Clergy Retreat and Formation Resources
Aspects of Chaplaincy, A Talk Given to the Clergy of the Diocese
of Hawaii, 7-8 December 2003
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Common
Sense Liturgy and Formation, March 2005
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Aspects of Chaplaincy
A Talk Given to the Clergy of the Diocese of Hawaii,
7-8 December 2003
The term "chaplain" comes from the
garment or "chapela" worn by the priest who accompanied
troops to war. Soon the garment itself was displayed and held
high for all to see—despite the din of the battle turmoil—as
an assurance of God's presence. We draw on this circle of
presence today in the person and office of the chaplain in
a variety of ways.
I invite you to stand in admiration with me of all
the chaplains you have ever met. Perhaps some have worked
in a hospital or maybe you recall a chaplain when you served
in the military. There may have been a chaplain at the school
you attended. (Our office does not supervise that kind of
chaplaincy—though we admire their work greatly. They
fall under the Office of Youth Work and Colleges.) No doubt
you came to know a chaplain during a period of transition
in your life.
Their work across many different institutional settings
can be portrayed in a number of ways but there are three particularly
illustrative modes which not only increase our knowledge and
empathy for chaplains as they enhance our understanding of
all ministry. For example, could you conceive of your work
in the Church as being perpetually sent to those who are in
a state of newness or periodically getting a pastoral, peripheral
vision checkup? Or can you think of your ministry as having
an element of fear or adventure? (When we recruit candidates
for these positions we bluntly discuss this last element as
a given.) All three point to the theme of this presentation:
When your ministry is prepared for impromptu and uncertain
contacts, it can be termed as portable, or, conveyed without
difficulty and ready to reach persons involved in quickening
dramas on the very edges of life.
If you count those who are retired, the number of
chaplains in this episcopacy is over 800 persons. 400 more
chaplains are being added as the tabulation to include emergency
responders and maritime (fire, police and EMT) after 9/11
continues. Given that there are chaplains in the armed services
(active duty, reserves, and guard); in the Veteran’s
Administration hospital system, local healthcare facilities
of all types, and private practice as pastoral counselors;
in federal prisons, local prisons; in port and maritime environments;
and emergency responders, diverse approaches to ministry would
be an understatement. Despite the extraordinary number of
priests, deacons, and lay persons in such service they share
aspects of ministering in states of newness, are challenged
to see the peripheral pastoral moments, and at times function
in areas of adventure and fear.
In one of its most basic expressions chaplaincy
represents an exercise of being in a relationship with those
who are experiencing some state of newness. Whether they have
recently joined the military, have just entered a hospital,
or a confinement facility, each person is entering the anxiety
of a new and unfamiliar existence. Of course a chaplain has
pastoral care for the ongoing life of members in these institutions
but the unique aspect of their duties always include being
with people during their loss of familiarity and resulting
intense episodes of stress and reorientation. The military
generates this period as it prepares and trains men and women
for battle. Indeed, it tries to reduce the consequences even
if during peacetime one is lulled into a sense of complacency.
Mobilization and deployment is always a ready possibility.
Institutions “house” this entrance into newness;
in fact they may have, in part, been created to do so. As
such those charged with the upkeep and maintenance of the
organization require pastoral support and care as well. There
is a unique sociology to this since those already in service
act upon those who are “new” until they are absorbed
into the organization, or become “less new.”
Back in NY I wondered what common word to call the recipients
of pastoring. “Client” is a respectable term used
by some chaplains and comes from a therapeutic model. “Recipient”
seemed to be an English lesson and unhelpful.
Considering the ebb and flow of the dynamic—and privilege—that
a chaplain receives by the invitation into someone’s
journey. “Traveler” in life’s work seemed
OK. But it didn’t carry the intentional mission we think
of as Christians.
It was then I coincidentally struck on the word, “pilgrim”
since it implies an assured journey and perhaps a quest.
When I was in Hawaii I did some research and there was no
translation of the word “pilgrim” except indirectly
as malihini which means newcomer and, further, there is no
translation of the word “traveler” except as in
the consequences of traveling, i.e., the changes, joys and
difficulties of traveling. It is helpful to consult local
culture because much is captured, as here in a Hawaiian proverb,
“unlucky is (the traveler) whose body is wagered on
the trip”. What an apt description of how suffering
can be part of the journey.
For our purposes we might postulate that a journey without
risk is not much of a journey. You may be reviewing all the
bad vacations you ever had, but journey and pilgrimage here
means a life quest. For it to be expansive and true some element
of uncertainty will have to be accepted.
The chaplain, thereby, is asked to remain part of the body
of the staff but never to forget what it was like to be “new.”
This is a crucial exercise and one that bedevils many good
chaplains since they want to demonstrate enough ability to
be accepted by institutional colleagues yet never leave the
fragile world of what it is like to be unsure, doubtful and
even afraid.
