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

Advocacy

Once again, continuing the conversation on the use of volunteer chaplains

Volunteer Chaplains –The Last Words, For Now

Editor's note: This topic has clearly touched a lot of our readers. Comments that come in beyond this issue of PlainViews will be located in TalkBack. The original articles were in the August 16 (vol. 3, no. 14) and November 1 (vol. 3, no. 19) issues in case you missed them.

 

My view is that of a volunteer. It is volunteer in the sense of it doesn't pay my bills, I am a chaplain called by God, and when you are called, ministry is full-time 24/7, even when you may have a full-time job not related to ministry that feeds your family and pays the bills.

I don't think the issue should be whether you are full time or part time, volunteer or not, the issue should be the quality of training that a chaplain gets to do the job efficiently. I can be a volunteer chaplain and can do my chaplaincy just as well as one that would be full time. I enjoy being a volunteer because I can minister to several people in multiple locations and applications.

Even if I was a full-time hospital chaplain, I would still provide volunteer services for my community including the homeless, police-fire-EMS, nursing homes, etc., so volunteering isn't all bad and I believe that it pleases God Himself.

Chaplain S. P. Baker
Written Word Ministries
Perrysburg, OH

I have read the postings on volunteer chaplains with great interest. It is easy to look at pastoral/spiritual visiting in black or white terms. In our hospital (The Moncton Hospital) we have volunteers visit new admissions, clarify denominational/faith connections and inform us if further interventions are necessary. We also have a Lay Eucharistic team that distributes communion on Sundays. Further, we have 4 part- time denominational chaplains that are paid by their denominations to visit their adherents. We also have a team of on-call chaplains who are trained and oriented community clergy as well as an on call priest. The role of these volunteers, on call chaplains and denominational chaplains differ from those of the three staff chaplains who have specific assignments and myself as Chief of Pastoral Care (soon to be Spiritual and Religious Care). This range of different spiritual care providers with differing training allows us to get a wider range of coverage than what we would have if we only used paid chaplains. The art is in using each within their clinical competency.

Rev. Lidvald Haugen-Strand
Chief of Spiritual and Religious Care
South East Regional Health Authority
Moncton, New Brunswick
Atlantic Canada

What on earth do we do with all of these Volunteer Chaplains?!

It seems there is truth in all of our arguments. Don't quit your day job! Volunteers threaten job security and vocational image! Professional Pastoral Care vs. Evangelism! Public awareness of the role of a Professional Chaplain. These conversations are incredibly beneficial for us all. Professionals and Volunteers. But what about Certified Professional Volunteers?

Internationally, volunteerism is on the rise and "Professional" Volunteers are offering their services free of charge, i.e., Chaplains, Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, Administrators. In Pastoral Care, do we tell the volunteers "no, go home"? From my perspective volunteerism is the expression of love in our world. In favor of different levels of volunteerism. It seems each hospital's Pastoral Care department can interview and asses "Spiritual Care Volunteers" then discern how best to utilize human compassion, education, and competencies within their organizational system by aligning the different competencies and life experiences with the appropriate ministries available within the healthcare system. We all have a lot to learn from one another how to present with grace and authority our vocation with professionalism to the public, healthcare systems, and beyond. Is "employment," however, the true qualifier to call a Chaplain "Professional"? What then should the role of a Certified Professional Chaplain Volunteer be?

After open heart surgery in 2001 to repair an aortic aneurysm at the age of 39, I was inspired by "one" visit from a hospital Chaplain at Taylor Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. When I recovered I pursued the vocation of Hospital Chaplaincy. Five years later I've completed 4 Units of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and graduated with my Masters in Pastoral Theology in May 2007 with the intention of becoming certified by the Association of Professional Chaplains in 2008. Currently, I'm certified by the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy and I'm a Convener for a Regional Chapter of Chaplains. I began as the first CPE Intern at our regional 350 bed Trauma II faith-based hospital as a "volunteer" with the Spiritual Care Department of three full time and four part time staff Chaplains. Four CPE Interns have followed since my "volunteer" Internship. Five years later I still volunteer with approximately 30 other Spiritual Care Volunteers who function in different ministries depending on their competencies and education. Of course I'd welcome a paycheck and of course we help the hospital's bottom line but we also bring a spiritual presence to the hospital in greater numbers and this brings a greater awareness of the role of Pastoral Care and a genuine spiritually healing environment. I volunteer as part of the hospital's interdisciplinary healthcare team working with Doctors, Nurses, Administrators, other staff members, patients and families. At this point, there are more competent Professional Volunteer Chaplains than there are Chaplain jobs in our valley. We have a choice, however, quit or minister. I prefer to minister. Who knows, maybe I can inspire another volunteer to become a Certified Chaplain. There are too many willing Professional Volunteers to say, "no, go home!"

