Re: Mirabai Galashan: Calling - the Missing Element (PlainViews, 1/29/09, Vol. 6, No. 24)
Galashan's article was profound! In my recent CPE class we had to read a book by Wimberley which focused upon the significance of calling for pastors and others. In my two years here at the hospital, I have not heard one discussion about calling as a criterion.
Keep up the GREAT work.
David Grieger
St Francis Hospital
Palliative Medicine
Indiana
Mirabai Galashan's article regarding "calling" parallels a conversation members of our chaplaincy team recently had with a director of social work. He is also director for spiritual care and strives to understand our world. He acknowledged that social workers lack a sense of "call" even if they may have a passion for their work and a sense that this is the place they are "meant" to be. However, there is no expectation that there is a "transcendent summons."I would add a caution, however, that "many are called but few are chosen." (Matthew 22:14) A person's sense of call is, by APC standards, measured not against professionalism (which can too often lead to elitism and exclusivism, as noted by Mirabai) but through demonstration of competence. Calling and competence are both essential so that one who feels called is not blindly operating out of lofty intent without attendant sensitivity and skill. Likewise, competence without heart is a loveless professionalism that will not connect to a hurting patient, family, or staff member. I thank the author for sparking some reflection on my part. May my tacked on thoughts provoke a similar response in others.
Alex Chamberlain BCC
Staff Chaplain
St. Luke's Meridian Medical Center
Meridian, Idaho
I appreciate Chaplain Galashan's article. It seems to me she is addressing the same issue that the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy touches on in its motto "The Recovery of Soul." Perhaps it would be good to have respectful dialog with, or presentation from, CPSP representatives in PlainViews.
Don Marsh, D. Min., BCCC
Director of Mission, Values, and Ethics
Adventist Medical Center
Portland OR
Kudos to Chaplain Mirabai Galashan for her insightful article regarding the importance of "A Calling." I look forward to hopefully finding her thesis "From Atheist to Zoroastrianism" because I continue to be discouraged by those in our profession who insist on identifying chaplaincy with religion.
Rev. Fran Bates BCC
Chaplain Advocate Condell Hospital
Libertyville, Il
A Thank you to PlainViews
PlainViews is truly a valuable resource for me on many levels! I am so grateful to receive every issue. Hoping that the stories I emailed are of use to other chaplains. The experiences were without a doubt challenging & unique & would welcome dialogue.
Blessings
Dina Mann, Chairman
The Episcopal Response to AIDS in the Diocese of New York
New York City, NY
Re: Nancy Berlinger, M. Div., Ph.D.: Owning It (PlainViews, 1/6/09, Vol. 6, No. 23) I just want to thank you for Nancy Berlinger’s article on bioethics and her present reading list.
That is so helpful! I will definitely check out her book recommendations.
Thank you!
Rev. James Brandis STM, BCC
Corporate Chaplain
Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran
Retirement Services, Inc.
Niles, OH
Australian Journal of Pastoral Care and Health – free on-line journal latest issue!
You’ve probably started to settle in to the year 2010, but please don’t get too settled. Judging from some material put together at the end of 2009, interesting changes lie ahead for you.
To check that out, take a look at the December 2009 edition of the Australian Journal of Pastoral Care and Health. The latest edition of this free on-line journal is now on the website. Go to: www.pastoraljournal.org.au
One sign of those changes ahead is in a journal news report about the final national conference in Melbourne, 7-11 February, of the Australian Health and Welfare Chaplains Association. That will also be the inaugural conference and launch of Spiritual Care Australia (SCA), an event well worth attending.
The new organisation will welcome chaplains, pastoral care and spiritual care workers of all faith traditions and involved in a wide range of fields. The presentations and workshops at the conference will reflect that breadth.
That development connects with one of the articles in the journal’s latest edition that offers its own comments on the changes taking place: “Australia is now a culturally and religiously diverse society. This diversity is also bringing the spiritual dimension of human life into focus in healthcare settings,” says the author, Coralie Kingston. She notes the impact this is having on the delivery of healthcare – from teachings about death through to attitudes on modesty and medication.
The latest Australian Journal of Pastoral Care and Health has plenty more: spirituality in mental health, spiritual assessment tools and a look at meditation resources on line, for example.
The journal has a growing number of subscribers – the total is now 305 – all over the world. It aims to help dialogue among pastoral carers, chaplains, spiritual carers and other health care providers in Australia, and beyond.
We think you’ll find it interesting and we welcome your responses.
Harriet Ziegler and Bruce Best,
Acting Editors
Health Care Reform: Opportunities and Challenges in Palliative Care Report Available
This is a news report of a roundtable discussion about Palliative Care moderated by Diane Meier. To access this report, go to:
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/jpm.2010.9852?cookieSet=1
New Resource from Mental Health Ministries: Mental Illness and Families of Faith: the Challenge and the Vision
A four session resource/study guide for clergy and communities of faith is available in response to the many questions and requests for information that MHM has received from persons who want to include spirituality as an important part of the treatment and recovery process.
Surveys show that over forty percent of Americans seeking help with mental health issues turn first to ministers, priests and rabbis. This is twice as many as those who went first to a psychiatrist, psychologist or family physician. Unfortunately, the response of clergy and congregations falls significantly short of what parishioners expect of their faith leaders. Individuals struggling with mental illness are significantly less likely to receive the same level of pastoral care as persons in the hospital with physical illnesses, persons who are dying or those who have long-term illnesses. Mental illness has been called the “no casserole disease.”
This resource is designed to be used with clergy, members of congregations, family members and anyone desiring to learn more about mental illness and how to respond with compassion and care. It can be used as a small group study or leaders can adapt it to use in an extended class or seminar. Faith leaders can use this guide to quickly find information on a specific topic when the need arrives.
The four sections included in this resource/study guide include:
• Understanding Mental Illness
• The Unique Role of Faith Communities
• Creating Caring Congregations
• Help for Faith Leaders.
This is a FREE resource that can be downloaded on the Mental Health Ministries website as a PDF document. Go to: http://mentalhealthministries.net/links_resources/study_guide.html.
Re: Jodie Fortunick, Feeling Free to Make another Decision (PlainViews, 12/16/09, Vol 6., No. 21) Rabbi Futornick has it exactly right. By listening to others concerns, we can lower defensive barriers that block the ability to consider multiple options. Being backed into a corner (in a low power position) brings out behavior that plainly says, "You are not listening to my concerns." By inviting input, we encourage families to partner with us, sharing the power that is needed to make sense out of overwhelming circumstances.
David Martin, DMin, BCC
Director of Spiritual Care
Lifeline Chaplaincy
Fort Worth, TX
Re: Annette Olsen, Olsen's BASIC-6 (PlainViews, 12/16/09, Vol 6., No. 21) I am a relatively new palliative medicine chaplain. The Basic-6 Screens were VERY helpful to me, and I plan to share them with other chaplains in the hospital, as a resource and tool.
Thanks so much.
David Grieger
St Francis Hospital
Palliative Medicine
Beech Grove, IN
Re: Mark La-Rocca Pitts review Medicine, Religion, and Health (PlainViews, 12/16/09, Vol 6., No. 21)
I have heard other chaplains express a similar despair to that voiced by Dr. LaRocca-Pitts in his review of Harold Koenig's book, Medicine, Religion, and Health, and I confess to feeling mystified by such expressions on our part. The assumption that underlies these sorts of comments by professionals in the field of Chaplaincy is that we are either falling down in our duty to "lead the charge", or failing to do the basic science that proves our worth. Dr. Elizabeth McSherry challenged chaplains and CPE supervisors to engage in primary research in our field in the mid-1980's. This challenge did not go unheeded. Colleagues like Larry VandeCreek, George Fichette, Paul Derrickson, and Art Lucas to name but a few have worked diligently as both researches and advocates in the field. Dr. Koenig's interests do not arise out of a vacuum. It is true that his conviction, interests and dedication to research related to his field are a source of support and data to support our own. I surmise we (that is professional chaplain's) through our work and research have had their impact on the Koenig's and Puchalski's of the medical world. We can celebrate their work, accomplishments and advocacy and still value the work being done by dedicated colleagues in our own field. We have not been silent.
Gregory A. Stoddard, D.Min,
BCC Director of Chaplaincy Services
The Reading Hospital and Medical Center
Reading, PA
Request for Information about Dashboarding
My director has asked me to start a dashboard. I wanted to find out from other chaplains what activities you use for your dashboards.
Thanks!
Chaplain Tom Chopp
Monroe Clinic
Monroe, WI
tom.chopp@monroeclinic.org
Re: Nancy Berlinger, M. Div., Ph.D.: Lost in Translation? (PlainViews, 11/4/09, Vol. 6, No. 19) I read "Lost in Translation". Thank you so much for highlighting the importance and need of providing bi-lingual and bi-cultural chaplains to the patients and their families, as well as to the medical community as a whole. I am one of them and it is such a great reward to be able to help facilitate a process by which we are not only offering and providing emotional, spiritual support to patients and families, but also to the medical community. I currently work for a Hospice Agency in Southern California and again, it's my joy and blessing to be able to help and offer support to our large Hispanic community. Once again, thank you Nancy for a down to earth and yet profound message.
Peace to you!
Rev. Kenneth O. Garcia, M. Div.
Re: Lincoln Engelbert: A New Setting for Chaplaincy (PlainViews, 9/3/2008, Vol. 5, No. 15)
In response to Chaplain Sue Shady's concern about not offering RC Communion to non-Catholic patients,
my response would be: "It is their tradition to offer Communion to only our Catholic patients; if you so desire, I will ask your own pastor to come and give you Communion or I will celebrate Communion with you."
A theological discussion on Open, Close and Closed Communion practices with the patient is outside our score of practice as medical chaplains. We have the same practice here at Monroe Clinic, a sponsored by the Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes, Lay Eucharistic Ministers offer Communion to Catholic patients only. However, once in a while I hear about a Lutheran or Episcopal patient asking and receiving the Sacrament from them. Yet, it is an exception, not the rule. As chaplains it is our duty to honor the religious traditions of our patients and our host hospital's religious traditions, even if we may personally disagree with them.
Tom Chopp, M.Div.
Staff Chaplain
Monroe Clinic
Monroe, WI
Join an Online Community for Education and Discussion of Important Treads in our Field
Pastoral Care Leadership Network
http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2423971/
To get started, click on the link above and request to join the group.
If you have not used this “free” service before, please go to http://www.linkedin.com/ and enter the basic information to establish an account.
YOUR input is needed for this Continuing Education Survey
HealthCare Chaplaincy is considering providing materials to aid in the continuing education of those in the pastoral care field. We would like your help in determining the best technological formats to deliver them.
Would you please give us a few minutes of your time by answering the following questions? You can help by checking the most appropriate answer for you and, where appropriate, writing in your response.
The information that you provide will not be attributed to any individual. The demographic questions at the end are purely to help us describe the sample of people who responded as a group.
We greatly appreciate your help. You can participate by clicking on the link below by December 1.
https://secure.healthcarechaplaincy.org/checkbox/Survey.aspx?i=c913875176ad4c01adba49293b65d885
Thank you!
Kathy Jankowski, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
College of Pastoral Care
HealthCare Chaplaincy
New York, NY
Re: Joan Paddock Maxwell: Approaches to Chaplaincy Care for Prospective Amputees (PlainViews, 11/4/09, Vol. 6, No. 19)
I very much appreciated Joan's excellent article on ministry to amputees. As a hospice chaplain, amputation of limbs is not something across which I come very often but the ritual aspect of anointing and, of course, giving space for ALL concerns to be aired, is so valuable. You are also a very beautiful writer, Joan . . . I hope to read more from you in the future!
Would like to connect with other Hospice chaplains....
Blessings,
Rev. Laura M. Edwards
Montgomery Hospice
Rockville, MD
Re: George Fitchett: Physicians’ Satisfaction with Chaplains (PlainViews, 11/4/09, Vol. 6, No. 19) It’s always good to see George Fitchett’s comments on a subject and I found his thoughts to be particularly interesting. I was quite taken with the work of Dr. Wendy Cadge at the Spiritual Care Collaborative. (http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/sociology/cadge.html.) One of the things that she suggested is that well-integrated departments focus less on standards and ethics (the mark of a good professional, but perhaps more focused on the individual) and think in terms of asking what is the unique area of expertise where we are counted on to do the job so well that no one would consider proceeding without us. For example, when taking a patient to emergency surgery, no one would think to ask “Who’s the anesthesiologist on-call?” and to skip calling them if they didn’t like the answer!
Dr. Fitchett’s research shows that we are moving in the right direction. I think that the indicator regarding previously positive experiences in the area of spirituality and pastoral care leading to an increase in satisfaction makes perfect sense. I would also guess that it leads to an increase in referrals to pastoral care. If collaborating with a chaplain helps you, either by helping the family make decisions, or by reducing the sense of stress in the room, etc, then common sense says that you’d want to keep working with that person to make your own life easier and to provide a benefit to your patient.
I would suggest that in order for our profession to continue down this important path, consistency in quality is the key factor for us to focus on. If the physician comes to accept (perhaps unconsciously) that s/he gets this same high level of service no matter who s/he calls (or when), it is likely to cement his/her positive feelings. If the quality provided varies too much, perhaps because of a difference in the education or skill set of the person on-call, then s/he might develop a favorite chaplain (which isn’t all bad), but we would miss taking the next critical step together … which is the stage of automatically thinking “page Pastoral Care now!” whenever such situations arise.
Thanks for the article; I’m circulating it to a few physicians to remind them of the good work that they already do in this regard … and perhaps to help them encourage their colleagues in a similar manner.
Cordially,
D.W. “Donovan”
Faculty, University of Phoenix
Re: Nancy Berlinger, M. Div., Ph.D.: Lost in Translation? (PlainViews, 11/4/09, Vol. 6, No. 19) I so much am seeing that our common dilemma as chaplains is so very often about speaking, saying something: "To speak or not to speak, that is the question." I often so simply put it in prayer as Solomon did for "a wise and discerning" heart/mind: to put the right words. It isn't hard to pray about as Joan Paddock Maxwell wrote, "To shut up." Isn't it really hard to be silent and as Stanislavsky, the great acting teacher said: "Don't just do something, stand there!" I'm still learning!
