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The promise of chaplaincy. Harriet Mowat. The promise of Chaplaincy. Day 1. Day 2. Day 3. 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 1
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key note 3 practical theology The promise of chaplaincy Harriet Mowat
key note 3 practical theology The promise of Chaplaincy Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 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 1 Stories of Chaplaincy Workshop 2 The challenges of chaplaincy
key note 3 practical theology What can we summarise about yesterday’s Discussion of the challenges you face in your work?
Challenges for the 21st Century Position in the organisation Education Description Funding Publicity/ clarity volunteers naming Retaining liminality Using research to describe disposition working in a clinical environment Mis-understanding Relationship with traditions
key note 3 practical theology 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.
key note 3 practical theology 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
key note 3 practical theology 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
key note 3 practical theology the practice of chaplaincy A vehicle for 21st Century reconciliation and restitution.
key note 3 practical theology 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
key note 3 practical theology Bicycle Restitution Train Theology
The road to reconciliation:always incomplete: always partial: always evolving Truth fellowship pilgrimage actions space Spirituality Forgiveness restitution process
key note 3 practical theology MHA chaplains study MHA 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.
key note 3 practical theology 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)
key note 3 practical theology Chaplain Residents Staff Relatives Friends Family volunteers Embodiment Fear of Ageing and disability Support accceptance Struggling with daily life The ordinary as sacramental Struggles with meaning making Chat, story telling A reluctant community Family complexities listening Relationships Presence prayer A journey of reconciliation and restitution
key note 3 practical theology 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
key note 3 practical theology 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
key note 3 practical theology 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
key note 3 practical theology Restitutive acts Settling in Work 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 generally 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
key note 3 practical theology Two way grace! Courage and Grace of Residents 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 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
key note 3 practical theology CCL as a vehicle for reconciliation Honouring the story
key note 3 practical theology 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
key note 3 practical theology Gaelic Blessing May the road rise up to meet you May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm on your face And the rain fall soft upon your fields And until we meet again May your God keep you in the Hollow of his hand.