Cynthia Komlo
St. Mary's Hospital Volunteer Chaplain
Grand Junction, Colorado

 

At my facility in semi-rural South Arkansas, I have used volunteers from the outset. When hired almost ten years ago, I had no CPE training myself, so I have commuted 250 miles roundtrip, through four extended units. Each Tuesday, I left home at 5 a.m. to travel to Little Rock, arriving just before 8 a.m. for a full day of didactics, Inter-personal Relations sessions, Verbatims and floor work. I had to recruit and train volunteers to cover the routine visits and emergency calls in my absence.

I recruited carefully, as I view each volunteer as an extension of my personal and professional ministry. I focused on pastors or associates who have pastoral care experience. Some had CPE, others didn't. As I was just being trained myself, I felt I couldn't require CPE of the volunteers. Now that I have four units, I've decided to become a Supervisor in training for two more units. Then, I hope to become a Certified CPE Supervisor in my own right so that I can lead a CPE Center.

I've stressed continuing education for these volunteers. We meet monthly for training, communication and collegiality. They are considered Allied Health Professionals and as such, have to complete age competencies, have annual evaluations, HIPAA training, and all the other items for a full Human Resources personnel file.

Thanks for letting me join in the dialogue.

Rev. Phil Pinckard, M.Div.
Director of Chaplaincy Services
Medical Center of South Arkansas

 

The Need to Clarify Terminology

The volunteer debate has shown how much concern it is to many chaplaincy departments. It is not isolated to the United States. It is unfortunate that the word “volunteer”has become so prominent in the discussion. The nature of the role the chaplain is expected to perform within the institution is the point at issue. It is not a case of being paid or unpaid. An unpaid, fully trained, competent and full time person is able to fill the function of a professional chaplain provided her/she is endorsed by the Chaplaincy Department and accepted by the Hospital. Dare it be said, “The chaplain must possess the personality and people skills that enables a ready development of responsive trust with both patients and staff.”

In my own practice of chaplaincy I saw the professional chaplain to be an integral part of the multidisciplinary team working in particular units or specialty wards of the institution. The diagnostic and treatment protocols of the various units vary. Differing emotional, physical and spiritual responses to diagnosis and treatment by patients and their relatives are to be expected in units such as renal, haematology, oncology, orthopaedic, neurology, whether medical or surgical.

The professional chaplain working closely with the team in the ward is able to anticipate the patient’s possible medical, psychological and spiritual reactions. The chaplain is able to clarify for the bewildered patient possible outcomes and effects providing positive encouragement thus helping calm the mystic and fears generated. A part-time chaplain whether paid or unpaid who visits a number of wards has little opportunity to develop similar expertise required of the professional chaplain and lacks a professional intimacy with the staff of the unit.

Nurses undertake special courses to enable them to be proficient and capable in their particular ward ministrations. So professional chaplains who are attached to the unit are or should be seen in the unit at least five days per week as well as available at other times of emergency. By this they gain deep insight into the functioning of the unit including gaining the trust and confidence of all members of the team. Thus he/she becomes familiar with the way the unit operates, its procedures and their effects on patients and relatives.

Chaplains assigned to a specific unit attend the weekly clinical meetings when each patient’s case is discussed. The chaplain is expected to contribute to discussions, even to the wisdom of continuing a certain procedure for a particular patient. Late one Friday evening, the consulting specialist had sent a 77 year old debilitated leukaemia patient for an emergency catheter test to locate the site of a leaking blood vessel in the colon. He had reservations about the suitability of such a procedure for a patient of his age and condition. The specialist spent more than 20 minutes with the unit chaplain discussing the pros and cons of performing the procedure because he knew the chaplain understood the case and treatment implications.