Dina Mann
New York, NY
Re: Lincoln Engelbert: A New Setting for Chaplaincy (PlainViews, 9/3/2008, Vol. 5, No. 15) I would like to respond to comments on pastoral care in oncology outpatients. I am an Anglican chaplain in a secular acute hospital with a busy oncology outpatients and day treatment unit. I visit regularly as part of my rounds and offer Holy Communion by extension if appropriate. Sometimes this takes place in the treatment ward, bed or chair side, if the patient is not able to move to one of the quiet interview rooms. Many patients do not feel well enough between treatments or appointments to attend their own church so these services linked are very important. Others are no longer members of a church and many have not taken Holy Communion for many years for them these are powerful moments of healing and reconcilliation. I am ecumenical in offering both pastoral care and communion. Often one encounter in the treatment ward or waiting area will lead to other patients asking for spiritual care. In my experience it is worth being visible in outpatients and day treatment areas because many patients value both spiritual and religious care from a chaplain in a context where they feel vulnerable and in need of support.
Kathy Collins
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Wrexhm, North Wales, United Kingdom
Issue 5 of the series Practical Bearings: The Critical Bibliography for Health Care Chaplains is now online at HealthCare Chaplaincy’s website “The Management of Care: Literature on Leadership and Organizational Development,” Issue 5 of the series Practical Bearings: The Critical Bibliography for Health Care Chaplains is now online at HealthCare Chaplaincy’s website: www.healthcarechaplaincy.org/practicalbearings. Author The Rev. Dr. Martin Montonye, Director of Clinical Pastoral Education at HealthCare Chaplaincy, seeks both to inform and to stimulate dialogue within the pastoral care community: “A great deal has been written on the subject of leadership, but definitions and explanations vary widely.” With a reader feedback tool linked to the paper, he encourages reader’s responses as to what they believe are some of the strengths and challenges pastoral professionals face as leaders. He asks, “In light of the unique preparation and role of pastoral professionals, is there a distinct developmental process you must engage in to move from the bedside to the boardroom?”
News from the Joint Commission and the Department of HHS Office for Civil Rights
Free video supports language access in health care organizations
The Joint Commission and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights have released a free video, "Improving Patient-Provider Communication," that supports language access in health care organizations.
Many patients of varying circumstances require alternative communication methods, and this video helps health care organizations determine the best methods for meeting these communication needs.
The video:
• Identifies tools that health care organizations can use to build effective language access programs.
• Explains why particular attention should be paid to Federal civil rights standards and Joint Commission standards for effective communication and language access.
• Addresses the obligations of health care organizations with respect to the translation of written documents.
The video is available on The Joint Commission’s Hospitals, Language, and Culture Web site, http://www.jointcommission.org/PatientSafety/HLC/, or on the Office of Civil Rights Web site at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/resources/specialtopics/hospitalcommunication/index.html.
Re: Silvana Krogsrud: Providing Pastoral Care to Persons who are Transgendered (PlainViews, 10/21/09, Vol. 6, No. 18)
When providing pastoral care to transgendered persons (and yes I agree we are all "imago dei" and Adonai doesn't make junk), a helpful Scriptural reference is the voice of the Shulamite, who was markedly the "other" in Song of Songs (I did a transgendered Beyonce guided meditation out of the Shulamite's lens for my Prophets class)... Another resource is the Queer Bible Commentary.
Donna Zuroweste
Chaplain in training
MDiv. in process @ Aquinas Institute
of Theology
St. Louis, MO
I agree with Clinebell, that pastoral caregivers should understand LGBTQ, but I don’t agree that pastoral caregivers should walk a mile or even less in their shoes. Pastoral caregiver should understand LGBTQ, hurt in their lives. And, as pastoral caregivers we should understand on how to lead the LGBTQ, to Christ to be transformed mentally, physically, and spiritually. In a more personal statement, I believe that as pastoral caregiver, our skills should not change, just provide the most important skill in pastoral care: listening skills.
Rev. Miguel Ramos, Jr.
Hospice Chaplain
Dallas. TX
Thank you for your article on ministering to transgendered persons in the most recent issue of PlainViews.
It brought back memories for me. As an ACPE Supervisory Candidate several years ago, I supervised a transgendered seminarian in the very first unit of CPE I supervised!! This student was amazing--his reflection process in CPE, as well as the process of learning within the group.
Another resource I have found helpful, as recommended by a friend and colleague, is Mollenkott's Omnigender (book). A seasoned chaplain at a staff chaplains' retreat yesterday stated (in relationship to a film clip and discussion about the movie Philadelphia) something like,“we as chaplains do not minister to a lifestyle but to the soul of the person, to the child of God that is created in the image of God.”
Thanks again for your reflection and sharing in PlainViews.
Rev. Janet Barriger, MDiv, ACPE
Manager of Clinical Pastoral Education
St Anthony North Hospital
Westminster, CO
Re: George F. Handzo:Board Certified Chaplaincy Integration through Consensus
(PlainViews, 10/21/09, Vol. 6, No. 18)
I really appreciated George Handzo’s article in PlainViews. It stretched my thinking and helped me to realize that my role in advocacy is not just promoting my views of what chaplaincy is, but working with others outside of chaplaincy to create a broader picture. I agree with you, that the benefits outweigh the liabilities. Nice work.....with Palliative Care and the article.
Thanks,
Rev. Dick Cathell, Ph.D., BCC
Chaplain and Administrative Liaison
Health Ministries Network
St. Joseph Hospital
2901 Squalicum Parkway
Bellingham, Washington
Just to say: One of the people at that gathering, Kay Sandor, is from our “shop” here at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. She has already met with my colleague and me to debrief/share/plan how we might can use some of the statements that came out of the collaboration. A wonderful step!
John W. Riley
Director, Pastoral Care
University of Texas Medical Branch
Galveston, TX
Re: Lincoln Engelbert: A New Setting for Chaplaincy (PlainViews, 9/3/2008, Vol. 5, No. 15)
I read Rev. Engelbert's article and found it interesting. I work as a chaplain in an out-patient oncology clinic. I have found ways to work in this setting also. One helpful tool is having a brochure for our Spiritual Care Dept. with the telephone #of my office. I also put give them my name and hours and encourage folks who seem to want pastoral care to call me when they'd like me to visit--I am part-time, 20 hours a week.
I have a special request. At present our priest chaplain brings communion to folks in the relatively small infusion treatment room. Some folks feel this problematic as it is just for Catholics and seems exclusive etc. I would love to hear from others working in this setting to hear how they handle it. Ours was a RC hospital and is no longer, but we still have part-time priest services for sacraments.
Thanks,
Sue Shady
Rochester, NY
Re: Jerry Carter: Breaking Through (PlainViews, 10/7/09, Vol. 6, No. 17) I want to thank Chaplain Jerry Carter for his article, "Breaking Through." The illustration of the cardinal captures well the frustration we often experience in these kinds of situations and I, too, would like to think that communication is the key to enabling all parties to "break through." This article will be featured on our Ethics Web Page as the next Article of the Month.
Thanks again Jerry for writing this!
Mark LaRocca-Pitts, PhD, BCC
Athens, GA
Re: David Daniel Klipper: CPE Is Hard (PlainViews, 10/7/09, Vol. 6, No. 17) Thank you to Rabbinic Pastor David Daniel Klipper to his wonderful piece "CPE is Hard." I have made copies of it and shared it with two seminarians who will soon be taking CPE and who think that all that matters is that a chaplain pray with a person! My own experience as a patient several years ago was that praying with some clergyperson was the last thing that I wanted; what I really wanted was someone to sit down and listen! Save us from the "programmed pray-ers and their programmed prayers!!!!
Fran Bates BCC
Chaplain, Advocate Condell Medical Center
Libertyville, IL
Re: Nancy Berlinger: The Phlebotomist and the Interpreter (PlainViews, 10/7/09, Vol. 6, No. 17)
The article, "Improving the Quality of Spiritual Care as a Dimension of Palliative Care: The Report of the Consensus Conference," mentioned in Talk Back in this issue presents spiritual care in palliative care as the job of all members of the team. The BCC is the spiritual care professional on the team whose task it is to help other team members provide appropriate spiritual care as well as handle the "hard cases". The full report of this conference to be published as a monograph will go into a lot more detail on the appropriate training in spititual care for each discipline and their roles in assessment and delivery of spiritual care.
George Handzo
Vice President, Pastoral Care Leadership and Practice
HealthCare Chaplaincy
New York, NY
A very important report for chaplains to read: Improving the Quality of Spiritual Care as a Dimension of Palliative Care: The Report of the Consensus Conference is now available free on line at http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/jpm.2009.0142. The conference was notable for the central role played by Board Certified Chaplains among the forty participants. The report highlights the role of Board Certified Chaplains as the spiritual care professionals on the palliative care team. It will only be available for free until the end of October.
Re: Melinda Nasti: Are We Ready (PlainViews, 9/16/09, Vol. 6, No. 16) Melinda Nast raises some good questions. Most cannot be answered until the time of an epidemic comes.
My simplified solution: show up, serve as you are able, and let God handle the rest.
Phil Cox, Ph.D.
Pastoral Care Director
Phelps County Regional Medical Center
Rolla, MO
Re: Nancy Berlinger: Can’t We Make Moral Judgments? (PlainViews, 9/2/09, Vol. 6, No. 16)
I wanted to send a thank-you to Nancy for mentioning "Slow Medicine" in one of your articles some time ago. Dr. Dennis McCullough presented his material yesterday at our annual ethics workshop. Reading about him from your article, I read his book and later contacted him. He is a delightful and insightful individual. The hospital audience thoroughly enjoyed his presentation. So, for planting the seed, I send you my and the hospital's thanks.
Dennis Rock
Manager of the Pastoral Care Department
BryanLGH Medical Center
Lincoln, NE
I am bound to report incidences of child abuse to the proper authorities. I am not a Catholic priest bound by the seal of confession. The hospital in which I volunteer (and state laws) requires me to report any such incidences. I am not in the role of judge, social worker or policeman. My role is to provide spiritual assistance to those in traumatic situations. I may certainly provide spiritual assistance but, that does not override my bound obligation to report child abuse.
Barry Phillips
Deacon Candidate
Anderson, SC
Re: Karen Weldy: The Prayer Shawl Companion (PlainViews, 9/16/09, Vol. 6, No. 16) I appreciated reading both Karen’s professional and personal review of this book.
I am blessed to minister as a chaplain in a hospital. I have been a witness to many patients’ gratitude regarding their prayer shawls.
I would like to add one more story about this wonderful ministry. One day as I was speaking with a patient, I noticed a prayer shawl lovingly draped across her knees. As I asked her about its story, she replied, “This shawl was given to my husband when he was a cancer patient in the hospital. After he died I decided to use it, for it keeps my husband close to me.”
I was amazed for this shawl, which was originally knit to comfort this woman’s husband, was now comforting her as well.
We have a volunteer group who knit prayer shawls for cancer patients at our hospital. Our Palliative Care volunteer brings them to the patient’s room. This group knitted the prayer shawl for the patient’s (who I spoke with) husband. In the past when I’ve seen this group knitting, I stopped by to let them know how meaningful their shawls are to our patients and their families.
God bless all of you shawl knitters. Your shawls keep on giving….
Jan Izzo, Board Certified Chaplain
Central DuPage Hospital
Winfield, IL
Re: Walter Smith and Health Care Reform (PlainViews, 9/16/09, Vol. 6, No. 16)
Thank you very much for the connection to the presentation by The Rev. Walter J. Smith, S.J., Ph.D. called Health Care Reform: A Compendium of Key Issues for Religious Leaders (Plainviews 9/16/2009 Vol. 6, No. 16).
Because of the timeliness, clarity and excellence of this presentation may I suggest that "PlainViews" make a special edition that publishes just this presentation.
Thank You,
John P. Stangle,
BCC NACC Chaplain Advanced Emeritus
Re: Peggy Muncie: Where are the Chaplains Voices in Health Care Reform (PlainViews, 8/19/09, Vol. 6, No. 14) I followed this health care debate from the very beginning. We do have to look at what is practical and we don't have to go back for this to our founding Fathers. We have to look at what is practical today, not yesterday not tomorrow what is practical at the present moment. I am in this discussion for as long as it has been going on. I even do receive emails from the White House with expressions of appreciation. What I see happening that the whole debate runs into a frop. Is it ethical people who have real interest in the failure have spend 378 Million Dollars to make it fail. If it were up to me there would be no negotiations with insurance companies. A one payer system can work very well in every country including the United States. If we use our conscience sub-conscience than we have to give in that the whole class system has no place in healthcare. Everyone should be treated equally. It at this point that we as chaplains are doing our job to stand up for the patient not for a class system. Was anyone treated differently in the time of Jesus, He should be our model as chaplains and preachers for us there should be such thing as a class system. It is morally wrong if we as chaplains do defend such a thing. Advising your President has been for me a real effort and my vocation tells me that this is the right thing to do. "Is any among you suffering? I any among you sick? Let him/her call for the elders of the assembly and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick through the anointing." See the very last part of the Apostle James 5. Health care as I see is in your country an object of profit. The service element is totally going by means of this. As chaplains we are serving the people of God that is our given vocation and we need to stand up for this, so that we not run into people who are sharing with you. I have received the bills and the future looks grim, because I have to sell my house!
With My Greetings and Prayer.
John Flipsen Dcn
New Twitter Feed for Chaplains
Greetings chaplain, clergy & spiritual care colleagues,
I recently started a simple twitter feed to post links to helpful chaplaincy advocacy and education resources as well as some basic notes on certain chaplaincy-related seminars- most recently an excellent webinar on "Screening for Spiritual Struggle" with James Fitchett and Jay Risk of Rush Univ Med Center. They both have done some pioneering work in areas of spiritual assessment and outcomes-based approaches to spiritual care.
Here is a link to my humble chaplaincy twitter feed:
http://www.twitter.com/ChaplainJohnO
Please note: This is an collection of resources on chaplaincy on spiritual care and is not in any way associated with or sponsored by my place of service, denomination or professional organizations.
Also, I welcome comments, feedback, resources, dialogue, etc.
Blessings & peace to you on the journey,
Rev. John Olsen, M.Div., B.C.C.
Chaplain
Abington Memorial Hospital
Re: Chaplain Mark LaRocca-Pitts, Ph.D.: Holding Space (PlainViews, 9/2/09, Vol. 6, No. 15) I appreciated Mark LaRocca-Pitts’ article and am having our chaplains read it in preparation for our next education session together. It provides a great framework, particularly for our PRNs, as we focus on that area of our ministry. Thanks so much to Mark for sharing his thoughts and writing gifts with us.
Thanks again,
Bonnie Brown
Manager, Pastoral Care
Owensboro Medical Health System
Owensboro, Kentucky
Re:Chad William Kidd: "Slow Down, You’ll Live Longer" and Stephanie Harris Miller: Silent Companion (PlainViews, 9/2/09, Vol. 6, No. 15)
Kudos to Chaplain Kidd and Stephanie Miller. Their articles speak very succinctly to Ps. 46:10, Be Still and know I am G-d... a message for all humanity....
