Chaplain Gerald Ash on what we do

Vigil

I walk

through desperate hallways seen but unseen

no angels
no mercy

just me among other Carers
and the Word.

I comfort

the fearful dying
and the anguished kin

no miracles
no cure

just me among other Carers
and the Word.

I watch

in painful silence
with the abandoned

no families
no forgiveness

just me among other Carers
and the Word.

I pray
with patients, their families
and other Carers,

all of us broken and dying

caring

for the broken
the dying
each other

praying

for strength
for grace

and altogether
we hear

not just words
but the Word.

And,
seen but unseen
through desperate hallways

the Word walks. JM.

JM captures the essence of pastoral care with Vigil.

Encouraging a caring environment within which persons are enveloped freshly in the deepest of coping and healing energies no matter “what’s going down” – this is what we are all about. Out of what begins as common sense “do unto others,” can emerge a new trustfulness, a new sense of belonging, a new hope in one’s Higher Power. It is this simple and it is this important.

And so, we work directly with patients, residents and families. One patient, conveying that he was still very angry said, "Strange. I feel more alive now than ever. Nothing's changed - disease will worsen. Yet everything has changed. If I hadn't let myself open up.......(and with a look up, he continued) I'm still very mad at things but, hey, thanks to BOTH of YOU!" Went by his room later and he was sound asleep – first time in days.

We work effectively as part of a committed and supportive care team. So we support staff. One day someone said, “When you’re around, ‘Chap,’ I just feel different.” Someone else said, “Thanks for that. I’d forgotten what we are all about.”

We mentor in the deep dimensions of healing – the work of all of us. In a Care Planning Conference, a person said, “Your questions help us to see ‘a person’ and her deeper suffering behind the disease.”

Because all pastoral caring is rooted in a “contagious care climate,” we seek to be its facilitators. A visitor to Chapel Worship told me, “A good wind blows through this place.”

On an anniversary of his death in our AIDS Unit, Mr. A's widow hosted a gathering in the hospital of his many friends. "Why here?" I asked. "Because," she said "this is where he felt supported and loved. You were family to him."

What are our pastoral care tools? Ourselves, our own journey, companionship, pastoral conversations with patients, family, and staff, prayer, worship, healing touch, and spiritual assessment.

These are the basics of our work. These are our skills. This is what we do.

Do you have thoughts about advocacy you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail to info@PlainViews.org.