The integrated unit chaplain frequently becomes the sounding board for doctors and other unit professionals outside the clinical meetings. That is as much the chaplain’s pastoral responsibility as spending time with patients and relatives. The chaplain's contribution to the staff in this way also is of vital benefit to the patient. The chaplaincy task surely is the offering of pastoral care to all patients, relatives and other members of the unit staff. Thus a full time, unpaid, fully trained chaplain who is a full member of the department is equally able to provide a professional chaplaincy service to a specialized unit as an integrated member of the team.

The question is not paid or volunteer but training, competency and the amount of time committed to the hospital’s pastoral ministry. Above all there should be a sense of a divine call to such a specialized ministry. The differing pastoral care roles within a Chaplaincy department should be clearly defined. The expectations and standards of a unit chaplain should be understood by the part time or full time endorsed denominational visitors and parish clergy who visit their own parishioners. These part time or full time denominational visitors should clearly understand the limits of their roles.

Neville A. Kirkwood, D.Min. MACC.
Retired Chaplain
Former Chairperson, "Civil Chaplaincies Advisory Committee of New South Wales"
Former Secretary and President, the "Australian College of Chaplains"

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

Education & Research

Chaplain Paul Derrickson on a different way to view chaplains

Chaplain As Toxin Handler

I recently encountered an article by Kevin Grigsby, DSW, entitled “Managing Organizational Pain in Academic Health Centers.”[1] Basing his comments on Frost’s and Robinson’s work, Grigsby looks at organizational pain.[2]

As the emotional climate of an organization declines, “organizational toxicity will emerge and manifest in a loss of self worth, feelings of hopelessness, and loss of energy and drive on the part of individuals in the organization.”[3] Business literature has theorized that a particular role, that of “toxin handler,”emerges within some organizations, individuals who “voluntarily shoulder the sadness and anger that are endemic to organizational life.”[4] Toxin handlers are critical to helping the organization manage its pain.

“Organizational pain is the emotional or affective response of individuals in an organization to events occurring in the everyday life of the organization.”[5] Such pain is often produced by a change in leadership, in organizational climate, and/or in pressures on the organization to react to change in external (market) shifts. Often responses to such pain are not helpful and may even undermine the successful elements of the organization.

Frost and Robinson maintain that the “toxin handler”helps the organization in five ways: listening empathetically, suggesting solutions, working behind the scenes to prevent pain, carrying the confidences of others, and reframing difficult messages.

According to Grigsby, “Toxin handlers detect collective anxiety early in the change process …. In effect, toxin handlers play a critical role in the creation of a humane workplace.”[6]

After reading the article, I thought this was a novel, secular way to define the role a Chaplain often plays.

Here are some additional notes from my readings about this topic:

Branimir Schubert points out that there are two fundamental errors organizations make as they confront issues causing pain: ignoring the pain and misdiagnosing it.[7] Schubert quotes Cox and Hover, who identify ten warning signs indicating “pain”in an organization, in their book, Leadership When the Heat’s On:[8]

Symptoms to Watch For
Uncooperative attitudes
Lack of enthusiasm
Absence of commitment
Fault-finding
Increasing complaints
Growing tardiness or absenteeism
Deterioration in appearance or work area
Breakdown of discipline
Long faces
Low morale

Underlying Causes
Lack of [or working outside of] job descriptions
Unclear goals, changing or unrealistic expectations
Poor communication, unapproachable demeanor
Poorly understood organizational structure
Over or under-staffing
Lack of training or interest in job area
Lack of resources
Management is not people-oriented
Inconsistent or unfair performance appraisals
Lack of professional development, no clear career path

They also identify nine good responses:[9]

1. Understand and support
2. Show grace and determination in equal proportions
3. Know when enough is enough
4. Accept pain, both perceived and real, as worthy of attention
5. Be personal
6. Replace programs with processes
7. Hope
8. Be a person of fairness and new opportunities
9. Celebrate