Donna Zuroweste
MDiv Student
St. Louis, MO
Re: Peggy Muncie: Where are the Chaplains Voices in Health Care Reform (PlainViews, 8/19/09, Vol. 6, No. 14) We chaplains have to be very cautious about the path we take when we enter the Health Care Debate. John Flipsen's letter was of special concern to me. Our Founding Fathers created the United States of America upon a very basic concept: the very foundation of human dignity is the ability to make choices about the things that affect our lives. Choice flourishes when there is a maximum level of competition and people can choose from competing forces.
The foreign-born people who own the men's shop where I buy my clothes understand America quite well. They have a big sign that says "If we do not take care of our customers, someone else will." We have to create this same spirit in the field of health care. We need to create a situation in which the patient can be an aggressive consumer. We need to rid ourselves of the shackles that discourage competition and choice. We have to rid ourselves of predatory law suits that force doctors and hospitals to spend a third of their resources and energy on defending themselves.The very last thing we need is a Canadian or British system in which the patient is a supplicant who is supposed to be humbly grateful for any miserable bread crumbs thrown his/her way instead of being an aggressive consumer armed with choices.
We all agree that the present state of health care is not defensible. The disagreement involves the path we take towards solving the problem.Will we create solutions based upon American ideology or will we resort to Soviet tactics? I believe that the loud voice of the people has made it quite clear that an uniquely American solution must be pursued; an approach based upon the market-place and free enterprise.
Rabbi Louis J. Feldman, Ph.D.
Retired chaplain
Board Member of the Scholl Institute of Bioethics
Van Nuys, California
Re: Eddie Hennig: Beyond The Masks of One-Up/One-Down (PlainViews, 8/19/09, Vol. 6, No. 14)
So few words, but so many pearls of wisdom in your recent essay. While I have enjoyed other writings in PlainViews, this essay was multilayered and invited me to ponder, to stop, actually . . . . as I read each paragraph.
I especially loved the concept of the person being trained to be an 'expert in not being a expert'. This is particularly liberating to me as a physician to reflect on where it truly is that heart and spirit connect best. It is not out of our literature, statistics, or clinical trials, but in that 'thou-ness' you describe. How joyful it is to be reminded to embrace and release the dimension of me who is 'not an expert'. Pure grace. Thank you so much for your clarity and invitation expressed in "Beyond the Masks of One-up/One-Down".
With gratitude,
Shannon
San Diego Hospice
San Diego, CA
Eddie Hennig’s reflections on “…One-Up/One-Down” and his references to the Thou and to the clown metaphor from Faber’s old work all resonate with my current tension in practice. I have become a “convert” to the move toward outcome-based chaplaincy, quality, whatever term one chooses to adopt. I am convinced that we chaplains need to be more focused on issues of what we do, why we do it, what happens when we do it, and communicating with our medical colleagues all that information. At the same time, it seems a very short and slippery step from this perspective to a discounting of the very things Hennig reminds us as crucial to chaplaincy. It is [often?] our very lack of perceived expertise that helps connect with the patient, even as it limits the ability of our colleagues to grasp the uniqueness of our skills and our art. In my best moments, I believe that the tensions can be largely resolved by remembering to simply think more clearly about the elements of care that we do so intuitively, and then record those elements.
The tensions between “ministry” models and “clinician” models are very real for me. Both are important. Each needs its strong advocates in our profession, but the dialogue needs to go on.
Gary Batchelor, D. Min., BCC
Chaplain, Floyd Medical Center
Re: Peggy Muncie: Where are the Chaplains Voices in Health Care Reform (PlainViews, 8/19/09, Vol. 6, No. 14)
Rev. Muncie makes a great case for health care reform, without government interference.
Her strongest theme seems to be care by people who are present, listening, helping, as individuals, families and physicians make difficult decisions and carry out the wishes of the patient. None of these can take place by an entity made up of commissions and panels in a distant place using age and available resources as the basis for the decisions. Such an entity cannot do what is now done.
Improvements are needed and will be made. Up to this point, I have not seen any “listening” taking place by the president when he is present in any meeting. He does all the talking. I anticipate that will be the case in the conference call.
Phil Cox, Ph.D.
Pastoral Care Director
Phelps County Regional Medical Center
Rolla, MO
I was quite happy to see Rev. Peggy Muncie asking the question about where chaplains voices were in the health care reform debate. I too have been pondering this seeming silence. I came to different thoughts on the matter such as, "what can you say when so many "experts" out there are voicing so many differing opinions". Then, I think of how busy and stressed out so many chaplains are; who has time to get into fuss about theoretical musings of an ideal system sitting up there in the sky with Plato.
Guess what - I have the time; as a retired chaplain I can sit back and recall the tragedies our health system has produced. Of course there are successes, but sometimes at high cost to families bankrupted; mothers torn from their children - or, the other way around; employees abandoned and communities abandoned too as systems make "bottom line" decisions. Then there is the whole arena of those without health care; not only in our country, but in other countries too; if our health care is so expensive, think what this translates to in another country where one dollar is a daily wage!
Silence is sometimes golden; often in the midst of confusion it is recommended; nevertheless, often a story or two can help clear up the air by bringing things down to earth. Surely chaplains have stories aplenty! But how best to do this without, "biting the hand that feeds you" or in these days of institutional reprisals, not risking too much? Then again, who is there to hear; where does the chaplain find a willing forum? Why have the chaplain organizations themselves maintained such silence; why have the "big players" ignored such a rich source of stories? Many questions, I know. Maybe the answers are out there still.
John P. Stangle, BCC
NACC Chaplain Advanced Emeritus
Why is it so hard for Americans to come to a good health-care system. The question was raised where are the chaplains in all of this. Why don't they also share in the discussion their views .I think as chaplains one comes more in touch with the reality of the present health care system as it is. Why do we have so much difficulty with acceptance of the Canadian health care system. Is it not a matter of stewardship to offer that kind of health system by which people do not go bankrupt or have to sell their most precious things in life their houses which should be for many American the individual protection. Has capitalism so much indoctrinated American society that we see no other solution than to work through insurance companies? I know that our system is not perfect but at least Canadians do not have to go broke under the load of healthcare bills. If we speak about stewardship in healthcare than our faith tell us what and how to go about it. Protect the most vulnerable in our society. It is us the chaplains who have to be the guiding factor in the healthcare discussions.
John Flipsen
Volunteer pastoral worker
Edmonton, AB, Canada
Re: Stephen King, Care and Documentation with Colleagues who are our Patients (PlainViews, 8/19/09, Vol. 6, No. 14)
I have wrestled with some of these questions at different times when professional colleagues from the hospital have been patients. This has included physicians, nurses, clinicians, volunteers, and even a fellow chaplain. The admonition to avoid dual roles comes to mind- in that we need to be careful about attempting to provide pastoral care to someone with whom we are close personally or professionally- so as to maintain boundaries, not put undue strain on the relationship, and also respect privacy.
One story comes to my mind from a number of years ago. A member of the medical staff was an inpatient. He was admitted under his given name, by which he was known in the hospital. I will not comment on his condition, but will say he was ambulatory and needed to stay in the hospital for several days. He was a patient on one of my areas of coverage. Anyway- partly out of habit, I happened to open his chart, as I often do, to check to see if a religious affiliation had been indicated, as well as whether or not he had an advance directive. I did not look at anything else in the chart medically or any of his personal demographic information. Well- lo and behold, as I was looking in the chart for this information, he walked up to me toting his IV pole- he had been walking in the hall, and took me by surprise.
He said to me something to the effect of "you don't need to look at that, I'll tell you whatever you need to know." I immediately shut the chart and returned it to the bin, and apologized to him, explaining that I just wanted to find out if he had indicated a religious preference and if he had an advance directive. He seemed satisfied by my response and we had a good but brief visit. Still, that encounter stayed with me and bugged me for a while... I was looking for specific information directly relating to my role as chaplain, but had I crossed a boundary inappropriately? I wrestled with that for some time.
We have a good relationship and it has not adversely impacted our relationship as colleagues or acquaintances, but it has stuck with me.
I just wanted to share that.
Best regards,
Rev. John Olsen, M.Div., BCC
Chaplain
Abington Memorial Hospital
Query about Chaplains Delivering Homilies
Do you have any resources about the practice of chaplains delivering topical homilies during chapel services? I am unaware of standards that address the practice of preaching as a chaplain over against leading service from a faith-specific stance.
Hoping for conversation and opinions from varied sources -
Rev. Jill Bowden
Winthrop University Hospital
jbowden@winthrop.org
Query about Resources for Helping Children Prepare for Parent's Death I am a regular reader of PlainViews and am a chaplain and CPE supervisor. I am writing to ask if there is a way to access resource material/articles to help prepare children, including young children for a parent's death?
I would appreciate any help you can give.
Joanne Biggs, Chaplain
Brandon Regional Health Centre
Brandon, MB
biggsj@brandonrha.mb.ca
Sharing your Most Memorable Spiritual Care Intervention
You are hereby invited to share your most memorable spiritual care intervention so that others in similar situations can gain from your experience. Just e-mail me at mariejohn50@ att.net with a Microsoft Word document attachment containing:
1. A brief narrative description of the situation, the recipient(s) of the care, and what you did.
2. A brief narrative of what you might have done differently for a better outcome, if any.
3. The central issue involved.
Your work will be edited and added completely anonymously to a growing knowledge base that will eventuate in evidence-based spiritual care best practices. You may see (and use) the collection to date by clicking on "Special Section: Ideal Intervention Paper (IIP) Project" at http://www.ACPEresearch.net for examples.
Educators, please encourage your students to participate as well.
Many thanks in advance,
Jack
(Rev.) John J. Gleason, D.Min.
ACPE Supervisor Emeritus, BCC (Retired)
Resources from Spiritual Directors International
Are you on the lookout for short videos about spiritual companionship to share with people you companion, students, family or friends, or even for yourself? Spiritual Directors International has launched a brand new video series about spiritual direction on YouTube. Please forward the videos to your students, interns, spiritual directees, local chaplains and campus ministry colleagues.
Australian Protestant, Kristen Hobby and Washington, DC area Presbyterian, Therese Taylor-Stinson share their wisdom about who would benefit from spiritual direction.
Pegge Bernecker, editor of Listen: A Seeker’s Resource for Spiritual Direction talks about how to find a spiritual director, step-by-step.
To view the video of Kristen Hobby, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l14GZxpqEkQ
To view the video of Therese Taylor-Stinson, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT8FUpbcbXg
To view the video of Pegge Bernecker, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf34i7YDxlQ
Launched July 15
To view the video of Jamal Rahman, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxcovadPz2Q
To view the video of Janet Ruffing, RSM, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX6ZW0Fey-0
Launched July 1
To learn from Ron Rolheiser, OMI, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVpxL9WImIM
To learn from Mary Ann Scofield, RSM, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKDUY37T_rY
Molly Bauthues
Member Services Coordinator
Spiritual Directors International
Bellevue, WA
A Note from Christina Puchalski at GWish about its Partnership with the City of Hope and Archstone Foundation
From Summer 2009 GWish News:
Many people now recognize spirituality as an essential element of care. Research supports the integration of spirituality into patient care, articles and surveys from the laity demonstrate a public desire for more holistic care, and several ethical guidelines support healthcare professionals' attention to all dimensions of patients' experience of illness: the spiritual and psychosocial as well as the physical. Yet, there is still a gap between what patients desire, what evidence supports, and what is actualized in clinical practice.
In February 2009, GWish partnered with the City of Hope and the Archstone Foundation to develop practical tools and recommendations for the integration of spirituality as an essential element of palliative care. Over forty experts in palliative and spiritual care met to review the state of the art in spirituality and health and develop guidelines for healthcare professionals and institutions to ensure that spirituality is fully integrated into the care of patients nationally. The conference built upon nationally developed consensus guidelines in palliative care that listed spiritual care as a required domain of Palliative Care. While we focused on palliative care, the recommendations are applicable to health care in general. Palliative care begins from the time a patient is diagnosed with an illness and not just when the care of a patient focused on active end of life issues. Thus, palliative care can span many years of a patient's life and is applicable to people with chronic illnesses.
The recommendations will be published in the October 2009 issue of the Journal of Palliative Medicine. A larger more detailed version of this document will be published by The Templeton Press in February 2010. Part of this project is to highlight resources in spiritual care for healthcare professionals as well as patients and families. Those resources will be collected and shared through GWish SOERCE, The Spirituality and Health Online Education and Resource Center (see below).
One of the highlights of the conference was seeing how many people nationally and internationally are committed to the delivery of excellent interprofessional spiritual care. We feel honored to work with so many compassionate and committed care providers and look forward to expanding on this groundbreaking work with the many colleagues from the US and around the world who want to create more compassionate and holistic healthcare systems.
Sincerely,
Christina Puchalski, MD, FACP
Executive Director
George Washington University Institute for Spirituality & Health
Re: Tyler Kruger: How and Why are Chaplains Resilient? (PlainViews, 8/5/09, Vol. 6, No. 13)
Chaplain Tyler Kruger piece is very thoughtful, and the survey interesting.
I responded, but realized after clicking "done" that I'd failed to comment that I have found taking indepth courses in Critical Incident Stress Management to be extremely helpful.
Not only do I learn practical pieces of how to deal with crisis related stress (my own and others'), but that I regularly meet and dialogue with others involved with the same issues and stresses.
Another important source of learning how to rebound is that of studying Spiritual Direction. It feeds one's self spiritually, while giving spiritual tools for coping with stress. And, as with CISM, provides a growing network of similarly minded others with whom to debrief and interact.
Thanks to Chaplain Kruger for producing the survey! I hope that it proves beneficial to his research, and ultimately, to chaplains in chaplaincies of all types!
Rev. Deacon Pauline Morrison, Chaplain
Pastoral Care Minister
St. John's Episcopal Church
Toledo, OR
After I read this article, and as I completed the survey, I realized that this was a wonderful chance for me to do a self evaluation. As I did so, I learned how much I have changed in "self-care" since the several years since my residency days, but even more important how much I still have to learn and grow along this journey. Thank you for including it.
