OxCEPT

1. OxCEPT The Oxford Centre for Ecclesiology and Practical Theology

2. Chaplaincy in schools: new directions Faith in Research 9th May 2012

3. Themes … • Terminology • Images • Realities/case studies • Theological ambivalences

4. Terminology (i) • What is a chaplain? • What is ‘chaplaincy’? • ‘School chaplaincy’ vs ‘schools chaplaincy’ vs ‘chaplaincy in schools’

5. Terminology (ii) • ‘a clergyperson who has been commissioned by a faith group or an organisation to provide pastoral service in an institution, organisation, or governmental entity. (Hunter, 1990, 2005 p.136) • But: Clergyperson’? Commissioned? Faith group? Pastoral service? • ‘One (no longer always ordained, or male) who ministers to an associational (non-territorial) community in the name of the Church’?

6. Terminology (iii) • ‘Chaplaincy refers to the general activity performed by a chaplain, which may include crisis ministry, counselling, sacraments, worship, education, help in ethical decision-making, staff support, clergy contact and community or church coordination.’ (Hunter, 1990, 2005 p.136) ? • So: ‘Anything a ‘chaplain’ does’? • Research suggests focus of ‘school chaplaincy’ is on pastoral care and on worship and liturgy; also Ballard (2009) suggests that a key to chaplaincy is its ‘embedded’ nature.

7. Terminology (iv) • ‘School chaplaincy’ – the traditional, public school, inherited model? Rooted in C19th public schools, Dr Arnold… • ‘Schools’ chaplaincy’ – a looser concept, more inclusive of a wider range of schools? • ‘Chaplaincy in schools’ – maybe a wider concept still, including ad-hoc, ‘in-out’ chaplaincy or ‘para-chaplaincy’.

8. Terminology (v) • There’s no theological Académie Française to determine usage or meaning… • Usage changes meanings … • Where are we currently with the word ‘chaplaincy’? A shifting concept it would be good to try to stabilise somehow… • Also - what really counts as chaplaincy in the current context of schools?

9. Images • Image of ‘school chaplaincy’ in danger of being stuck in the public school niche – see Alan Bennett in ‘Beyond the Fringe’, ‘Forty Years On’; Lindsay Anderson’s ‘If …’ • If that’s what it still is, could we really take it seriously as ministry? • The range of current practice in chaplaincy in schools requires new understanding, new images.

10. Realities (i) • From public school origins, ‘embedded’ chaplaincy is now widespread in C of E maintained secondary schools and academies. Non-teaching chaplains offer SMSC policy/support, liturgy, pastoral care. • Alongside this spread of embedded chaplaincy in schools, there’s a rapid (but unquantified) growth in ‘para-chaplaincy’ supplied by local/national charities on an occasional basis.

11. Realities (ii) • A repository of experience and expertise in ‘school chaplaincy’ exists among public school chaplains, but this is highly context-specific: relating to places which have chapels, regular liturgies, and a high status for the embedded chaplain… • Newer initiatives in other contexts are drawing on ‘youth work’ methods and approaches, developing distinctive expertise of their own… meaning a gap opens up between different expressions of ‘chaplaincy’.

12. Case studies: a Diocese • A ‘youth worker/chaplain’ model embedded in diocesan secondary schools; recruitment via youth dept; employment by diocese • Role embraces: assemblies, individual pastoral care, advocacy, ad hoc contribution to classroom teaching, Christian leadership, charity outreach. • Characteristic evangelical/charismatic heritage of post-holders, lay status, youthful profile.

13. Case studies: a city Deanery • Recent Deanery-sourced initiative supported financially by a diocesan mission fund; two other local city schools (private and selective) have school-supported chaplaincy, full and part-time. • Two C of E secondary schools are served two days each week by two part-time lay chaplains, again with youth work rather than ministerial backgrounds. • Role encompasses: assemblies, pastoral care, staff support.

14. Case studies: a local charity • Large industrial town, multi-ethnic population, poor white working-class basis. • ‘Schools work’ (cf youth work) of the charity is funded by a range of churches and charities, and encompasses support for excluded pupils; leading assemblies; taking RE lessons; running Christian groups. ‘In-out’ rather than embedded basis. • Again, a strong evangelical/charismatic base among young, youth work trained staff – a desire to enable unchurched teens to hear the gospel and find it relevant, life-changing.

15. Case studies: prayer spaces… • Linking to the spirituality agenda, ‘prayer spaces in schools’ (internet identity) works to create a climate for reflection and prayer in the school context. • Offering ‘spiritual development’ they employ a range of techniques, taking over spaces and transforming them into places for reflection with artwork, symbols, sounds… • Students are reportedly appreciative, and use the opportunity to reflect on personal, emotional and spiritual issues. A kind of in-school retreat?

16. Emerging themes • Converging practice from a range of theological traditions? Evangelical/charismatic origins of people who also employ Ignatian imaginative methods… • But absence of catholic or liberal outreach into schools in new initiatives: predominant presence of evangelical/charismatic schools workers. • Discarded idioms: no longer about ‘accepting Jesus’, ‘turning to Christ’, the language is now about ‘developing spirituality’….

17. Theological ambivalences… • Is the ‘new’ chaplaincy or para-chaplaincy really about making new Christians, through pre- or prior-evangelism? Or is it about disinterested service to the need of others? • Does the pastoral care focus of traditional, embedded chaplaincy simply cover for evangelistic intentions, or is it really different? • Bevans and Schroeder (2006) argue for three basic types of theology: orthodox/conservative; liberal; and radical/liberation. Which are driving the new kinds of chaplaincy in the school context?

18. OxCEPT The Oxford Centre for Ecclesiology and Practical Theology