This hospital chaplain has counseled thousands of dying patients. Here’s what he’s learned

[GodLovesCats]

This hospital chaplain has counseled thousands of dying patients. Here’s what he’s learned

He describes himself as a “therapriest” – a cross between a priest and a therapist who can talk with patients about anything.

“We’re a nonanxious, nonjudgmental, comforting presence. I’m not there to convert them. I’m not there to convince them, I’m just there for comfort,” he says.

“We can definitely have religious conversations if they want to. But a lot of our conversations can go from mental health to crisis to grief. We fit in that space between faith and … mortality. And we’re there for them in any capacity that they want to talk.”

I don't know if you would all consider chaplaincy a Christian-specific ministry, but this guy went to a seminary and used to be a pastor, according to the article. You can see why this is a very important job for the people God calls to do it.

 

[The Liturgist]

This hospital chaplain has counseled thousands of dying patients. Here’s what he’s learned



I don't know if you would all consider chaplaincy a Christian-specific ministry, but this guy went to a seminary and used to be a pastor, according to the article. You can see why this is a very important job for the people God calls to do it.

Chaplaincy is an extremely important field and it is a valid area of Christian ministry.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

I turn 70 in January. I am in reasonably good health and am not worried about it. My only concern is my family;y. If I go first, will my children take care of their mother? They are good kids, I am not worried about bills and expenses. We are completely out of debt, have an OK bank account, and a healthy insurance policy on me. Still... it is the bazillion little things throughout the day, from opening up a jar to dealing with a water leak.
I know God loves her. And I am going to believe He will care for her.

 

[Paidiske]

My colleagues in hospital chaplaincy do a very real, and very tough job. I respect them and their ministry.

There used to be, in some places, a feeling that chaplaincy wasn't "real" ministry, that it was what people went to do if they washed out (or burned out) of parish or congregational ministry. But I hope we're leaving that attitude in the past.

 

[GodLovesCats]

My colleagues in hospital chaplaincy do a very real, and very tough job. I respect them and their ministry.

There used to be, in some places, a feeling that chaplaincy wasn't "real" ministry, that it was what people went to do if they washed out (or burned out) of parish or congregational ministry. But I hope we're leaving that attitude in the past.

I thought it just meant "making the rounds" for prayer requests. Certainly that is very important by itself, but reading this article helped me understand a hospital chaplain's job description.

 

[The Liturgist]

My colleagues in hospital chaplaincy do a very real, and very tough job. I respect them and their ministry.

There used to be, in some places, a feeling that chaplaincy wasn't "real" ministry, that it was what people went to do if they washed out (or burned out) of parish or congregational ministry. But I hope we're leaving that attitude in the past.

If you think hospital chaplaincy is hard, my friend Rev. Kay is a Presbyterian minister, and she is head of the chaplains for the Fire Department and runs a homeless shelter and does a weekly service there. And Fire Department chaplaincy is what she describes as “a ministry of presence”; it consists almost entirely of responding whenever the Fire Department responds to a scene, usually a residence, on a medical call (in America all professional firefighters are paramedics who usually are on scene before an ambulance arrives whereas volunteer firefighters usually aren’t), where the person is deceased. Likewise much of the work of police chaplains is assisting with death notifications. But the fire department chaplaincy is more demanding in that the chaplains see maybe a dozen deceased and their grieving families whose emotions are out of control and who need help calming down, calling a funeral home or getting a death certificate, et cetera. At least in the case of hospital chaplaincy some of the patients might make a recovery. Military chaplaincy and jail and prison chaplaincy is probably the closest to parish ministry.

Many parish clergy in the US do chaplaincy one day a week, and all good seminaries, including St. Vladimir’s, Nashotah House, etc, offer chaplaincy courses.

 

[The Liturgist]

By the way, Rev. Kay is living proof that women make good ministers. I should introduce you to her at some point @Paidiske. She also experienced discrimination from her seminary, in that after getting a bachelors degree from them, they refused to give her an MDiv because she was a woman (and she’s in the PCUSA, which has had female ministers for a very long time).

 

[Paidiske]

School chaplaincy, I suspect, is closer to parish ministry too.

As to what is hard, I think they're hard in different ways. My good friend the local hospital chaplain here tells me she couldn't do my job; she gets to leave the hospital and go home, she gets the weekend off, and her life is not nearly as enmeshed with the hospital as mine is with the parish. (Conversely, she is superlatively good at what she does, and I know I don't have the skills and temperament to do what she does nearly as well, so we are each, by the grace of God, in the right place, I think).

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

I have been in this ministry over 30 years and still feel like a beginner. The trick seems to be to get used to not really knowing what to say or do. Get used to uncomfortable situations and feeling awkward. Just trust.

And all the study, all the training, all the supervision, all the experience, it all shapes who we are. And then we carry that into the next situation. The main thing is to be fully present. Some people seem to be naturals at it while others need more practice.