Chaplain Bill Spencer
MGMC Medical Center
Gilbert, Az
Re: Dianne Brooke, Commentaries on PlainViews’ Articles (PlainViews, 8/5/09, Vol. 6, No. 13)
Generally, I agree with the thrust of the article. It is certainly in line with my Ph. D. research. However, I concluded that the classic scientific research protocols, based on probability statistics, don't apply very well with religious/spiritual health & healing phenomena because of the complex individualistic dynamics involved. Because of these dynamics the phenomena are often relegated to "placebo effect" or simply anecdotal. Hence, I am not surprised that a rigid scientific study would conclude that the effects of intercessory prayer are neutral...or even with a conclusion that said virtually no effect. The issue is that sometimes there are effects, and certainly the data from many sources indicate that spiritual care, including prayer, etc. have effects. My framework certainly supports present prayer over intercessory prayer, but we can't and should not rule out intercessory prayer. In a sense, our professional practice is always a "shotgun", "hit or miss" mystery in terms of outcomes. Nevertheless, we do it....largely because of anecdotal reports, but also now some scientific studies support this work. Further, this individualistic, subjective response issue is also the case with many medical treatments...sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.
Rev. Dr. Serge A. Castigliano
CPE Program Director for the Lutheran Services
NY Alliance ACPE Center
Putnam Valley,NY
Re: Penelope Thoms, A Wedding (PlainViews, 8/5/09, Vol. 6, No. 13)
As a retired hospice chaplain, I was moved to tears by your story of the wedding you were blessed to be able to perform. I was also moved by the teamwork involved in putting it together so quickly and beautifully. To top it all off, you and your husband were willing to provide -- I won't say "give up"--they were your own gift of love to this couple -- your own rings to make the sacrament complete. What wonderful memories you were able to give to both John and Mary, in this and the next life. Sometimes in hospice the patients are so many, and with us such a short time, that they blend together after time. But John and Mary will be with you forever.
Blessings to you and your ministry,
Rev Doris Waggoner
Seattle
Penelope Thoms' sensitive care for this couple was very moving. Thank you.
Chaplain Sheila Mee, DMin, BCC
Coordinator, Pastoral and Spiritual Care
Children’s Hospital & Medical Center
Omaha, NE
Re: Emily Brault, Reflections from Prison (PlainViews, 7/1/09, Vol. 6, No. 11) I have just read Rev. Dr. Emily Brault's piece. I am working in a prison in Massachusetts. It is a pre-release program for inmates who are ready for release within the year. I facilitate a Houses of Healing program with up to sixteen inmates. I am starting seminary in the Fall.
Reverend Brault's piece really struck a cord with me. I feel called to this place that can be so difficult and so dark, but it is the best place I travel to every week.
It is so good to hear from others what they are doing for inmates, and how they feel. Thank you so much for this website. It has really helped me to focus again and again on what is really important when doing this work.
Best Wishes,
Ann Perrott
Re: Kevin Flannelly, Chaplains and End of Life Research (PlainViews, 7/1/09, Vol. 6, No. 11)
Have just read the article on religion and research. The writer suggests that chaplains participate in research. Is there any place that “is” trying to do research using chaplains? Would be interested in hearing of such an organization.
SueAnn Maclin, Chaplain
Community Hospice,
Jacksonville, FL
SMaclin@communityhospice.com
I found Dr. Flanelly’s article on chaplains and research interesting. In dealing with patients and end-of-life issues, it is difficult to know just when to conduct research. His article, however, gives me renewed ideas as to some research I have wanted to do for a long time. Thank you, Dr. Flanelly.
Frankie B. May
Chaplain
Trinity Hospital of Augusta
Augusta, GA
A Report to Congress on Advance Directives including issues raised by people with disabilities
This is a report to Congress on Advanced Directives and Palliative Care, from a consultation that also included a number of issues related to and raised by people with disabilities. Here is the link if you would like to go a read and get a PDF version of the report. It is 92 pp. http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/2008/ADCongRpt.htm
Bill Gaventa, M.Div., Associate Professor
Director, Community and Congregational Supports
The Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
New Brunswick, N.J.
Are parish nurses replacing chaplains?
Recently, I heard that in some hospitals, parish nurses are being hired to replace
hospital chaplains. Has anyone else heard of this trend? If so, what are the reasons behind this action?
God's peace!
Chaplain Tom Chopp
Wisconsin
tom.chopp@monroeclinic.org
Re: Kathy Steen, Chaplaincy and Relationship Based Care (PlainViews, 6/17/09, Vol. 6, No. 10 ) Thank you so much for the beautiful and moving “Maternity Unit Blessing”. My chaplaincy work is at the other end of life’s spectrum—a nursing home—but so much resonated with what I see here too. I am moved to consider writing a blessing for the staff here as well.
Again, thank you for sharing this with us.
Beverly Suderman-Gladwell
Chaplain and Pastoral Care Co-Ordinator
Parkwood Mennonite Home
Waterloo, ON
Re: Responses to The Case for Chaplaincy Licensure (PlainViews, 6/17/09, Vol. 6, No. 10)
While I agree with Chaplain Jerry Carter that State Licensure is likely not the answer, I certainly do understand it's appeal. I think the real challenge for chaplaincy is to claim our professional identity: what does it mean to be a chaplain? As an example, I am aware of two organizations which "certify" chaplains without CPE, specific competencies or interview. We who belong to the mainstream of healthcare chaplaincy and seek certification through our respective cognate groups have a common understanding of certification as including all of the above. We understand that the certification we spent years earning is not the same certification that allows one to purchase a "personalized deluxe gold plated badge" for only $180! Do the HR directors of our institutions have that same understanding? Unless we make an intentional effort to educate them, I don't think we can expect them to. In an increasingly challenging health care environment where we must justify our existence, this issue has even greater urgency.
Beverly M. Beltramo, MA, BCC
Staff Chaplain/Spiritual Care Coordinator
Oakwood Southshore Medical Center
Dearborn, Michigan
In response to a couple of thoughts, actually the 1st amendment says congress shall make no law, it does not say that state legislatures can or cannot abridge religious practice.
For example, in 7 southern states ( VA, KY, NC , Ga, W VA and TN,) it is against the law ( a felony in some and a misdemeanor in others) to handle snakes in worship services and of course the Mormons were required to give up their right to multiple wives as a condition of state hood.
So religious freedom has been abridged at times, but I do not believe that states or congress should be determining who Chaplains are and what we do. It is our responsibility to monitor our selves, if we do not, we might well find ourselves getting exactly what we do not want.
Larry J. Austin, D.Min
ACPE Supervisor, BCC
Director of Pastoral Care
Medicorp, Mary Washington Hospital
Fredericksburg Virginia
Each January the citizens of Georgia are of one accord praying for safety for the 40 days that the Legislature is in session. The folk lore is that neither money, property, men, women, children nor beasts are safe while the Legislature is under the golden dome. In the most recent session there was a proposal to water down qualifications for chaplains in state licensed hospices. A bill was considered to eliminate the requirement for a unit of CPE.
Georgia APC and the Georgia Healthcare Society of Chaplains were able to oppose and raise concern with their legislators to put an end to this bill. A safe bet is that the bill arose out of request of a legislator’s constituency who was a minister or friend of a minister unable or unwilling to meet the simple standard of one unit of CPE.
I am more trusting of my colleagues and the intentional community that values clinical training and continuing education. Like SK I believe I should treat myself as a suspicious character and I value colleagues who hold me accountable. Thanks to Jerry Carter and Anne Underwood for their thoughtful response to this issue.
Bob Duvall
Director of Chaplaincy
Gwinnett Medical Center
Lawrenceville, Georgia
Regarding the article and responses to "The Case for Chaplaincy Licensure," I do believe that those who have fully gone through the process of certification, ought to be enough for credibility. What needs to happen is the persons who have not been fully credentialed and are using the title "Chaplain," ought to either take responsibility and become credentialed, or have a different title until their process has been completed. This will then stop minimizing what chaplaincy is. A physician would not administer medical treatment nor advice if she/he hasn't been fully credentialed, nor a nurse for that matter, so why should chaplaincy be different?
Those who have not been fully credentialed ought to have a title such as Associate in Spiritual Care (Pastoral Care, Spiritual Services or whatever the department name is). Chaplain I could be for those in working through the process of becoming credentialed, and, Chaplain II for those who are credentialed. This will allow staff, patients and families to better define who they are engaged with and will qualify our professionalism, as well as encourage non-professionals to finish the process. This also should apply to areas of responsibilities and privilege – those who are qualified ought to have greater responsibility and privilege within the department because, if we remain equal, it looks to other departments that academic degrees and credentialing are of no consequence within the profession of chaplaincy.
If professional chaplains do not claim their professionalism, no one else will. I have on many occasions defined what it is we do in a tangible and non complicated manner. I speak of how we come from many different disciplines such as, teaching, pastoral counseling, spiritual direction, etc., and, we bring these studies into our ministry as we create a safe and sacred space for patients, families and staff to share their concerns, hopes and fears. This is our training...this is our passion...just as a physician and nurse are called to the medical field...we are called to assisting those same persons on a healing journey. We have, as nurses and doctors have, invested our time, monies and much more to become trained and knowledgeable professionals in our field. When we are expected to go through the credentialing process, this process is not unlike the process for state licensure in some ways, however, it is within faith groups that we are endorsed...licensed, if you will. The non-professional chaplain is not. However, these non-professionals have the same privilege as anyone else who desires this work/ministry. I love everything about being a chaplain...I feel secure in this work/ministry...I feel solid and know I have much to offer to those who are sick and dying...and my purpose is to continue this caring ministry of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Sharon Barcham, D. Min., BCC
NACC - Board Certified Chaplain
Chicago, Illinois
The latest issue of the Manitoba Spiritual Care Newsletter
We hope that you enjoy this issue that is focused on the 'bodily' experiences of our spirituality.
We do apologize to all of our readers and especially to our contributors for taking such a long time to get this issue out to you. Along with some technical difficulties, we acknowledge the need for some more people who would be willing to volunteer some time to be on the MB spiritual care newsletter committee.
We have had numerous requests as to when this newsletter would be out, so we know that there is interest in the newsletter, and the current committee would like all of you to consider if you would be willing to donate some time to help continue what we believe is a valuable and useful tool, not only to those in the spiritual health care community, but for anyone interested in spirituality, health and healing.
At this time the committee is hoping for at least 2 dedicated volunteers, but of course more would be welcome. We especially need someone who is somewhat proficient in the use of computers, as the design and formatting has been a large setback in getting the most recent issue out to you. The hope is now that if the newsletter continues that we may be able to set up a website to post the newsletter on. We have already started this process.
The future of the Manitoba newsletter depends on the response we get from this issue. We have had considerable feedback that the newsletter is being read and enjoyed, and has evoked good dialogue. We are pleased and excited that this newsletter has grown to what it is and would be very sad to see it end. Please consider sitting on the editorial committee if you would like to see another issue of the MB spiritual care newsletter.
As always, please forward this on to any friends or colleagues that may not have received this newsletter, and invite them to send us their e-mail to be added to the distribution list. If you have received this and would like to be taken off the e-mail list please hit reply and request to be taken off.
We hope you enjoy this issue, and thank you for your support.
Anne Whitford Fast,
on behalf of the MB Spiritual Care Newsletter Editorial Committee
Click here for PDF
Economic Impact on PC Departments Inquiry
Is anyone addressing economic impacts on Pastoral Care Departments? Our health system is currently going through a process of restructuring that will last at least through the rest of the year. So far, I have felt the support of corporate and CEO along with encouragement to ramp up ministry to staff during this difficult time. I have a feeling I'm not the only chaplain trying to balance employment insecurity with ministry opportunity. Would like to hear from you.
John Charnock, BCC
jcharnock@susquehannahealth.org
Re: Texas Medical Center, Pastoral Care of the Dying Protocol (PlainViews, 6/3/09, Vol. 6, No. 9) Many thanks to Chaplains John Froning, Mary Green and Jennifer Lester for their fine work in "Pastoral Care Of the Dying Protocol." I found it immensely helpful and feel they expanded on subject matter I touched on only briefly in the article I wrote. ("Trauma Protocol For Chaplains" http://www.plainviews.org/AR/c/v5n24/mp.html.) I especially enjoyed the checklists; they were succinct and to the point while allowing plenty of latitude for interpretation. I'm grateful to you for adding to the body of wisdom for all of us who minister in trauma situations and hope you'll continue sharing your insights.
Douglas S. Phillips, BCC,
James Hunter Trauma Chaplain
Chaplain Logan Rutherford
Westchester Medical Center
Valhalla, NY
Please Support the Advance Planning and Compassionate Care Act of 2009
As health reform unfolds many different policy and legislative actions are taking place. As you can see from our recent response to the Senate Finance Committee report on health care reform options (pdf), palliative care is intimately tied to our work in spirituality and health and provides a strong model for patient-centered care.
Senators Rockefeller, Collins, Kohl, Wyden, and Carper recently introduced a bill that includes many components that address these important areas of patient care. The Advance Planning and Compassionate Care Act of 2009 is comprehensive palliative care legislation that includes the transformational components necessary to improve access to quality palliative care for all Americans.
Support is needed for this bill right now. Senator Rockefeller's office is requesting letters of support, particularly from religious leaders from different denominations. Letters of endorsement are needed by June 19th and we strongly encourage you to write to support this important legislation. Remember, the more support the greater the impact.
A section-by-section summary of the legislation, instructions, and a template letter of endorsement re available from the Center to Advance Palliative Care:
http://www.capc.org/support-letter
Many thanks,
Christina Puchalski, MD, FACP
Founder and Executive Director
The George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health (GWish)
Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Sciences
Departments of Medicine and Healthcare Sciences
The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
The Importance of Pastoral Care Presentation in New Employee Orientation
I would appreciate input from my fellow chaplains - Our HR department has decided to stop the pastoral care presentation, which is only 15/20 minutes presentation during the New Employee Orientation program.
I ask other chaplains to send me their reasons for
including a Pastoral Care/Chaplaincy Presentation within a medical/health care new employee orientation program.
Thanks
Tom Chopp
tom.chopp@monroeclinic.org
A Negative Email Resulting from a Response to "'Til Death Do Us Part"…Considering the Justice of Gay Marriage (PlainViews, 12/3/08, Vol. 5, No. 21)
Yesterday was a typical and busy day for this chaplain. I started the day with a morning funeral and commital service, then counseled someone in distress, went to the ICU of an area hospital to be with a dying man, and went to a nursing home to visit an elderly woman who was a sister of the man for whom I did the funeral service earlier, as well as ministering to others in that nursing home.
In the midst of my runs, I stopped in my church office for a quick check of mail and found a hate filled email from a PlainViews participant.
Knowing and corresponding with some very fine chaplains scattered around the world I opened her email with anticipation and found a hate letter directed at me filled with personal attacks. I was stunned. She even questioned my 'training'...my education.
