Religious Wellness & Trauma: One Family's Experience

At some time in their life, every person is faced with trauma. What form the trauma takes is not the issue. When it occurs it is an awful experience.

Generally these people are not adequately prepared to handle the trauma in such a way as to minimize the devastation inherent within the very nature of the experience. The Meaning of Wholeness: Disability and Spiritual Dignity was the title of a weekend theology seminar at Conrad Grebel College, University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The seminar focused on issues relating to persons with physical disabilities and was sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee, (Handicap Ministries Section). It attracted theologians and other interested church people from across North America. The accompanying three presentations formed the initial discussion for the weekend deliberations. The papers, as a unit, are published not to promote or negate any particular religious attitude or spiritual issue, rather to demonstrate the impact of religion upon the lives of individuals and their families.

OBIA Article

Raymond Rempel, B.A., M.S.

Throughout his lifetime Ray has been an active member of the Mennonite faith community. After their son, Jeremy’s accident, along with his wife Elsie, they co-founded the Head Injury Association of Niagara. In 1986 he left a successful career as an insurance broker and was the co-founder and executive director of the Ontario Brain Injury Association. He has also been a leader in the ongoing development of a national head injury association in Canada and more recently has taken a leading role in the organization of an international symposium designed to study the status of support for persons who live with the effects of traumatic brain injury. Ray has become a leading advocate and spokesperson for Canadians who live with the effects of Traumatic Brain Injury.

Jeremy Rempel, Age 16

Jeremy was traumatically brain-injured in a bicycle/automobile accident at age nine. Following a lengthy period of coma he has gradually re-learned and recaptured much of what he once knew and could do. With the support of ...

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