Congregations, health, and healing—what happens when these seemingly unlikely bedfellows get together?

If you're like me, you think first of old traditions, such as prayers for the sick, anointing rituals, or healing liturgies. Or perhaps you think of recent developments combining congregational activities with community outreach, like parish nurse programs, or church-sponsored blood-pressure screenings, blood drives, or free clinics. But violence probably isn't the first thing that springs to mind.

For five congregations in the Chicago area, and doubtlessly many more around the country, confronting the alarming and ubiquitous presence of violence in the community is an urgent priority. These interfaith partners have insightfully identified violence as a major public health problem, one that people of faith cannot ignore. They choose to address the issue explicitly, at individual and local levels, creating innovative ways not only to respond to incidents of violence but also to prevent them. This issue of the Bulletin highlights the many faces of violence and what health care professionals and congregations in particular can do to counter these evils.

Confronting violence as a health and religious concern is an absolute necessity, especially now. Events that might have once seemed confined only to certain places or to fringe groups have now moved in closer to home, or, indeed, into the home itself. School shootings in the most tranquil of rural settings, bombings in the heartland of America, random acts of crime on the streets of every city, and silent signs of abuse in doctors' offices, hospitals, and church or community gatherings— these have radically altered our assumptions about society.

The stories in these pages are, to borrow a phrase from the Biblical scholar Phyllis Trible, "texts of terror." They are stories we would rather not read or tell, ones we wish belonged outside the realm of faith and health. But organizations and people of faith have no choice in the fight against violence and disruption. Clearly, we are called to right the wrongs that stand in the way of health—the health of individual people, of groups and congregations, and entire communities. It is a large and ambitious undertaking. In the midst of the struggle, as Trible says, "we hold on, seeking a blessing: the healing of wounds and the restoration of health." These ultimate goals, then—recovery, restoration, redemption—give us hope for the journey.