Let me first say that I am a teacher of theology for an accredited School of Theology as well as being Dean of Students. I am also a college instructer, licensed by the State of California, along with being in full time pastoral and chaplaincy work. Furthermore, I am now working on TWO Ph.Ds. So yes, Madam "Chaplain," I do have adequate 'professional training.' She fired this question; "Are you God?' and went on and on with incredible hostility.
It seems the "chaplain" was upset that I suggested that the church should not change with the times and direction society has taken. And this hate-filled woman (who obviously doesn't believe in the Bible) is employed as a minister and chaplain?? God help us all. And my response, that lit her fuse, was published...last year! So she has been stewing for a long time.
My understanding of PlainViews was that respectful dialogue was encouraged for the betterment of the chaplaincy. I really thought PlainViews was a legitimate forum for the exchange of ideas for working chaplains. It is easy to see that I have absolutely nothing in common with the liberal bible-altering 'ministers' that use your site. I had no idea that any of your readers would find my personal email address to spew out their hostilitiy towards me. Frankly, I have no time for this sort of thing. Why would you allow this?
Rev. Austin Miles
Pastor and Chaplain
Northern California
A Response from the Managing Editor:
We do not condone the email that Rev. Miles received. However, we cannot legislate what anyone writes to anyone. One of the reasons that we do not give the email addresses of our authors is so that responses can be vetted by me. I then forward them to the authors. People are entitled to their opinions and our hope is that, as chaplains and religious leaders, we will treat each other with respect, even when we disagree.
Martha R. Jacobs, Managing Editor
Re: Joanne Mumley, Is it Accredited? (PlainViews, 5/20/09, Vol. 6, No. 8) Rev. Mumley raises an important issue in the certification process of chaplains. As chair of the committee on theological education equivalency for Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) we review regularly equivalency applications from candidates who have attended unaccredited institutions and often fall short of the needed requirements. This will especially occur when both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees are unaccredited. You can only imagine their disappointment.
However the APC does have the equivalency process in place and anyone without 72 graduate theological credits that are from an accredited institution should also review the equivalency application and its process on the APC website (www.professionalchaplains.org). Many faith groups do not train in the typical western graduate education model and the equivalency process allows them a venue to achieve certification as well. Candidates that have questions regarding their theological education and its acceptability for certification may contact me or the Certification Coordinator at the APC office (847-240-1014) for assistance and clarification.
Richard. G. Donoughue, MDiv, BCC
Chair, Theological Education Equivalency Committee, Commission on Certification, APC
Trident Medical Center
Charleston, SC
Kudos to Rev. Joanne Mumley for citing not only her experience and persistence on the certification journey, but multiple resource links for current & potential CPE trainees who might wish to pursue board certified chaplain (BCC) status. As Rev. Mumley testifies, it is key to explore what academic (and other) requirements one's faith group and chaplain certifying body expects in terms of attending appropriately accredited academic training centers (for both bachelors and masters level). I had to attend an ATS-accredited theological school as a pre-requisite for seeking both ordination and endorsement for chaplaincy, and, that school also had to be accredited by the Council on Higher Education Association (CHEA) in order to apply for APC board certification. Faith group mentors may or may not have correct information about the chaplain certification process, and Mumley invites chaplains/educators to initiate such topics early in a potential candidate's process. This article would be easy to copy/post/share in departments, as well as to create flyers for those in our faith groups who mentor potential leaders.
Annette Olsen, MDiv, BSSW, BCC
Senior Chaplain & Spiritual Care Manager for Neuro/Women's/Children's Services
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC
Re: Texas Medical Center: Pastoral Care of the Dying Protocol (PlainViews, 5/20/09, Vol. 6, No. 8) I want to commend the authors of this article for providing a primer for spiritual care in the dying room. Their approach was sensitive, respectful, and practical. I had little difficulty imagining myself engaged in the activities prescribed and they were congruent with my own practice as a spiritual care provider in end-of-life settings. This article not only “offers guidance for those new to chaplaincy,” but also a useful tool for seasoned caregivers to reflect on the “nuts and bolts” of their practice. Thanks!
Glen R. Horst, DMin,
Spiritual Care Advisor, Canadian Virtual Hospice
Conseiller en soins spirituels, Portail canadien en soins palliatifs
Winnipeg MB
Re: Eliminate Endorsement - more comments (PlainViews, 4\1/09, Vol. 6, No. 5)
In a New York Times article on 4/15/09 it was reported that the new archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, was asked a question at his first news conference which seems to me appropos of the subject on endorsement. Here is an excerpt:
The second question concerned declining church attendance in among Catholics New York City. “How are you going to get Catholics back to church?” Magee Hickey of WCBS asked.
“That’s a bigee,” the new archbishop answered.
He decried a phenomenon in which people want to be religious, but without a sense of belonging to a community of faith.
“They want to believe without belonging,” he said. “They don’t mind being the sheep, but without a shepherd. They don’t have mind the family, as long as they’re the only child. They don’t see the need for a church. They don’t see the need for organized religion.”
Echoing a theme of his homily on Tuesday night, he said, “The church is at her best when we invite, when we appeal to people, when we call for what’s best in them.”
Elaborating on the family analogy, he added, “We’re not used to our families sitting down and spending quality time together and gathering around the table in our natural families. We shouldn’t too shocked that our supernatural families are experiencing the same downward trend. It’s something we have to work on.”
My own comment is that a chaplain without an "endorsement" (or affirmation by a faith community) is like a viglilante or self-proclaimed prophet - maybe necessary under some rare circumstances, but not generally accepted in a law abiding society. On the other hand, you could start your own church, proclaim yourself bishop and endorse yourself. Been done before!
John P. Stangle,
Chaplain Advanced Emeritus BCC, NACC
I know I'm going to have rocks thrown at me for this, but it's my opinion.
I think this whole issue of CPE and the like has gotten completely out of hand. Just as a f'rinstance -- I have been in a pulpit for 15 years, with five years before that in the military. I have held a Masters degree in Counseling for 8 years, done all of my required Continuing Education, and the documentation and methodolgy described in the various listings are just about identical to the ones that, as a counselor, I learned in my training and currently have to maintain. I have spent more time in hospitals over the last 20 years than many of the "trainers" have. When I decided to go into the chaplaincy full time upon retirement from my pulpit, I was told that I didn't qualify because I didn't have any "CPE units." I'm a pretty agreeable kind of guy, so I agreed to try to "get qualified," and looked into what it would take. I was taken completely aback to find out that nothing I have done or have learned, formally and informally, and none of the credentials I possess was transferable or even creditable! Further, even if I had time to do the "units", there isn't a hospital within 200 miles that has a program!
I'm happy to relate that the Police Department is overjoyed to have me as a chaplain, and I will, no doubt, be visiting with police officers in the hospital and their families, as well as some of my old congregants.
I fully believe that chaplains need to be qualified and properly trained to do a credible job in this noble endeavor, but come on! There HAS to be some allowance for life experience and other education in this thing! I think it's truly being overdone.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Efraim Klein, DD, MA
Rabbi
I read the original article and find the responses thoughtful and relevant to my own situation. I am a Unitarian Universalist lay chaplain with an M A in Religion from an accredited seminary and two units of CPE. I have been volunteering as a chaplain at my county prison since January 20025, but cannot pursue certification because, as Bob Keim points out, my denomination restricts endorsement to professional (fellowshipped) ministers.
So while I am an active member of my congregation, doing chaplaincy as a part of its ministry, I can not be certified as long as the endorsement requirement is in place. It does seem to me that some form of endorsement is needed, but it should be broadened to include religious groups like the American Humanist Association, and it should permit recognition by regional units of a faith group like, in my case, the District within which I serve.
James L Cavenaugh, lay chaplain
Harrisburg, PA
Re: Nancy Hopkins, Foreskin's Lament Review (PlainViews, 4/15/09, Vol. 6, No. 6 ) I read Shalom Auslander’s disturbing memoir, Foreskin’s Lament with sadness because his God is so far from mine. Hopkins is right to point out the potential for damage in such a bleak construct of the deity, but I don’t think she gives adequate attention to the fact that Auslander and his entire family were severely abused by his alcoholic and violent father. I read the book more as an account of a life spent with such a parent and the transference of his bitter feelings to his God. It is no wonder that Auslander’s God is such a cruel and arbitrary deity. As Xenophanes noted long ago, if a hippopotamus had a god, it would look like a hippopotamus.
Rabbi Ruth Gais, Ph.D.
Chaplain Intern,
Overlook Hospital, Summit, NJ
Re: Robert Tabak, Pastoral Care and Epidemics (PlainViews, 5/6/09, Vol. 6, No. 7) As one who has some responsibility for disaster preparedness in our university hospital pastoral care department, I want to commend Rabbi Tabak for his excellent,timely and thoughtful article raising questions about our preparedness and possible response as chaplains should we be called upon to help in a pandemic situation.
The questions he raises are extremely important and bear thoughtful consideration now in preparation for possibilities that we hope we don't have to deal with. These would make great talking points for discussions with our colleagues.
Don Moore, Staff Chaplain
University of Virginia Health System
Charlottesville, VA
I have been involved as a chaplain in pandemic response planning for the past several years. In light of recent PlainViews articles on pandemic issues, which raised questions about the role of chaplains, I offer a few thoughts.
I should say that my thinking is guided by a number of predictable conditions that would follow from a highly lethal pandemic outbreak and that would affect the work of chaplains:
a) it would be a public emergency activating systematic governmental and institutional response plans
b) it would be an infectious disease event, in which issues of isolation/access would be central
c) it would be a social emergency that would require managing large numbers of family members
d) it would entail many death issues (e.g., occurrences of death, risks of dying, fears of dying, and grief)
e) it would likely precipitate a crisis of personal, societal and health care values affecting staff
f) it would be a prolonged event in which conditions/needs would evolve over time
g) it would require much stress management during the event and debriefing/support after the event
First, it is likely that there would be some period of days in which the pandemic intensified before triggering a full emergency response in hospitals. Chaplains would then experience that build-up period as one of increased “normal” work before shifting into the rules of official pandemic response plans. That transition could be jarring for chaplains who are used to spending time in direct pastoral care of patients but who now might be directed to focus efforts in “crowd control” of family members who would be kept from their loved ones due to isolation/access restrictions. (Restrictions on family members visiting patients may be more severe than could be justified by the infectious disease alone, but may be rather more a function of a shortage of gowns, gloves, and masks that need to be reserved for health care workers. Chaplains, too, may be in competition with nurses and physicians for the same limited supply of protective resources.) The change in the role of the chaplain under a particular pandemic plan might also be confusing for staff, which could be highly problematic for the processes of referral for pastoral care.
Second, certain chaplains’ skill sets or qualities may be especially valued by institutions during a pandemic emergency: general interpersonal/social skills, the ability to be a non-anxious presence in a crisis, the capacity to lead rituals (e.g., prayer, commendation of the dying), and the training to facilitate moral thinking. Opportunities to engage in one-on-one pastoral care will be squeezed by both the practical exigencies of the emergency and the role assignments of the formal pandemic plan. As the overall situation evolves weeks or months into the disaster, chaplains should engage institutions’ leaders to consider how best to respond to individual pastoral needs and how to utilize the full range of their skills. (Because of isolation/access restrictions, skills at providing pastoral care to patients via telephone may become key.)
Third, chaplains may find themselves in the thick of moral/ethical arguments among staff and family members, especially around end-of-life care in these unusual circumstances. These will be critical and difficult situations, and chaplains need to prepare themselves to help others think and talk about such things as the allocation of scarce resources and the tension between individual needs and the “communal good.” Some pandemic plans assign the chaplain to areas of “expectant” patients (i.e., those who will not be treated curatively but only offered palliative care because they are expected either to die regardless of intervention or to die because they require more resources than are available to them), where moral/ethical questions of basic fairness/justice in medical care may become intense. Also, staff could feel that they are engaged in actions that are immoral, unethical, unprofessional, or plainly wrong, because they are not in line with normal standards of care. Chaplains may come to serve as a moral/ethical anchor in the midst of a crisis of values.
Fourth, since most institutions do not have large pastoral care departments, the stress of the work load on individual chaplains cannot be underestimated. The most challenging days of a pandemic will probably come weeks into the crisis, when fewer and fewer staff try to meet ever-increasing needs. (Staff may not report to work for fear of infection or out of competing needs of their own families, or because of their own illness or exhaustion.) Chaplains should approach even the early days of a pandemic with a “long haul” perspective, engage in aggressive self-care (including heightened attention to infection control), and look for ways to tap into community clergy resources. This is especially important in that the chaplain will be needed well beyond the pandemic itself, when post-crisis support of staff will be an enormous task.
Chaplain John Ehman
Penn Presbyterian Medical Center
Philadelphia, PA
Re: Oblivious, Melissa Nasti (PlainViews, 5/6/09, Vol. 6, No. 7)
I very much appreciated the tone and content of this article. I worked as a student chaplain at the St Joseph Community Hospital in St Joseph, MO and remember well the feeling that 'others' really don't know or understand what is going on in someone's life, even at its end.
I am now a corrections chaplain at the smallest, oldest jail in Ontario. I am blessed to be able to visit 1-1 with inmates, 'alleged' offenders, in the privacy of my office during some of their most difficult times. I am often struck by the knowledge that those on the 'outside' know or care little about what goes on in men's lives behind those ancient stone walls.
In the eyes of the community in general, they are the bad guys, the feared ones. They are not people with problems, they themselves are the problem. Members of the public don't care how crowded the cells are, or the quality of the meals, or that their wife or mother are dying of cancer. They don't want to know about those whose families, finances, businesses, and whole lives are torn apart in answer to charges which may not be justified. They assume that justice will be served in a court of law, when the so-called offenders know quite differently.
As chaplains, we know there is more. We know there is another side to the community's complaints. We hear and see the pain, guilt, shame, disbelief, and fear as we listen to stories of men who have lost their way, who have come to realize who and what they have become. We hear, and validate their humanity, and give them hope.
Crysal Butt
Chaplain
Brockville Jail
Ontario, CA
Re: Peggy Muncie, Taming the Cell Phone (PlainViews, 3/4/09, Vol. 6, No. 3) After reading the lively discussion of the use of cell phones, I noticed a substantial difference in the way we understand cell phone use by generation.
I am in my early 30s and live five states away from my immediate family and friends similar to many in my generation. I do encounter patients and families that rely on their cell phones for connection to their loved ones miles or states away, and realize that their best support, from their perspective, probably comes through a familiar word in their email, texts, or long-distance phone calls over a visit from a friendly stranger. Families regularly use web pages like CaringBridge.org to post the daily events with readers across the world, when they can't be sitting next to them at the bedside. This electronic communication is not the demon so many replies suggest.