In “Finally a Team,”[10] Clark Cothern lists the “do’s”and “dont’s:”

Do:
1. Be specific
2. Be humble
3. Be compassionate

Don’t:
1. Generalize
2. Blame
3. Retaliate

 

Footnotes:
[1] R. Kevin Grigsby, “Managing Organizational Pain in Academic Health Centers,”Academic Physician and Scientist (January 2006): 2-3. http://www.acphysci.com/aps/resources/PDFs/Jan_06_career.pdf

[2] P. J. Frost and S. Robinson, “The toxic handler: organizational hero and casualty,”Harvard Business Review 77 (4) (July-Aug 1999): 97-106; http://www.compassionlab.com/docs/toxic_handler.pdf P. J. Frost, Toxic Emotions at Work (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003).

[3] Grigsby, p. 1.

[4] Grigsby, p. 1.

[5] Grigsby, p. 1.

[6] Grigsby, p. 2.

[7] Branimir Schubert, “Organizational Pain: Symptoms that your group isn't functioning well–and treatments for the deeper problems”Leadership Journal, Spring 2006, p. 42.

[8] Schubert, p. 43.

[9] Schubert, p. 43-44.

[10] Clark Cothern, “Finally a Team,”Leadership (Spring, 2006), p. 60.

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Paul Derrickson is the Coordinator of Pastoral Services at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He is a Board Certified Chaplain in the Association for Professional Chaplain and an ACPE Supervisor. Professional areas of interest are research in religion’s impact upon health, the congregation’s (and Parish Nurses’) role in healing/health and the evolving role of the chaplain.

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

Spiritual Development

Chaplain Cliff Bond on the high cost of caring

“We Are Surrounded by Insurmountable Opportunities”

These words, spoken many years ago in a comic strip called “Pogo,”fit our situation today. Every day we have many opportunities to give care to those in need of our compassionate services. Every day we feel stretched beyond our ability, time and talent as we try to take care of everything and please everyone. It feels like an impossible, “insurmountable”task. Yet, because we care, we are reflecting on these words, wondering how taking this time away from our work will help us at all.

We care because we care. I looked up “care”in the dictionary and found that it originates from the old English word “caru”which means “sorrow / a troubled state of mind / worry / close attention.”Do you find that interesting? I am absolutely certain that every one of us has experienced some deep hurt in our life. We know that every one of our patients, clients or parishioners has experienced or is experiencing sorrow, a troubled state of mind or worry. That is why they pay close attention to us and our “care”of them. And that is why we “care”for them. What we give is beyond price because it is care that comes out of our care, our “caru.”It is not mere service or tasks done that we offer—we give of our own experience, out of our own hurt, from our own heart. That is why the business we are in is so rewarding, and also so difficult. Truly, we are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities.

My wife is a nurse and I have worked as a hospital chaplain for 25 years. I like nurses, doctors, aides, therapists, pastors, chaplains and all caregivers who provide ministry to the injured, sick and suffering. I enjoy their humor and their compassion. I enjoy the sense of dedication that goes beyond punching a time clock. I also appreciate the need to get away, go home, be on vacation and not think about work because of the high cost of caring.

Years ago my supervisor in chaplaincy training, Ray Bailey, said we needed to have “awareness and intentionality”as caregivers. All of us sense the needs of our patients, clients or parishioners and do what we do because it is the right thing to do. I have no doubt of that. What I am suggesting is that we can do what we do even better and at less emotional cost to ourselves if we keep some basic principles in mind:

We always care—we cannot always cure.
People will always tell us what they need—but sometimes it is in code.
We cannot always connect with everyone every time.
It is important to let go without letting go.
If we do not care for ourselves we won’t be much good for anyone else.
Being selfish is not the same as being self-centered.
Everybody feels guilty about something—help them find forgiveness.
Forgiveness is not the same as making excuses for bad behavior.
Everybody dies, eventually—it is life that is the option.
Being part of the solution is much better than being part of the problem.
Doing the right thing just because we “SHOULD”is pretty lame.
Doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do works much better.

