Each month as part of our newsletter and prayer diary we feature a lead article that reflects on current themes facing workplaces, mental health, chaplaincy services and more. Read on for interesting articles to make you pause and reflect…
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Workplace Chaplaincy
Workplace chaplaincy Work is a place to use our talents and skills, and for our ministry – be that paid employment, voluntary work or in the home. It is how things get done, how we sustain our lives and one of the ways in which we affirm ourselves and socialise. From church-founded universities, pastoral support…
Looking Deeper
Have you seen the animated children’s film Antz? It’s a 1998 release with the tagline ‘See the whole world from a different perspective, which I watched with my younger son. I don’t remember a great deal about the story, but have an abiding memory of the closing shot, which draws out from the scene of…
Be Still and Know that I am God. Psalm 46:10
Recently, our chaplaincy team, spent a rare and precious ‘Quiet Day’ at House, Little Gidding, a retreat centre based deep in Cambridgeshire countryside. We all came,seeking peace and God’s presence, away from the demands of work and an opportunity to spend time alone in stillness and time together. We were blessed by a day of glorious…
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Work is a place to use our talents and skills, and for our ministry – be that paid employment, voluntary work or in the home. It is how things get done, how we sustain our lives and one of the ways in which we affirm ourselves and socialise. From church-founded universities, pastoral support for the armed forces to the foundation documents of the National Health Service and the legal requirement for chaplains in prisons, a pattern has been set for chaplaincy to expand into a wide range of workplaces and workforces:
The public sector including police and fire services and the courts
education
farmers
manufacturing
town centres
football teams
individual shops and businesses.
‘hidden’ workplaces in our parishes:
home-based care
people looking after their own homes and loved ones and, perhaps, the community around them
small businesses and the self-employed
working from home
virtual workplaces.
The Industrial Mission Association links over 300 chaplaincy practitioners.
Defining chaplaincy and the work of a chaplain can be difficult. Mark Newitt, in Being a Chaplain, describes it as ‘accompanying people through times of transition’. It’s also often referred to as ‘loitering with intent.’
Reaching out, being alongside people, creating community and witnessing to the kingdom values of peace, justice and love are all part of workplace chaplaincy. It can support facing the big questions about what it is to be a good community, individual, human being and helping people to deal with faith, spirituality, religion and worship.
Chaplaincy can be a safe space and have sacramental aspects. Tough times of stress, shock, and grief, easier times and joys, are shared. Tentative confessions are made as people search for guidance in being that good individual, human being, in their personal life, and in that community.
How do we communicate this value?
How can faith groups positively engage and share?
Join us in exploring these questions at the Chaplaincy Conference
Rev’d Paula Spalding
CWC Trustee