I agree with many of the responses to Peggy's article- our relational role becomes more difficult as patients and families choose these devices over us- but I have to remember it is not ME they are "rejecting"- they are choosing to be supported in the way that is more comfortable for them. Professional chaplains seek to encourage patients and families to connect to the spiritual resources that best support them, and in many cases today it is the cell phone. Proper etiquette is another topic altogether.
Maybe instead of fighting against the substitution of electronic devices, we begin to use them in conjunction with the traditional walk we take alongside our patients and families. Our spiritual care department has a pile of lost cell phone chargers that families have used in times that their batteries finally give way to innumerable calls in a 24 hour time period. Further still, could a daily meditation be sent by text or email to every subscriber during their stay at the hospital? What would a patient blog do for connectedness of patients to one another (HIPPA practices observed) through their hospitalization? How could that benefit the patients that don't get to see a chaplain due to "short-staffed" departments?
Susan Franke
Chaplain, M. Div., Diaconal Minister
Bend, OR
Issue 4 of the series Practical Bearings: The Critical Bibliography for Health Care Chaplains is now online at HealthCare Chaplaincy’s website
http://www.healthcarechaplaincy.org/practicalbearings/ In “Discerning Patient Needs: Spiritual Assessment Perspectives for Health Care Chaplains,” P. Scott Richards, Ph.D., Professor, Counseling Psychology and Special Education, Department of Education, Brigham Young University, provides an annotated bibliography of key texts on religious-spiritual assessment strategies and methods. Richards proposes that “chaplains can fulfill a crucial role in health care settings by making sure that patients’ spiritual beliefs and needs are carefully assessed and fully understood.” “Practical Bearings” offers the most thorough and current resources for pastoral educators and pastoral practitioners through the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation and HealthCare Chaplaincy.
For more information, please contact:
Rev. Dr. Leonard M. Hummel
Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Care
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
61 Seminary Ridge
Gettysburg, PA 17325
email: lhummel@ltsg.edu
Opinion Survey Request for Those Who have an Interest in Spiritual Care
John Gleason, BCC (retired), ACPE Supervisor Emeritus, and editor of the Ideal Intervention Project e-Newsletter, requests your participation in an informal opinion survey of those who have a vital interest in Spiritual Care. You will assess Spiritual Care in comparison with characteristics of a profession. Results will become the basis for a strategy toward performance improvement that will both help patients/clients and assure the continuing presence of Spiritual Care on the multidisciplinary team. Access the survey at mariejohn50@att.net and save as a Word file, complete the 20 items by inserting an X for each Agree or Disagree, and then at your earliest convenience return the completed survey as an attachment to the same email address. Thank you. Your opinion is important.
Re: Being Prayed for Around Surgery, Joan Paddock Maxwell (PlainViews, 4/15/09, Vol. 6, No. 6)
Thanks to Joan Paddock Maxwell for her "first person personal" account of her experience of 'major surgery' and being prayed for. It was an account that seemed honest in acknowledging both the fear and pain she experienced as well as the "space of grace"-- the apparent gift of prayers offered for her -- an expression of love which helped provide what sounds like a place of calm in the eye of a storm.
Don Moore, Staff Chaplain,
University of Virginia Health System
Charlottesville, Virginia
Re: Eliminate Endorsement - more comments (PlainViews, 4\1/09, Vol. 6, No. 5)
Dear chaplain colleagues,
I certainly appreciate the excellent points that have been made about endorsement as far as challenges in being part of a denomination that does not recognize as legitimate a person's orientation or experience. This is no small factor, and does need to be substantively addressed by the APC, as I understand it is presently. I must also say that I do believe endorsement, or some sort of official commissioning by a chaplain's faith group for the specific vocation of professional chaplaincy is vital and must be a requirement in some way, shape or form.
Perhaps, one possibility would be to develop an equivalency process similar to the theological equivalency application. I am a member of the theological education equivalency review team through the Commission on Certification. Our approach, under the leadership of Chaplain Richard Donoghue, and faithful guidance of APC certification coordinator Ewa Aksamit is to facilitate an advocacy-based process for candidates who, for whatever reason, do not have the requisite 72 grad level theological semester hours, but have comparable training that meets the criteria and can be declared. We do a detailed review of the experience and the candidate's essay demonstrating their readiness for certification and how their training contributes toward their mastery of the BCC competencies. Provided the candidate has the training that is comparable and has prepared them to meet the competencies, we work hard to assist them with their equivalency so they can then move to the next step of meeting with a BCC committee once it is formed.
It is my strong feeling, however, that there does need to be official recognition of faith group commissioning/endorsement/vocational credentialing by the candidate's faith group. This is the standard that is in keeping with the professionalism of our vocation, and, I believe, must be maintained. That is why I propose the formulation (or further development) of an equivalency process for such recognition in exceptional cases, such as suspected discrimination based on sexual preference, etc. We certainly want to continue to strive to be inclusive and proactively cultivate diversity. We also need to maintain our professional accountability as well as the legitimacy of our credentialing process.
I will never forget the time, when a number of years ago, early in my professional chaplaincy journey while my board certification process was underway but not completed, when my former supervisor received a forwarded e-mail from a former administrator at the hospital where I was serving at the time. The e-mail, which this administrator had apparently forwarded as what was a joke in his mind, was one of these scams inviting people to just send in their check for $29.95, to get their instant ordination certificate from the Church of What's Happening Now, or whatever the catchy name of the fly-by-night scam may have been. The said fact is that thousands of people do things like this AND, in some cases, these dubious "ordinations" are recognized. No credentials required. No questions asked- just send in your $29.95, get your certificate and presto- you're a "chaplain" or "ordained minister" or credentialed "wedding officiant." That is scary stuff in my mind, which we need to prevent from becoming commonplace in professional and clinical circles.
As I have suggested in other contexts, I strongly believe professional chaplaincy is, in many ways, now at an exciting point of emergence as a broadly recognized clinical, professional discipline in the interdisciplinary medical community. In some ways this is akin to the process that the medical profession itself underwent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as more consistent professional standards for physician training, credentialing and medical schools became the rule rather than the exception. Maintaining consistent standards of credentialing, competencies, and yes, faith group accountability are vital to continuing and upholding the professionalism of our role as board certified, formally trained and recognized chaplains.
Best regards,
Rev. John Olsen, MDiv, BCC
chaplain
Abington Memorial Hospital
Abington, PA
I have read with some interest different people's response to this subject. Let me just say from my perspective, I operate in a very different world. I have served as a Field Chaplain for many years in Search and Rescue. Currently I work with a rural fire department and ambulance service. As a infield Paramedic/Chaplain I face a different kind of spiritual need then the hospital/institutional environment.
There is no degree of endorsement or credentialing that can be offered to cover the wide range of people and beliefs that you can and do encounter in the field with little to no warning. I cannot seek someone's approval to assist the spiritual needs of my patients in advance, let alone be indorsed for all the possibilities. Whether I am treating a Native American, a Hindu, a Christian, a Wiccan, I am in truth treating a human being with a spiritual in need. I cannot schedule it, I cannot seek endorsement before, or approval from anyone in the situations I face daily in my job in Fire Rescue. I can only be there and hope that my basic understanding is enough to provide not only physical comfort, but Spiritual as well.
So what am I saying in essence? The same thing I have said your years. Our problem is that God Ordains,,, man approves. If I am more concerned with mans approval of Gods Ordination then I am not providing for another's spiritual needs, but meeting the requirements of man. I have lost track of my real calling, and in essence, I am not only letting down my patient, but my duty to my God.
Now I am not some office person, unless you consider my ambulance an office on wheels. I don't wear a suit, unless you consider my turn out gear a suit. I don't have a briefcase full of papers and procedures, unless you consider my medical bag and defibrillator that. I don't talk the talk so many think I should. No, I just do what needs to be done, in whatever conditions they may be. Whether I am in a ditch at three in the morning and it's snowing with winds blowing and temps in the sub zero's, or responding to a home with a 3 month old not breathing at two in the afternoon. My job is first to stabilize the patient, then to help stabilize their spirit, to comfort them at the exact moment that they are at their most need. So I guess I am not like most of you, but I do the same job, and no credentials as a chaplain will make any difference in that ditch or home, except the one God gave me to care for not only their physical needs, but their spiritual needs.
Respectfully submitted.
Lt. Robert Grimmer
Paramedic/Field Chaplain
Personnel Officer
MRFD
Manawa WI
Issue 3 of the Series Practical Bearings: The Critical Bibliography for Health Care Chaplains is now online at HealthCare Chaplaincy’s website:
http://www.healthcarechaplaincy.org/practicalbearings/ In “Meeting the Other: Interreligious Encounters in the Provision and Supervision of Spiritual Care,” Rev. Dagmar Grefe, Ph. D., Manager, Spiritual Care and Education, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, provides an annotated commentary and key texts that address interreligious spiritual care. The literature listed in this series represents three avenues---theological, social-psychological, and spiritual care---to the understanding of what is going on when persons meet the religiously other at the bedside or in supervision. “Practical Bearings” offers the most thorough and current resources for pastoral educators and pastoral practitioners through the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation and HealthCare Chaplaincy.
For more information, please contact:
Rev. Dr. Leonard M. Hummel
Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Care
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
61 Seminary Ridge
Gettysburg, PA 17325
email: lhummel@ltsg.edu
Office Phone: 717-338-3000, ext. 2157
Re: Electronic Charting of Progress Notes Inquiry
We are updating our progress notes for Spiritual Care in our electronic charting system and are exploring some multiple choice options along side of a narrative. I have been looking through spiritual assessment formulas, reading through articles that are mostly from about 1998 through 2004. Is there anything recent that anyone can recommend for our research and creation of progress notes?
Thank you,
Rev. Jean Norton, BCC
Staff Chaplain
Genesis Medical Center
Davenport, Iowa 52803
563/421-7972
NortonJ@genesishealth.com
Re: Virgil Fry, Difficult Questions in the Second Year of Grief (PlainViews, 3/18/09, Vol. 6, No. 4)
I was very touched to read the very insightful article written by Chaplain Virgil Fry. I, too, have experienced a loss and can relate intimately to his words. My daughter, Jennifer, died from Neuroblastoma Cancer 30 years ago. As Virgil says - "the word 'easy' never describes my grief"... even this many years later. I happen to be a neighbor of Chaplain Fry's. I am a Sr. Volunteer Coordinator at Texas Children's Hospital and among my responsibilities is oversight of our Spiritual Care Volunteer Program. In the course of a recent training session, I noticed that the class was struggling with our instruction that a "silent" visit is the most powerful gift - that being present with a grieving stranger is like water to one who thirsts. To help them better understand what we were trying to teach them, I told them a personal story of my own last weeks with my little daughter. Since that telling, I wrote down the words. It will be printed in the Spring/Summer issue of The Journal for Pastoral Care and Counseling.
One thing I always emphasize to others is that grief is personal. There is no right way to grieve, no magic time period when it ends and certainly there are no words that make it go away. The gift you give to the grieving when you simply sit with them and allow them to cry without any judgment and without any of your own anxiety will be a gift they treasure for the rest of their lives. It is a rare gift among all of the well meaning attempts to help. Blessings to all of those who bring this gift.
Sandy Engel
Sr. Volunteer Coordinator
Texas Children's Hospital
My Mother died Monday, March 9, 2009. She is the love of my heart and I can hardly comprehend that she is physically gone from this place. I have read Chaplain Fry’s columns (2) and feel connected to reluctance. I have been a Hospice Chaplain and have shared many things with many loving folk; and while my ‘mind’ fleetingly tells me ways to be, I feel lost. I doubt even as I cling to God’s love and my Mother’s belief and trust in her ‘Maker’. Thank you Chaplain Fry for touching my unbelief and providing a step on this journey I do not want to take. I am grateful and I know as the days continue that I will appreciate more and more; but today I am reluctant to be so..
Pamela J. Hudson
Senior Development Officer
The Foundation of FirstHealth
Re: A Psalm of Lament, Michele Monroe-Clark (PlainViews, 7/2/08, Vol. 5, No. 11)
Thanks you Chaplain Monroe-Clark for penning these words. They are a balm to my heart and soul - my mother died 3/09/09. Tears are my companion now; she is the love of my heart. I am grateful to you and thank you. May you know God’s blessings for you, and know the blessing you are.
Peace,
Pamela J. Hudson
Senior Development Officer
The Foundation of FirstHealth
Calling all those working on projects with standards, evidence, best practice, etc.
If you are currently at work on a spiritual care, counseling and/or education project dealing with standards of practice, evidence, desired outcomes, and/or best practices, please send your name, the title of your project, a descriptive paragraph or two, and your e-mail address to Jack Gleason, ACPE Supervisor Emeritus, at mariejohn50@att.net for inclusion on a list to be shared with all responders and published as appropriate.
Jack Gleason,
ACPE Supervisor Emeritus
Re: Peggy Muncie, Taming the Cell Phone (PlainViews, 3/4/09, Vol. 6, No. 3)
I agree with Chaplain Peggy about the taming of the Cell Phone. Recently in our ER, an elderly female patient was actively dying. Her daughter and her granddaughter were first to arrive at our ER. They both were on their cell phones, as they sat watching their loved one dying, they were describing her breathing, etc. to other family members, who were not coming to our ER or on their way to ER. Instead of offering words of loving comfort to their mother and grandmother, they were offering their observance of her dying event. As I observed this sad event, I felt helpless, I so wanted to tell them
stop talking on their cell phones and tell your mother and grandmother, how much you love her and will miss her. It didn't happen. They stayed on their cell phones, until she stopped breathing and was pronounced death by the attending ER physician.
Indeed, the use of cell phones may be another way to allow the reality of death in ER. Keep busy talking to other people instead of focusing on the passing of a loved one.
Also, I have noticed that as the result of the use of cell phones in ER is that the dying/death event of the patient become a pre-visitation/family reunion with relatives and friends of the dying person as they gather together and talk about the "good old days..." even with laughter as they share their memories. This may be a healthy grief activity to begin the grief process? I too have lots of questions about "Taming the Cell Phone".
Chaplain Tom Chopp, M.Div.
Monroe Clinic
Monroe, WI.
I am grateful to Rev. Peggy Muncie for raising the issue of access to cell phones and other instant messaging devices at the time of a crisis. Our hospital does have a no-cell policy in critical care areas, but it is not rigidly enforced. I share Peggy’s concern over the issue of depriving someone of contact with a source of support at a critical time. My concern, however, stems from the awkwardness I find in trying to minister to a group of anxious persons who are constantly on the phone and distanced from me. It may be my pride that is at stake here, but I find it frustrating to have to compete with a cell phone when trying to find a moment to offer support and caring. The group feels fragmented. I minister to those who are cell-less, and that may be all that is needed at that point, but I have been in situations where I was never able to speak to a key family member simply because they never got off the phone. Determining when or if to interrupt is a delicate balance; I would like to hear from other chaplains regarding how they make that determination.