So:
Live long and prosper, (Mr. Spock)
May the Force be with you, (Obi Wan Knobi)
Be cool, (The Fonz)
God bless you. (Me)

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Cliff Bond has worked with clients and families in the Kansas City and Topeka area since 1982 as a chaplain and counselor. Cliff graduated from Baker University in 1978 and completed his masters in Pastoral Care and Counseling at Emory University, Atlanta in 1981. He completed an intern year in Clinical Pastoral Education in 1982 at Bethany Medical Center, Kansas City, KS. During his 22 years as staff chaplain at St. Francis Health Center in Topeka he worked with cancer patients, persons with addictions and their families, presented workshops on numerous topics and has been part of various in-services and grand rounds in the community. Currently he is the Bereavement Coordinator at Heart of America Hospice, Topeka, KS. In his “real life”he lives with his wife Carol, with whom he enjoys going camping and being with their six grandchildren. He also does some occasional drag racing with his ‘89 Mustang.

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

EthicsWalk

EthicsWalk addresses spiritual care as an ethical enterprise. It explores why relationships between spiritual care providers and those they serve need protection, and examines what that protection entails. PlainViews invites our readers to share their responses to each EthicsWalk column, which will be published in the following issue.

If you’d like to respond to EthicsWalk, please send a comment of no more than 100 words. You can use the e-form below (click on "hearing from you," link) or submit your commentary to the editors in the body of an e-mail (or as a Microsoft Word attachment) sent to Info@PlainViews.org. Please put the phrase “EthicsWalk” in your subject line.

We look forward to hearing from you.

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Patient Autonomy v. Family Comfort: The Provider’s Dilemma

Ben, age 56, married father of four adult children, remains on life-support three weeks following a bicycle accident producing massive head injuries. Ben had executed the following Advance Directives: a Living Will, a Health Care Treatment Directive and a Durable Power of Attorney designating his brother Health Care Proxy.[1] A week ago the medical team told the family brain damage was irreversible. Ben would never regain consciousness.

Ben’s family is split over withdrawing life-support. His brother and two of the children argue for immediate withdrawal; his wife and two other children have hired an attorney and are visited daily by their local church minister and hospital chaplain. The clergy both say, “beneficence dictates giving them more time to accept this. There is no rush to withdraw.”The attorney is questioning whether the younger brother is a valid proxy when the wife and adult children are “closer kin.”She threatens to sue if supports are withdrawn before she determines the validity.[2]

The medical team consulted the hospital ethics committee who raised the following points:
•Who is the patient?
•Are there Advance Directives that articulate the patient’s wishes?
•If so, are those wishes being honored?

These are matters of respecting patient autonomy. Beneficence and nonmaleficence accrue to the patient, not the patient’s family, although the latter must be treated with kindness and respect. The technological (and skilled personnel) resources keeping Ben alive are locally limited and extraordinarily costly. There are justice issues involved in prolonged use when the medical team deems further recovery impossible.

Situation analysis: Ben is the patient. Because he cannot communicate and his family is vocal and emotionally charged, their presence is subsuming Ben’s. Ben’s Living Will specifies he does not want “extraordinary measures”to keep him alive but is not dispositive because Ben’s state, like most, limits Living Wills to “terminally ill”individuals.[3]

Ben’s Health Care Treatment Directive follows a popular form available on-line.[4] Ben noted what procedures he never wanted (most of which he is receiving) “when there is no hope of significant recovery, and I have a condition, disease, or injury…without reasonable expectation that I will regain an acceptable quality of life; or substantial brain damage …which cannot be significantly reversed.”

On that form, Ben named his brother as his “agent.”Himself a lawyer, Ben took the added step of executing a separate Power of Attorney for Health Care appointing his brother surrogate decision maker and referencing the previous documents. It instructed his brother to follow those documents and “take any legal action necessary to do what I have directed.”

Ethically and legally, Ben’s clearly stated wishes must be honored. As loving husband and father, he would want his family to have the comfort of professionals sensitive to their grief. But his autonomous choices preclude further extending his life to accommodate family closure.