This cannot be done as a rehearsed, secular
exercise although some pastoral locations make it seem so.
If it becomes a simple formula of describing anxiety and intentionally
being a companion with a pilgrim until alternate ways of knowing,
living, and being evolve, life could become pro forma, limited
and cut off from hope. This is because the settings we are
describing can create wave after wave of “newness.”
Changes in military orders, updated lab reports, bad news
from home, or an increase of the initial alienation are common
place. The chaplain must be practiced with a resourced life
offered to the pilgrim despite a barrage of impromptu contacts.
Our core mission on behalf of the Church is to: “recruit,
form, and sustain” chaplains in their work. “Form(ing)”,
or formation, one might think of as occurring earlier and
before committing to this ministry. Certainly the bulk of
such spiritual work takes place as the Holy Spirit sparks
the connection between the heart of the vineyard worker and
the vineyard and we all acknowledge this to be the onset of
a “call” by God to his service. But chaplaincy
adds more and thrives only through the interaction between
the challenge and the growth occurring in the pastor.** Insight
and wisdom is achieved when disequilibrium yields to stability
in a pastoral situation. Each circumstance comes fresh requiring
the chaplain to be perpetually innocent and new.
The intense environment of chaplaincy requires
those so employed to offer a calm presence—“space”,
really—where the pilgrim can stop and recoup. To do
this we speak of the chaplain developing an “anchor”
in his/her spiritual development and formation. Like a ship
at anchor the effect is to stabilize and make a certain portion
of the chaplain’s life immobile regardless of life’s
turbulence. This anchor certainly infers a spiritual life
which regularly feeds and sustains the chaplain.
There are many possibilities here in the
composition of such a manner of living. Saying the Daily Office
along with progressively reading a spiritual book is a foundational
effort. Weekly (or more) celebration or attendance at the
Holy Eucharist coupled with a prepared and reflective contribution
for intercessions makes the connection between the brokenness
witnessed in one’s work and that which is redeemed through
Christ in worship. Tithing ten percent or more of one’s
net income brings a reality to life and the dimension of stewardship
to life. Making one’s confession at regular intervals;
in order to make friends with those who are fragile we must
know it in ourselves. Some chaplains have found it helpful
to become associate members of an intentional community, like
the Order of the Holy Cross. Such affiliations provide the
supportive structure of the Church when serving in isolated
places.
There is added irony to this outreach. The
recipients of this pastoral care are probably in motion. The
best example is the accident or “street” injured
person who is rushed from the scene by an EMT squad or ambulance
for further medical attention. Indeed, Chaplain Rob Dewey
our National Disaster Coordinator and founder of Crisis Coastal
Chaplaincies emphasizes only the preparation for referral
in what he does. “Follow-up isn’t even a consideration.”
He says. Others in motion include the military service member
who is reassigned, and the hospital patient undergoing a round
of tests, or sent home. Even chaplains in confinement facilities
will find snatches of time between institutional requirements
are generally the rule. This means a chaplain’s contact
must be a meaningful, quality moment. It will not be so unless
there is preparation beforehand.
Persons who are new, entering at the edge
of an institution’s life, “reside there”
temporarily as we have seen but it doesn’t change the
attention of the chaplain. Because we all tend to put the
most obvious things we need to do directly in the line of
sight of our day there will always be those persons and circumstances
which move to the edge out of our periphery. As was mentioned
above chaplains have a full and active ministry in the busy
life of the institution but it is for those out of full view
and potentially forgotten that receive the advocacy and support
of the vigilant and sensitive chaplain. Our Lord gave us an
example of his peripheral sensitivity when he called Zacheus
down from the tree. Jesus was about his visit yet reached
beyond his sight to embrace someone on the margin.
There are terms for camera angles in cinematography
which can be helpful here. We are all familiar with the expression
"the close-up" and there is the opposite of that
or "the long shot." The peripheral view discussing
favors the long shot. In the movie classic, "Gone With
The Wind", there is a scene of Scarlet O'Hara tending
the sick at the Atlanta railroad station, then the camera
pans back more and more where once you saw a single life in
agony you see thousands.
This ability does not come naturally for
chaplains or for us, and, like an eye exam we must intentionally
schedule the effort. Here, as before, the anchor of a prayer
life and a relationship with Christ bring life into balance.
In the story of the blind man Bartimaeus is not in “on
the road” but on the edge of it, yet in his encounter
with Jesus he stands and throws off his cloak, his preoccupation
with a former life, emptying himself for what is to come.
