Community Healing Ceremony for Female Veterans (2/8/22)

"The ceremony helped me see that moral injury does not only involve the veteran; our entire society needs to consider our responsibility for war and its impact."

This ceremony is a part of a 12-week long moral injury program for female veterans. The ceremony provides a space to celebrate veterans' moral sensitivity and moral seriousness; share the truth of their military experience; and initiate them in a process of transformation we call "patient to prophet." 

Veterans who bear moral injury are not sick people with a disorder, they are responsible moral agents who are morally-laden with an unfair burden that will only be relieved when that burden is more equitably distributed among all who own some portion of responsibility for the harmful consequences of military service. 

WHAT TO EXPECT: During the ceremony, veterans share their story of how they sustained moral injury during their time of service. This sharing process helps relieve the veterans of the moral burden many too often carry in isolation.

The ceremony shifts the focus of the work away from individual therapy or treatment of the veteran and gives the work of deep remembering, moral reckoning, and moral reasoning back to the community. The presence of non-veterans and veterans together is necessary to advance the work of reconciliation.

Caution: Veterans will testify at this event to the realities of military service. Some may be disturbed, unsettled, or even overwhelmed by what they hear. Still, we encourage everyone to attend and stay for the entire ceremony.