 

Footnotes:

[1] All designations are forms of Advance Directives. Each has a separate and differently limited purpose and all are subject to the laws of the particular states in which they are drafted and/or applied. Spiritual care providers cannot responsibly confuse the terms and use them interchangeably. It is every provider’s responsibility to read and understand what each term conveys in his or her state and how it is applied in his or her health care institution.

[2] When a proxy or guardian is clearly named by a competent individual, degree of kinship has no bearing on appointment. Probate codes rank relatives and relationships for purposes of appointing surrogates or guardians in cases where there is no one named. This is a spurious argument to “buy”more time for the family.

[3] While the Living Will cannot provide instruction in this situation, its contents provide clear information about the patient’s wishes in medically futile situations.

[4] Sample Form: Health Care Treatment Directive provided by the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and its foundation, the Metropolitan Medial Society of Greater Kansas City, Midwest Bioethics Center and the Missouri Lawyer Trust Account Foundation.

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Anne Underwood has an undergraduate degree in religious studies, a master’s degree in rural sociology and a mid-life law degree obtained after working over a decade as a college administrator. She has mediated for the Maine family courts since 1983. Currently she serves as an advisor to the ethics commissions of ACPE, APC, the CCAR (Central Conference of American Rabbis), and NAJC, and consults with a variety of Protestant faith communities on issues of power, fair process, and congregational conflict management. Her articles on mediation and restorative justice have appeared in the ACPE News, The APC News and on the ACPE web site. Articles on clergy accountability and judicatory processes are published by the Alban Institute and The Journal on Religion and Abuse. A chapter, “Clergy Sexual Misconduct: A Justice Issue,” appears in Body and Soul: Rethinking Sexuality as Justice-Love, Marvin Ellison and Sylvia Thorson-Smith, editors, The Pilgrim Press, 2003.

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CaseConference

We post an ethical or situational concern that has arisen in a facility where one of our readers works. It has no identifiers included. It gives you only the facts of the case. Then, you can respond to that concern. This is an ongoing dialogue, with comments added as they come in. In the following issue, assuming it has been resolved, we give you the outcome from the facility where the incident took place. Please send any cases that you would like considered for inclusion to: info@plainviews.org

We hope that this new addition will help to inform not only those who are dealing with the issue, but will enable all of our readers to learn from the experiences and perhaps mistakes of others.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to unanticipated continuing responses to both the case and the resolution of the case, added responses can be viewed in the archives. Click HERE.

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CaseConference #15 (See responses below)

A group of teenagers appear at the ED with a friend who is unconscious. The police, having been called by the ED, arrive shortly thereafter. Over the course of the next several hours, each teen is interviewed by the police as they try to figure out what happened. The unconscious 17-year-old has alcohol in his blood, indicating that he had been drinking. The ED staff are having a difficult time stabilizing and rousing the teen. He appears to have a head injury as well as a high content of alcohol in his blood. The Chaplain has been called to the ED to help with the family of the injured teenager. At one point, the chaplain sits with two of the teenagers who have yet to be interviewed by the police. They begin to tell the chaplain about “what happened.”The story they tell is somewhat unbelievable –and the “facts”change as they tell their story.

 

If the staff believes that the truth of what happened to this injured teen might save his life, what is the chaplain’s role with the other teens?

What if the two teens have knowledge that could benefit the injured teen but don’t want to reveal it? They are keeping information from medical staff because it might cause a problem for them. Who is the chaplain protecting?

What is the chaplain’s obligation to these two teenagers? Should the chaplain let the teens know that telling the truth would be in their best interests or just listen to them?

What is the chaplain’s responsiblity vis-à-vis telling the police about his/her "suspicion”that the teens are not telling the truth?

 

Responses:

The question which precedes all others is, Was it ethical to call the police to the ED?

The Emergency Department is there to provide medical care for the patient. The medical needs of the patient should be of highest priority. The teens who were present should be questioned by the medical staff, in order to gather information needed for patient care. By calling the police, the ED staff put patient care at risk.

After providing emergency care for the patient, if the staff believed a crime had been committed, the police could have been called.