Have you ever overlooked something and exclaimed, “How
could I have missed that, it’s right in front of my
eyes!” A chaplain can only see those on the edge of
life if he/she has had a hard look at what has been sent to
the edge of his/her life. This can include the dark side of
ministry where the clergyperson neglects personal health,
family, or distasteful things shunned from a life. Like the
wakeful dreams of Samuel it takes mighty and persistent effort
to bring things into consciousness.
I hadn’t realized that there is a spate of books about
“adventure philosophy” no doubt riding the crest
of the popular TV shows of “survivor” and “fear
factor”. These are artificially created environments
where primal motives of competition and terror are manipulated.
In the essays on Adventure there is one constant theme: moving
from a static environment to a dynamic one will be risky because
the perimeter of the known opens to the uncertainty of the
unknown.
Chaplains work in environments where the intensity of the
normal cycles of life are ratcheted up. There is nothing mysterious
here but a chaplain’s work can ask us to look at our
own everyday lives. How much risk are we tolerating, or is
it uncontrolled with fear, paralyzing our lives?
The challenge before healthcare chaplains is but one example.
Because of modern advances in medicine and technology we now
describe the last frail years of our lives as the end of our
“healthspan.” The challenge is to live a life
which extends the “healthspan” as long as possible
within one’s lifespan. That leaves us with a few fearful
years, often cancer-ridden and frail before death. But should
that be? Are we not called to convert that fear to an adventure?
**Since
September 11th and considering the 100 Day Support Mission
this office undertook on behalf of the Church we have encouraged
a training relationship with International Critical Incident
Stress Foundation. That national disaster found us woefully
ill-prepared. Despite heroic efforts by clergy and laity,
Episcopalians suffered from a lack of coordination and the
specific coaching pastors needed for a critical incident.
Chaplains in federal service usually receive this training
as part a continuing orientation. Our challenge is to make
it available to those who serve in local diocesan ministries
as well.
Common
Sense Liturgy and Formation
One
of the great gifts the Episcopal Church offers is a sense
of form and balance in our worship that speaks to the spiritual
yearnings of a believing community. Yet we seem to have lost
sight of the reasons for our assembling for worship. Too many
times we leave our worship in the hands of “experts”
– the preferences of a rector or the taste of an organist.
It is our sincere belief that we can retain the best of the
Episcopal/Anglican tradition and be responsive to each faith
community.
Many chaplains
practice common Sense liturgy out necessity. We’ve found
these services not wanting despite the lack of a church space,
an organist, or a well-rehearsed choir. When we are on the
road, visiting with chaplains all over the world, some of
our most profound connections with each other and the Divine,
have come with very little paraphernalia – or advice.
It is from these experiences; as well less positive experiences
during our travels that helped define Common Sense Liturgy.
Worship and liturgy
should both express our faith and lead us on in spiritual
growth and wonder. Common Sense Liturgy and Formation is based
on the baptismal covenant and it is an attempt to reclaim
liturgy as “The work of the people”. Our dream
is to institute a process of education and discernment for
every congregation where they can explore their own style
of prayer and worship guided by the rubrics in the Book of
Common Prayer. Step one is to cement the qualities and characteristics
of a “school” of liturgy we recommend for all
our gatherings. They are listed below.
Common
Sense Liturgy and Formation: Characteristics
When the
momentum of the liturgy alone takes precedence over the presence
of God in the community, it is no longer “common sense”.
•
Deeply prayerful in planning and execution
• Sacramental
• Educational as an aspect of the formation of faith,
not solely cultural/historical “literacy”
• Emphasizes congregational gifts
• Expresses full range of emotions that we bring before
God and that have been given to us by God
• Investment is in people, not things
• Standards: Sincerity and authenticity, relevance to
scripture and the liturgical year
• For communities where the chapel is the only source
of non-commercial music and grassroots music program, make
music a mission rather than lumping it in with worship. Supporting
music is good – supporting worship and liturgies should
not be confused with being the same thing.
• The mission in Common Sense Liturgy is formational.
Through prayer and liturgy, an assembly will be guided towards
true mission.
• Designed to express, grow, and reflect the faith of
a community rather than “to get the job done”
• Natural – not fussy
• Accessible to all ages, abilities, and resources
• De-emphasizes solos
• Reflective of scripture – scripture responsive
• Responsive: As flexible as the lives in the chapel
community
• Reflective of our cultures, the chapel, and current
events
• Grace driven rather than perfectionist driven
• Not sentimental or nostalgic
• Not manipulative
• Not meant to impress
• Based on our natural inclination and gifts
• Vocally based. Where appropriate, rhythmically based.
• Not necessarily organ or instrument based
• Instruments are to enhance the worship not drive it
• Portable
• Integrated into the educational system of a chapel
• Requires finding the right forms of expression that
fits an assembly
• Not “consumer church”
• Requires the redefinition of the role of organist/choir
director. New skills are required, and not necessarily skills
of musical excellence.
