of my age that had died . . . there were two children, a girl and a boy who were the same age as my children, and suddenly I just started crying. I was totally overwhelmed by it at that point. The tears just streamed down my face and I couldn't talk . . . I tried to do a count of how many people I had seen and, at this point I think I had seen twenty or twenty-one in that day.

Milton approached the team leader and said: I am over the top, I am not coping any more. She guided him to find a replacement from the group for the tasks he had been doing, and to leave and rest. The group had processed about seventy bodies at this stage, and Milton knew that there would only be about another six before they finished for the day. He left the scene.

Milton related an extraordinary thing that happened as he drove away from the place. I wasn't really capable of driving, but I wasn't aware of it. Driving from the morgue, he found himself in traffic:

I turned the radio on. It had classical music playing, and I had it really loud. Just as I got to the traffic lights they went red. I just kept on going and went straight through them. I went through the lights and down the hill. As I went down the hill, I became aware that I was swearing, and almost every profanity that I knew came out in some way in the next couple of kilometres of this somewhat windy road. I looked down at the speedo, and I was doing eighty kilometres an hour in a sixty zone.

When he reached another intersection he was stopped by traffic lights again, and after some minutes he drove on, but became increasingly agitated. The next set of lights turned red just as he got to them: "I did exactly what I had done before, put my foot down (much more blatantly this time) and