Martha Lindley
Community Chaplain
Harborview Medical Center
Seattle, WA

As a chaplain who is committed to the spiritual care of those to whom I am called I would feel obligated to encourage these teens to speak the truth. I would ask them to imagine themselves in their friend’s position and ask, “What would be your hope for and expectation of your friends?”And I would ask them to accept their responsibility in helping to save his/her life. In offering spiritual support to these teens I am committed to their spiritual well-being. That means that if there is need for confession and forgiveness I would listen but I would also encourage and support that process, helping them to recognize that forgiveness does not let them off the hook in terms of responsibility and culpability. Rather, I would remind them that confession and forgiveness frees them to do the right thing on behalf of their friend. I would offer to be present with them, if they wished, while they spoke to the medical team about what happened.

It is the chaplain’s role to be present to and to listen to those who are in spiritual distress. One way to do that is to help them to find their way through this maze of what has happened and how they should respond. Fear of getting in trouble versus telling what happened to save a friend’s life is a powerful spiritual conundrum and the chaplain is the person who can help these young people walk through it.

I would also inform these young people of my obligation to tell the medical staff any information I have that would save this patient’s life, or impact his/her care. Since these teenagers had not yet spoken to the police I am a little unclear as to what I might do. In my hospital, I would speak with the social worker (who would also have been called and is our designated liaison to the police) about the discrepancy in stories so that s/he could be aware of this. I would also encourage the teenagers to be truthful and brave. Again, I would offer to be present with them when they spoke to the police and if they accepted that offer I would inform the police of this request. I would not convey information to the police.

Doreen Duley, BCC
Director of Pastoral Care
Children’s Hospital of Alabama

 

 

Please check the archives below for comments made about the last CaseConference.

 

Send your comments about CaseConference to info@PlainViews.org.

Reviews

Sarah Masters reviews the documentary

Three Faiths, One God

Three Faiths, One God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam captures a fascinating interreligious dialogue on film. This documentary explores the similarities between scriptural texts and religious practices as well as the historical conflicts and differences between the three faiths, and the crisis of the fundamentalist approach to religious pluralism. The bottom line: Individuals of the Abrahamic faiths share basic human values.

As Karen Armstrong, author of The History of God, states at the opening of the film: “Jews, Christians, and Muslims have developed markedly similar notions of the divine though often working in isolation and hostility with one another.”The filmmakers highlight the many different ways that the Islamic way of life parallels the Jewish way of life, the fact that all three religions worship a compassionate deity and that all adhere to the Ten Commandments.

The lively dialogue also focuses on common misperceptions amongst practitioners of these religions. A major stumbling block for Muslims, for example, is the Christian belief in the Trinity. To many Muslims, this connotes a Christian belief in three Gods.

There are many illuminating references to history. The Golden Age of Spain under Muslim rule involved true collaboration between Christians, Jews, and Muslims in commerce, art, and academia. Maimonides philosophized in both Arabic and Hebrew and, when the Jews were exiled from Spain, many sought to dwell in lands ruled by Muslims.

Judea Pearl, father of Danny Pearl, the Wall Street Journal investigative report who was murdered in Pakistan by Muslim extremists, calls for interfaith efforts to reach the Muslim teachers who train students in the teachings of the Koran. He notes that interfaith dialogue with fundamentalists needs to be based on Islam. Karen Armstrong adds: “If we wish to neutralize the fundamentalists of any religion, we need to guarantee them a place under the sun.”

A partial list of the distinguished participants in this dialogue include: Bishop John Chane, National Cathedral, Diocese of Washington, DC; Dr. Krister Stendahl, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Divinity School; Dr. Marc Gopin, Director, Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution; Akbar Ahmen, Chair of Islamic Studies, American University; Dr. Diana Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion, Harvard Divinity School; Rabbi Irving Greenburg, Former Chairman, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council; Dr. Maria Menocal, Professor of Medieval Studies, Yale University; Eboo Patel, Executive Director, Interfaith Youth Core, Chicago, IL; Dr. Jane Smith, Hartford Seminary; Dr. Reuven Firestone, Author of Children of Abraham: Introduction of Judaism for Muslims; Bishop Kenneth Cragg, Church of England; Alma Abdul Hadi Jadallah, Institute for Conflict Analysis, Washington, DC; Rev. John Mack, United Congregational Church of Christ, Washington, DC; and Imam Feisal Rauf, Author of What’s Right with Islam.