Chaplain Barbara Wojciak
Birmingham, AL
Thank you for your article and reflections on the use of cell phones in a critical clinical setting. I've had very similar situations numerous times in my work as a staff chaplain.
I work in trauma and intensive care, and it's been much more lately, within the last year or so, that I've noticed cell phones as much more of an issue with families in critical situations. My colleague and I have lamented to each other a number of times about what a distraction and intrusion cell phones have become. When I started as a hospital staff chaplain, when there was a critical situation, family would gather, and they would, more-or-less, be together and do the work they needed to do together, in that place, with each other. Now, cell phones prevent family from being together in that place and doing their initial re-orientation work. Basically, the cell phones bring the world, or at least the family's world, into the room with them. I've also seen how family members have scattered, both physically and emotionally, rather than being together either at their loved one's side or in a family room, to talk to whomever they talk to on their cell phones, which makes pastoral care in that situation much more challenging.
You named the challenges to the chaplain quite well. In the past, one of the things I would look for in working with a family in a critical situation was a "gate-keeper", someone in the family who seems to be helpful to the others and not quite as taken emotionally. Cell phones make that much more difficult, since the "gate-keeper", like everyone else, is probably on their cell.
You asked about the possibility of regulating cell phone usage in critical situations. I really don't think there's any practical way to do that. I wish we could say to the family, "We ask that you turn your cell phones off while you're here in your loved one's room," but I can see how such a request would either be simply ignored or cause annoyance. One would think that common sense and basic rules of etiquette would be observed, and folks would either turns their cells off or not answer them when family is mourning and praying together, but it just doesn't happen. Perhaps once our cultural maturity catches up with our technology, folks will begin to observe boundaries and limit their cell usage, but that's probably hoping against hope. No, cell phones are here to stay, and I don't think there's anything we can do to remedy the kinds of situations you and I have mentioned. Perhaps the chaplain could ask the family to either turn their phones off or not to answer them while they are in prayer together. I've never tried that; it might be interesting to see what happens if I do. Common sense and basic manners tell me that we shouldn't have to say anything like that, of course, sort of on the same lines as men taking their hats off at the table, but no one seems to care about that anymore either. Other than that, at this point I don't have any creative ideas on how we can meet that challenge.
Maybe it's our love affair with gadgets and gizmos, which makes us think that just because we have a gadget, we have to use it, and once we start, we think we can't function without it. I don't know.
Thank you, again, for the article.
J. Andrew Busch, BCC
Trinity Medical Center, Rock Island, Illinois
While I understand Rev. Muncie’s concerns, it is the nature of change. I am still learning the value and art of text messaging. My experience has been all over the map with cell phones. It provides that instant connection with your support system. It may seem like people are ignoring the circumstances in front of them, maybe so…but maybe it is their way of dealing with the crisis at hand as well. The crowds that are now arriving on hospital door steps will continue (depending on the family/circumstances involved). We as institutions will have to adjust accordingly. It will never be an easy call. My daughters view the world through those electronic eyes. I keep trying to catch on and catch up. A couple of summers ago, I was asked to officiate at a surprise 50th wedding anniversary for my aunt and uncle. My aunt was one of 11 children, all but one was able to attend. As the ceremony proceeded, her phone rang. We ignored it. Then her sister’s phone rang. We ignored it too. Finally when my uncle’s phone rang from his back pocket, I suggested he answer it. This was in a span of less then 3 minutes. It was the one sister who could not travel in. She then enjoyed the ceremony by phone and all were able to gather together for this festive celebration.
Blessings
Rev. Catherine A. Neal, BCC
United Hospital System,
Kenosha, WI
Re: Logan Jones, "PFM" as a Standard of Practice (PlainViews, 3/4/09, Vol. 6, No. 3
Really enjoyed your article! I recently heard from someone who described our interactions with pt/family as a "black box." The idea is that the pt/family is at one place, then the chaplain comes and together they enter the "black box," and then the pt/family emerge in a different, often better place. Whether "black box" or your nurse's "PFM", we make a difference. Now we just need to figure out how we do that and what works better in one situation as opposed to another. I think having Standards will help us begin to define our "f----- magic"!
Mark LaRocca-Pitts, PhD, BCC
Staff Chaplain
Athens Regional Medical Center
Athens, GA
Issue 2 of the Series Practical Bearings: The Critical Bibliography for Health Care Chaplains is now online at HealthCare Chaplaincy’s website:
http://www.healthcarechaplaincy.org/practicalbearings/ In To Want to Learn: Educational Theory for Supervision and Training, Jackson Kytle, Ph.D., Vice President for Academic Affairs at HealthCare Chaplaincy provides an annotated bibliography and commentary for key texts on motivation and learning and other leading educators. He addresses, “What do chaplains in health care need to know about motivation and learning? Why do they need these ideas and theories?” Practical Bearings offers the most thorough and current resources for pastoral educators and pastoral practitioners through the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation and HealthCare Chaplaincy.
Re: George Handzo, Moving from a Hope and a Prayer (PlainViews, 2/18/09, Vol. 6, No. 2)
Defining measures for good chaplaincy is difficult because so much of spiritual care deals with the intangible. I suggest, however, that ours is not the only discipline that struggles with this issue. We have all witnessed that the difference between a "good" nurse and a "great" nurse often has very little to do with measurable clinical skills. Often it has more to do with the intangible. We and our patients and clients simply recognize genuine caring from the heart when we see it, whether that care is from a chaplain, nurse, physician, social worker, physical therapist, etc. Yet each of these clinical fields has developed its clinical standards for measuring outcome, recognizing that the measurable is not the full story. Chaplaincy must do this as well.
Caring in any clinical field is an art, not a science. Yet any art sets standards of what is "good" and "professional" work, and what is not. Somewhere chaplaincy, like other fields, must take the responsibility of measuring and evaluating what we can, and accepting that which is beyond measure.
Jeffery Murphy, BCC
Clinical Chaplain
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Re: Nancy Berlinger, Colleagues or Competitors? (PlainViews, 2/4/09, Vol. 6, No.1)
What we may consider as clear distinctions in the non-chaplaincy part of health care aren't necessarily so. I had a friend who was a neurosurgeon in our community. He was constantly at odds with the orthopedic surgeons particularly around who should be the one to do spinal surgery. He finally left and our community now has no neurosurgeons. Therefore any head injured people must be taken to the nearest hospital which can provide the care. That hospital is 75 miles away.
Also, who does a diabetic go to for a foot ulcer: a podiatrist or a dermatologist? Or does that person go to a "Wound Clinic"?
I think we are often guilty of thinking the grass is always greener in other pastures when that may not be the case.
Chaplain David Pacholke
The Finley Hospital
Dubuque, Iowa
How do chaplains use nature as a healing tool?
I am interested in finding out if and how chaplains make use of nature as a healing tool in their work, in particular in an acute-care setting. Do you know if this has been written about in the past in PlainViews – or in another setting? (It has not been in PlainViews)
Thanks so much,
Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
Staff Chaplain, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Rabbi, Ma'yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope
www.mayantikvah.org
Email: rabbikza@verizon.net
Re: Stephen King, Standards of Practice for Health Care Chaplains
(PlainViews, 2/4/09, Vol. 6, No. 1)
I realize that the proposal has not yet been put out. In the interim I would suggest that because there are many chaplains who do not work in a health care setting, we include standards – not minimal, but professional standards – for service as a chaplain. I am concerned that this work will focus on health care as the basic structure. Perhaps we need to look at a standard for all chaplains, a higher level for certified chaplains, and specific competencies for health care, industrial, military, etc. This would follow the medical model of the doctor who begins as an intern and progresses through a specialty being “boarded” in their areas of practice.
Please let me know how I can help in this effort. (I am a certified member of NAJC.)
Rabbi Maurice S. Kaprow, B.C.C.
US Navy Chaplain
Re: Kit Hall, Can We Honor One Another’s Spirituality? (PlainViews, 1/21/09, Vol. 5, No. 24) In response to the Rev. K.C. Schuler’s comments on my article: Can We Honor One Another’s Spirituality? I wish to state that I whole heartedly agree with his assessment of the issues involved. Certainly remaining true to one’s own tradition and beliefs is paramount to the chaplain’s integrity and ability to minister effectively. Personal discernment is necessary when determining what we as the chaplain can or for that matter should, legitimately “provide” another and when it is best to offer to “facilitate” the ritual or practice. My personal practice is to always defer to the individuals religious representative whenever possible when ritual is involved.
Kit Hall
Chaplain
St. Charles Medical Center
Cascade Health Care
Bend, OR
Re: Nancy Berlinger, The End of Life as We Know It (PlainViews, 1/21/09, Vol. 5, No. 23) As an Associate Director of Pastoral Care at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, Our department has been an integral part of the development of our Palliative Care Program. Children’s currently supports a full-time medical director and nurse practitioner, and supported sending a interdisciplinary team including chaplains to two recent "The Initiative for Pediatric Palliative Care (IPPC)" retreats. Since then, we have instituted the IPPC curriculum in unit-specific trainings, including a unit-specific chaplain. Our model is completely consultative: the primary medical team maintains primary care of the patient/family, and the chaplain from that unit continues caring for the child/family. This maintains the integrity of the primary team throughout the child’s lifespan, rather than “handing-off” the patient/family to a new primary team/chaplain at the end of the child’s life.
Chaplain Doug Watts
Associate Director, Pastoral Care
Children's Medical Center Dallas Texas
Re: George Robie, Retire or Not Retire (PlainViews, 1/21/09, Vol. 5, No. 24)
I enjoyed the message from George Robie. I had retirement basically forced on me by the Hospital I had been serving for nine years.” Budget cuts”. It was a huge shock to me and to my staff and volunteers. Two other Director’s positions were also eliminated at the same time. It has been an incredible year of transition for all of us, but grace filled, I must say. I decided to make the year feel like a wonderful sabbatical and did very little except to nurture my soul and reinvest in friendships and family that I had not had very much time for in the past years. I feel rested and ready to discern my path of service for the next leg of the journey. I feel better prepared to do this than I would have a year ago when I felt pressure to get back into the work force right away. Balance and perspective and time for prayerful reflection have invigorated me. Some attractive ministry jobs are knocking at my door even though I am in my sixties! Right now, I feel more relaxed in being able to respond or not. I was blessed with a reasonable pension and a good resume. I will not be making my future decisions in a vacuum and they will not be forced on me (with the grace of God). My family and good friends are all a part of my “future lifestyle” however that will be. Deo gratias!
Diane Bridges. D. Min.
Ontario, CA
I congratulate George Robie for his short and important comment about RETIRE or NOT RETIRE. It is a dilemma. Making the connection between "Call" and "the rest of our lives" opens up the spirituality of "retirement" even more.
My main comment, however, is this: I find "retirement" to be a demeaning term used to describe elders who are in the midst of yet another identity crisis. Jokes and stories liken us to "cattle being put out to pasture". Such humor is revealing. It devalues the wisdom of elders. Depending on our financial resources our society "puts elders away" in Life Care Centers, Assisted Living Homes, Nursing Homes or in locked and gated communities. These settings separate residents from younger generations and especially children. The result is the Wisdom Keepers become segregated. Wisdom isn't passed on. Youth and Elders both loose.
I prefer to think of this time of identity change, spiritual change, physical, work change as a time of CREATIVE DISENGAGEMENT. Creative Disengagement implies an active and dynamic process. I imagine the process as follows. As I disengage from my work and professional life, I am preparing for and participating in my personal deathing process. I am not only disengaging from my "work", I am learning how to disengage from life on this planet and make ready to cross the threshold to life eternal.
So far, I am experiencing this time as a time of difficult challenge as well as a time of unimagined joy.
Let us keep the discussion going. We all WILL end work, and we all WILL die.
Gary E. Wehrwein, D.Min.
Maps Counseling Services
Hospice Chaplain & Pastoral Counselor
New Hampshire
Re: Kit Hall, Can We Honor One Another’s Spirituality? (PlainViews, 1/21/09, Vol. 5, No. 24)
There may be semantic but important issues to consider in what truly constitutes honoring another person's spirituality. Certainly, as a professional chaplain, exploring another's beliefs, world view, and struggles with them and in their contextual framework is a cornerstone in institutional ministry. An interesting divergence in practice comes to light in considering what (if to any degree) a professional chaplain can participate in or provide the sectarian ritual expressions for which the other person finds their beliefs meaningfully expressed – specifically when that sect is not closely related to the chaplain’s own religious profession or identification.
I do not disagree, and see that being inquisitive about someone’s
spirituality as a guest in his or her experience, can certainly be
perceived as honoring. Though, I also see that facilitating support or
ritual through their own faith community representative or clergy can
also honoring. There are expressions of another’s spirituality that I
can explore with authenticity and reverence, but for which I cannot
authentically provide ritual expression or facilitation. Thus,
incorporating what I have come to know as the Militaries mantra for
chaplaincy has helped guide my practice in chaplaincy – loosely quoted
as, “provide for those you can, facilitate for those you can not.”
I do not come to this conclusion out of fear of losing or diminishing
my own beliefs, but rather through respect for the difference of
another's beliefs and the tradition that upholds them.
Rev. K.C. Schuler, BCC
Chaplain Supervisor
ThedaCare Hospitals
Appleton/Neenah, WI
Re: Nancy Berlinger, The End of Life as We Know It (PlainViews, 1/21/09, Vol. 5, No. 23)
Our hospice made a concerted effort to address the needs of children with life limiting illnesses about 3 years ago. We cover 17 counties in East Texas (between Dallas and Shreveport, LA). In order to provide the appropriate care we added a pediatrician, a pediatric oncology nurse, and a child life specialist to our staff. This service has been very rewarding but not with out its challenges. As Chaplain, and a parent who has lost a child, I am committed to supporting the parent's right to determine care for their child. When a parent chooses a treatment that "may" not be beneficial or comforting for their child, the stress rises. Being there, supporting their decisions, gently trying to inform, educate, and reminding them of reality without losing trust is a challenge on many levels. The other area that has raised spiritual and ethical concerns is the occasion when the family expresses a strong faith and assurance of God's healing to the point of not allowing anyone who "doubts" into the room. Obviously we have an ethical responsibility to insure that the child is receiving the appropriate care but balancing ethics and parent rights can feel like being between "a rock and a hard place". Supporting staff members who have their own opinion of the situation adds to the dynamic. Fortunately those opportunities are rare. The longer we journey into this area of care, the more our team is learning to depend on each other. I wish you all well in providing such necessary care to these little ones and their families.
