Student Profile: Julia Reimann, MDiv '22

"Dr. White-Hammond so beautifully brought her lives as both pastor and physician into that class and modeled what it can look like to meld medicine and spirituality together."

For Julia Reimann, MDiv '22, music and spirituality have always been interconnected. Growing up in a tight-knit family in Minnesota, music was central to Reimann's life, largely due to her mother's role as the director of music and liturgy at their family's Catholic church. As a student at Luther College, Reimann studied vocal performance and religion—singing in a choir that rehearsed every day. "Choir was one way I connected with people and could feel a sense of the divine," she shares, "It was just the most joy-filled setting that was not about any one person; it was very deeply about the community."

Reimann brought her love of music to HDS as she explored her call to ministry, and it was a field education placement with Harps of Comfort that helped her discern her career path. Co-founded in 2020 by Jennifer Hollis, MDiv '03, a writer and music thanatologist, the group is comprised of therapeutic musicians who sing and play harp remotely for isolated patients nearing the end of life. Reimann began her placement during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting the palliative care musicians as they brought solace to those who were hospitalized. Being mentored by Hollis and working with Harps of Comfort was a deeply formative experience: "I learned so much about how to be with people in a variety of states of consciousness and to think about what spiritual accompaniment means."

This field education experience was one of many things that Reimann loved about her time at HDS. She also cites influential courses like "Women and Gender in Ancient Christianity," taught by Professor Karen King and "Healing and Spirituality in Medicine," taught by the Rev. Gloria White-Hammond.

Through HDS, Reimann also explored her aspiration to become a chaplain through a clinical pastoral internship at a hospital in Minneapolis, where she was placed in the NICU and labor and delivery units. During that time, she encountered people who were experiencing profound grief. This informed her HDS thesis, "Re-Riting Ritual for Reproductive Loss," which she designed as an inclusive support resource for Catholic individuals and families. It invites them to reimagine ritual and prayer in a way that honors their lived experiences of reproductive loss, including miscarriage and termination.

Reimann is currently in residency preparing for a career as a hospital chaplain. "I am interested in being able to do more in NICU and perinatal ministry in the future," she says, "but I also could see myself doing hospice work. Overall, the health care setting is where I'm feeling drawn." She also expects that music will continue to be woven throughout her life, from singing hymns and blessings at a patient's bedside to playing music to care for herself. Reflecting on her time at HDS, Reiman shares: 'Tm only starting to peel back the layers and process what the last three years have meant, but I think most meaningful were the conversations that I had with fellow students who are intently focused on justice and working for change."

—by Sarah Rubin