Reuven Firestone, Professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam at Hebrew Union College notes that, “The film does not shy away from discussing the tensions between our competing religious systems. It does not try to paper over real differences. But it treats these in a non-polemical way that encourages real consideration of how the great monotheistic religions have interrelated with one another over centuries and millennia.”As Chaplains who minister to these three faiths, you will be drawn in.

 

Completed: 2005
Directors: Gerald Krell and Meyer Odze

If you are interested in purchasing this DVD, you can do so at www.hartleyfoundation.org. Just click on “Masterworks”on the homepage for more information. The cost is $ 29.95.

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Sarah Masters is the Managing Director of the Hartley Film Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to cultivation, support, production and distribution of the best documentaries and audio meditations on world religions, spirituality, ethics and well-being.

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Book Review

Rev. Charles J. Lopez, Jr., reviews

Guided by the Spirit: A Jesuit Perspective On Spiritual Direction

Frank Houdek has several working assumptions about God and the person seeking spiritual direction: God exists; God exercises a caring concern for the human family; there is a personal God; God is knowable; and God invites us into a relationship with God and with one another. The person seeking spiritual direction needs to have: the capacity for self-reflection; verbal skills; and a sense of the mystery in his/her life (i.e. experience, reflection, articulation).

Houdek writes that spiritual direction is an art involving conversation and dialogue; it is the work of the Spirit of God; it expresses faith and mystery with an emphasis on prayer and spiritual discernment. Furthermore, spiritual direction is neither psychological counseling nor is it psychotherapy; nor is it simply solving problems or making decisions; nor is it time for friends to get together for a chat. Spiritual direction is Spirit driven.

I enjoyed the story of George Bernard Shaw’s play St. Joan (Joan of Arc) when the presiding judge asks, “Do you mean to tell us that you hear voices?”Joan pauses and replies, “Doesn’t everyone?” (4) In spiritual direction we, too, hear voices…the voice of the Spirit working in our hearts and in our minds.

There are four useful chapters discussing the directee and the process of spiritual growth; particular types of directees and their needs; prayer and spiritual discernment; and the director and the process of direction. Houdek underscores the notion that God is the initiator in the process of spiritual direction. The role of the spiritual director is “not getting in the way of God’s action.”This thought needs to be uppermost in what we do as spiritual directors. This process is not about us…it is about following God’s lead. It is God’s Spirit that actually directs the person and each person is unique before the living God.

As a spiritual director I need to come to an awareness that one cannot live without God. Prayer is not just a part of life, it is all of life. Also, I appreciated the signs of a “good-spirited”directee (119 ff), for example: a good-spirited directee is one who is growing in personal responsibility, freedom, and maturity, as well as one who is developing Christian virtue, particularly the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

St. Irenaeus once wrote, “…that the glory of God is the human person fully alive…”In chapter 4, both director and directee need to be aware of transference (directed at the spiritual director) and countertransference (directed at the directee) issues. When these transference/countertransference issues occur in the spiritual direction session, it becomes necessary to terminate the spiritual direction sessions and make a referral to a counselor or psychotherapist. Supervision is essential for anyone practicing spiritual direction. I heard again that the role of the spiritual director is not to get in the way of God’s action. In addition, I found the emphasis on hospitality to be appropriate in setting the tone and welcoming the directee. The spiritual director needs to create a sense of ease, a safe haven, and a place of comfort in order for the directee to relax and share their stories thereby allowing the Spirit to do the work.

Houdek, Frank J., SJ. Guided by the Spirit: A Jesuit Perspective on Spiritual Direction (Chicago: Loyola Press, 1996) pp 181.

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The Rev. Charles J. Lopez, Jr., PhD, Spiritual Care/Chaplain, Trinity Care Hospice, Torrance, California (Torrance Team). Pr. Lopez is a clergy member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Pacifica Synod.

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