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THE PROMISE OF CHAPLAINCYHarriet Mowat

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The promise of Chaplaincy

Key Note 1:Inside chaplaincy: what do chaplains do?

Key Note 2:Outside chaplaincy: what influences chaplaincy?

Key Note 3:Identity and Practice: chaplaincy as practical theology

Workshop 1Stories of Chaplaincy

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

Workshop 2The challenges of chaplaincy

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WHAT CAN WE SUMMARISE ABOUT YESTERDAY’S DISCUSSION OF THE CHALLENGES YOU FACE IN YOUR WORK?

Challenges for the 21st Century

Education DescriptionPosition in the organisationFunding

naming Retainingliminality

working in a clinical

environmentdisposition

Relationship with

traditions

volunteers

Mis-understanding

Publicity/clarity

Using research to describe

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Practical Theology and Chaplaincy

Practical Theology is critical, theological reflection on the practices of the church as they interact with the practices of the world, with a view to ensuring and enabling faithful living.

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The identity of Chaplaincy is characterised by

• Attending to human experience – listens and acts• Entering the world of the other – on the edge,

unlikeness• Attempting to be fully human with others – interpathy,

presence, walking with • Trying to embody the presence of God – values based

reflective practice• Interpreting human feelings and actions in the light

of those values – working with fragments and links

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The 21st century imperatives which shape the identity of chaplaincy

• Multi cultural communities : multiple realities• Psychologically minded thinking: rise in interest in psychoanalytic

perspectives• Changing nature of institutions• Public theology: engaging in politics• Professionalisation and Leadership :from being there to being

aware • Inevitable change and the need for resilience • research as the basis for action• Reconciliation and restitution journeys

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THE PRACTICE OF CHAPLAINCYA vehicle for 21st Century reconciliation and restitution.

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Reconciliation and restitution in the 21st Century

• Sarah Hills – • Train theology • Bicycle Theology• Two way restitution• Reconciliation includes restitution and perhaps

forgiveness• Deliberate acts of restitution

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Train Theology

Bicycle Restitution

The road to reconciliation:always incomplete: always partial: always evolving

For

give

ness

restitution

Truth

spaceactions

pilgrimage

fellowship

processSpirituality

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MHA CHAPLAINS STUDYMHA Chaplains support and build ‘reluctant communities’ :

“making connections but living with fractures”

Chaplains enact deliberate acts of restitution as part off the reconciliation journey: journey into residential living and ageing.

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Data collected:

• Telephone interviews with chaplains 15• Visits – observer participation 10 sites for two days each• Interviews with staff• Informal interviews with residents• Survey of chaplains – 56 accounts of a four hour period

with reflective questions (100,000 words)

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ResidentsStaff

RelativesFriendsFamily

volunteers

Chaplain

Presence prayer

Struggles with meaning making

Family complexities

Fear of Ageing and disability

Relationships

Support accceptance

The ordinary as sacramental

Chat, story telling

listening

Struggling with daily life

A reluctant community

Embodiment

A journey of reconciliation and restitution

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THE COMMUNITY IS “RELUCTANT”

So often when older people move into a care home they withdraw into themselves as they are trying to cope with feelings of grief and loss and often find it difficult to make new relationships with the strangers around them. ……. resident’s memory and ability to communicate is often diminished and so they need help to relate to others.13/4

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Building a “reluctant” community

For many people the experience of coming into a care home is one of great loss. There is the loss of their own home and with it their possessions, their memories, their sense of identity. For the most part people would not choose to live in a care home and be surrounded by strangers.13/6

However pleasant the surroundings, and however kind the carers, this move can be devastating.47/2

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Restitutive acts that help build the community• Prayer as a starting and finishing point

• Chat• Lunch• Helping out• Specific activities• Staff Care

• Settling in work• Encouraging residents• Visiting• Sharing stories • Spiritual guidance and Worship

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Restitutive acts

Settling in Workgenerally speaking, they move in because they have to, or are told that they have to. They are in a situation as they see it, of being taken away from their home, that they have lived in for a number of years. Much of their life, they have to leave behind, and instead of relying to a large extent on themselves, have to rely on carers, who they don’t know, It can be very confusing for them, and if they have been very active in their lives, can make it very hard to settle.

…..…………Eventually, they all settle in fairly well, and I feel that this is a key part to Chaplaincy.12/10

Helping Out

Feeding gives me the opportunity to speak with them and at the same time make valuable contact by touch and eye contact; it also helps them to become familiar with your voice which is very important. I usually try to help with breakfasts or dinner when I can, so that it builds up my relationship with those residents who are unable communicate in the usual way. 46/1

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Two way grace!

Courage and Grace of Residents

The quite unselfish attitude of Resident D to his son who had formerly lived near to the Home and so was able to visit, now having moved to the other side of the world with no idea when a physical visit may happen again, causes me to wonder how I might feel in the same situation and whether I might be more resentful of this.24/5

Getting support from residents

I have been surprised (no just in this survey) by the amount of insight shown by older members in the context of their own lives (currently) and present social situations. At times I feel that I have been given support rather than seeking to give it 55/3

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CCL AS A VEHICLE FOR RECONCILIATIONHonouring the story

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Why does chaplaincy survive?• Encourages resilience • Challenges empiricism• Metaphor for present but invisible values and beliefs• Gives permission for unscientific and “unspeakable” emotions and

feelings• Love in strangeness• Peace in change• Hope and Joy in suffering

• Provides links• Honours stories • Allows difference• Encourages reconciliation and restitution• Takes the past into the future to create something new• Embodies the values that we all aspire to• Is potentially transformative

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GAELIC BLESSING

 

May the road rise up to meet youMay the wind be always at your back.May the sun shine warm on your faceAnd the rain fall soft upon your fieldsAnd until we meet againMay your God keep you in theHollow of his hand.