Dennis Harvey
Chaplain Coordinator
Hospice of East Texas
Tyler, TX
Re: David Singer, Turkey, Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care (PlainViews, 1/7/09, Vol. 5, No. 23)
I thank David Singer for sharing with the professional chaplain community the Chasidic tale of the “turkey under the table,” a Jewish fable that illustrates vividly the CPE concept of “being with people where they are.” Mr. Singer also explains how the mitzvah of bikkur holim (visiting the sick) is so central to living a Jewish life that worshippers proclaim its status as a religious responsibility in the daily liturgy. CPE, he writes, has enabled him to fulfill this mitzvah with much greater depth and to interact with patients in a way that affects each party more significantly.
I appreciate Mr. Singer’s sharing how his theology around this mitzvah has evolved through both the clinical pastoral education process and his study of Jewish texts and commentaries. I would like to offer a clarification for non-Jewish readers who may have been confused by his statement: “I would be as rote in my offerings to the individuals confined to hospital beds as the tradition suggests the act’s performance should be: nothing more, nothing less.” This statement seems to imply that Jewish tradition holds up rote, superficial performance of God’s mitzvot as meritorious or even desirable.
A mitzvah (plural: mitzvot) is a Jewish religious responsibility, given to us in love by God, in order to raise ourselves in holiness as we go about our daily lives. Judaism, being a very reality-based religion, recognizes that it is impossible for people to go through their days feeling deeply holy about every thing that they do or be fully present to the miracles around them from morning until night. Therefore, we are given responsibilities that, in the ideal, we would carry out with full emotional depth and with complete presence, but that, realistically, we need to do regardless of our emotional skills and maturity.
For example: when we speak with a patient who has had no visitors bedside and s/he explains: “My spouse/family/friends care about me but they don’t do hospitals/don’t know what to say/can’t handle seeing me sick.” What do we want to say to those absent support people? “I don’t care if you’re not into it or you have anxiety or if you might not say the ‘right’ thing: get your butts down here! S/he needs you!”
The mitzvah of bikur cholim is about being there – ideally as a fully present, highly skilled provider of support and care, but at the very least: just there! CPE provides Jewish participants with a wonderful opportunity to move ourselves closer to the Jewish ideal of performing this mitzvah in a way that helps heal the patient (According to Jewish tradition, visiting a sick person contributes to 1/60th of their healing), improves the soul of the visitor, and helps bring holiness to our world by valuing those among us who are wounded, ill and “non-productive.” Mitzvot are given, not as a mere “things-to-do” checklist, but as a structured discipline that helps us lead more profound and compassionate lives and that betters our world. As we learn in the centuries-old midrash pertaining to another important mitzvah, kashrut (Jewish dietary rules): “What does it matter to God whether or not the Jews carry out the laws of kashrut? It is clear that the mitzvot were given solely for the purpose of deepening [the characters of] people.”
Rabbi Laura Rappaport
Staff Chaplain
St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center
Boise, ID
Re: Donna Lord, A Ceremony of Blessings (PlainViews, 1/7/09, Vol. 5, No. 23)
I simply applaud Sister Lord's ability to offer a bit of the sacred to this couple in a very trying circumstance. The blessing is to acknowledge the love that exists in this relationship, not to condemn nor condone co-habitation. Focusing solely on that issue misses an opportunity to offer blessing to this relationship which, whether blessed or not to this point, has endured. I applaud Sister Lord for lifting up that which is blessed between the two of them. Would it be better to offer no such blessing on the grounds that up to this point they may have lived a life not approved in the sight of God's commands? Should Jesus not have offered water at the well with the woman from Samaria because the one she lives with now is not her husband? Perhaps we all can learn a bit of pastoral humility to go along with our pastoral authority in order to offer a living water to drink when someone is in need. Perhaps in offering a more fulfilling water to drink, we offer hope for a blessing where one has not been recieved before.
Dale Wratchford, BCC
Dell Children's Medical Center
Seton Family of Hospitals
Austin, TX
News from the Ukraine
MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF UKRAINE
INSTITUTE OF PALLIATIVE AND HOSPICE MEDICINE МИНЗДРАВА УКРАИНЫ
ALL-UKRAINIAN ASSOCIATION OF PALLIATIVE CARE
ALL-UKRAINIAN COUNCIL FOR PATIENT RIGHTS AND SAFETY
DEVELOPMENT OF PALLIATIVE CARE IN UKRAINE IN 2008
Accordingly to WHO definition (2002), palliative care is an approach, which helps to improve the life quality of those who faces incurable decease and their family members.
During the year the information on hospice care movement in Ukraine continued to be analyzed. Key stakeholders on palliative care were identified.
The analysis of legislation concerning end-of-life care was continued. The special attention was paid to usage of opioids (pain management). The recommendations about its improvement were developed.
The coordination council (steering committee) on palliative care was created by Ministry of Health of Ukraine. The council objectives: development of palliative and hospice care system in Ukraine, development of a relevant governmental program, coordination of palliative care providers in Ukraine, legislation improvement, training of staff, a hospice network development and awareness raising of society on mentioned questions. The council unites key stakeholders – representatives of Ministry of Health, Ministry of Family, Ministry of Labor and social policy, of patient organizations, voluntary organizations, Churches. Co-heads of the council – Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Zynovy Mytnyk and prof. MD I. Gubsky.
The coordination council on palliative and hospice care with support of Association of palliative care and International Renaissance Foundation in April – October 2008 the Palliative care development (in 2010-2014) Concept was developed.
Also the event plan with approximate budget was elaborated. The documents were approved by Ministry of Health, supported in general by Academy of medical sciences, by different ministries, and returned to Ministry of Health for further improvement. In July 2008 the governmental institution for palliative care development within the structure of Ministry of health was created. It was Institute for palliative and hospice medicine. This is a basic scientific and clinical facility of Ministry of Health on palliative and hospice care issues. Prof. MD Iury Gubsky was appointed as Director of the Institute. Institute has such aims at its activities: to coordinate the preparation of the governmental program of palliative care development in Ukraine, to improve relevant legislation, prepare the staff, develop and control relevant protocols and guidelines.
Raise awareness campaign on palliative care started. The cooperation with local, national and international mass-media started. In 2007 and 2008 in cooperation with Ministry of health, Ministry of labor and social policy the campaign was done. 10 regional branches of Association of palliative care participated. Concerts, round tables, conferences and other mass events were organized.
In cooperation with faculty of state scientific geriatric center and Institute of palliative medicine (at Hospice of San-Diego, USA) the educational program for medical workers was elaborated. This program is the first educational curricula in Ukraine which can be used to train specialists in palliative care. 3-20 November 2008 the workshop was organized accordingly to the program, with support of International Renaissance Foundation and Open Society Institute. 32 future trainers on palliative care obtained certificates out of Deputy Minister hands.
4 regional task forces (coordination councils, steering committees) on palliative care were established. The final goal of them: to create relevant local programs and palliative care development on the regional (local) level.
The number of in-patient hospice beds in Ukraine increased on 80 beds. The work on hospice establishing in 8 regions started.
One of the most important components in palliative care advocacy is cooperation with mass-media. In last year, about 40 publications on palliative care issued. Also, in September the national campaign “To dye with dignity” started. It was in cooperation with different national newspapers.
International experience of palliative care providing was studied. International approaches were laid down as a basis for technical and economical calculations of governmental palliative care program. In study visits about 20 medical workers and public health decision-makers participated.
Thanks to this activities the number of palliative care facilities increases. In 2002, there were 400 in-patient beds in 12 palliative care facilities; in 2007 – 550 beds in 18 facilities; and in 2008 – 600 beds in 19 facilities.
Prepared: Alexander Wolf, Secretary of coordination council on palliative and hospice care (advisory board within the structure of Ministry of Health of Ukraine) (phone +38 097 14 17 456, + 38 044 594 02 78, alexander@tb.org.ua)
Re: Donna Lord, A Ceremony of Blessings (PlainViews, 1/7/09, Vol. 5, No. 23)
Sister Donna M. Lord may have met the needs of the patient and family, I am troubled by the prayer. Sister prayed, "You likewise blessed the union of Luis and Graciela" and I am not so sure God did as Scripture, both Old and New, indicate marriage is blessed but not co-habitation. I applaud Sister Lord's desire to meet the needs of patient and family but believe it not appropriate.
Chaplain Tom Webb, BCC
BryanLGH Medical Center
Lincoln, NE
Re: David SInger, Turkey, Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care (PlainViews, 1/7/09, Vol. 5, No. 23)
My reaction to David Singer's article "Turkey, Chaplaincy and Patients" was mixed. Rav Nachman of Bratzlov's story about the prince who thought he was a turkey (it is more likely that the animal Rav Nachman was referring to was a rooster) is instructive, uplifting and heart-warming. I agree that it is a "must know" for chaplains. However, David Singer is too quick to dismiss the rabbinic imperatives related to visiting the sick. Singer starts his article by quoting the famous Talmudic passage containing ethical priorities that is found in our daily liturgy.
However, this is merely a statement of the obvious. There are numerous guidelines for the visiting of the sick found in Jewish legal literature. These are the real guidelines for chaplaincy. What David Singer has done is the equivalent of stopping at the statement "Cars are used for transportation." and ignoring the vast literature on vehicle operation, maintenance and repair. If one has absorbed the legal literature relating to visiting the sick, the original statement of the obvious becomes far more meaningful. After almost 39 years in the rabbinate, the original passage is far more than a rote part of my daily worship--it speaks to me!
Rabbi Louis J. Feldman, Ph.D.
Board Member--Scholl Institute of Bioethics
Los Angeles, CA
A very good article by David. Insightful and timely.
Chaplain Tom Webb, BCC
BryanLGH Medical Center
Lincoln, NE
Re: Texas Medical Center Protocol for Chaplain Response to Codes (PlainViews, 12/17/08, Vol. 5, No. 22)
In response to comments regarding support of staff during codes, there are two places in our protocol which address responding to the staff, although they are listed in headings such as "Secondary Actions" and "post Code Actions." Care of the staff during stressful times such as code blues is a primary (not really secondary) concern of chaplains. Thank you for your thorough reading of our submission to PlainViews.
Sandy Londa, Staff Chaplain
The Methodist Hospital
Houston, Texas
Re: Martha Jacobs, Can We Measure Good Chaplaincy? (PlainViews, 12/3/08, Vol. 5, No. 21)
Thank you for your excellent work. I do have a significant objection to your foundational statement that you protect patients from proselytizing.
This statement is a lightening rod statement which will ostracizes a great portion of your colleagues. We all sympathize with your strong dislike of aggressive impersonal proselytizing, but many of us are also sympathetic with the fervent hearts of those who may cross the line of gentility. While they represent a dangerous offensive practice, we must be sensitive and inclusive of those who pastor in their churches. Beside this minority of pastors, there will be a larger group in clergy who see your blanket prohibition of proselytizing as sympathetic with persecution of those of strong faith. The very same statements are being fostered in Muslim countries and the UN for the purpose of arresting and persecuting evangelical Christians.
A couple qualifiers (aggressive and impersonal) will broaden your community and create an atmosphere of professionalism consistent with your professed desires. It also seems as though you are addressing a minor issue or a tactical issue far too aggressively. Wouldn't a rude behavior be more appropriate in an instructional area instead of a foundational defining professional statement. You seem to be catering to the dieing mainline denominations. There are plenty of cloistered degrees and ivory towers to support these efforts, but the general public (read funding) seems to be going evangelical, Baptist, or seeker friendly.
If you lose your faith in your faith, you're just a government social worker meddling in someone else's faith with an expressed goal of proselytizing mediocrity.
With apologies,
David Campbell, DDS
Los Angeles, CA
Re: Carl Yusavitz, Making Rounds with Pastoral Care Dogs (PlainViews, 12/17/08, Vol. 5, No. 22)
Wow... did I ever do a triple take when glancing through this issue. I'd been meaning to send you an article on Pastoral Care Dogs. When just looking at the first title, I wondered whether I might have sent you something and then forgot that I had done so.
In 2001 APC published (in Chaplaincy Today) my article "Making the Rounds with the Pastoral Care Dog." Then on May 1, 2007, I taught a workshop on the subject ("Enriching Encounters with Dogs") at the APC Annual Conference in San Francisco. I wonder whether Carl Yusavitz's CPE intern might have been one of those who attended my workshop. Perhaps I can be of some assistance as they launch their program.
Kay Miller, M.Div., BCC
Maysville, Kentucky
Re: Larry Ehren and Dean V. Marek, An Invitation to Participate in a Unique Spiritual Care Improvement Project (PlainViews, 12/17/08, Vol. 5, No. 22)
I wonder if there are any dissenting voices in regards to measuring the immeasurable. I frankly think the whole effort is futile. If you want proof, look at the auto industry that can tell you the nanoseconds to make a weld and the picocuries in their metal content - after a hundred years of this they still can't make a decent automobile! Or, closer to home, check with your own hospital laboratory. There was a time when every employee made a mark for each test they performed and calculations of cost were made on each step of each test. Then, weekly and monthly by great effort all the marks were counted up by supervisors. The main effect of all this wasted time was diversion from patient care - this of course took years to realize and a cultural shift of sorts. The side effects, however are sometimes good. These include collaborating with administrators; giving directors and administration something to do together. Building friendships and relations with other staff who might have similar futile tasks that they should pretend are important. Offering something to patients by way of their subjective feedback can make both parties feel better. Or, worse.
Must we measure the immeasurable to achieve good relations? Of course there are 'good' chaplains and 'bad' chaplains and often the twain do meet. Trying to objectivize spiritual and caring activities is, I submit, a way of pushing off decisions and responsibility as bureaucracies tend to do. Look at the banking crisis - until the near total collapse, all figures looked good and bonuses were perfuse. Everyone "bought in" to the numbers. Sound judgment was vetoed by rising digital curves. So, if measurement is the trend, still stay aware and look at the history of where it has taken many parties. I submit that chaplains can well do without being a statistic.
John Stangle,MA, BCC, NACC Chaplain Emeritus
Re: Martha Jacobs, Can We Measure Good Chaplaincy? (PlainViews, 12/3/08, Vol. 5, No. 21)
I just read your excellent paper in the Hastings Center Report and want to congratulate you, and all the others who contributed to the Nov-Dec issue, for the breadth and depth of concerns covered. I am so inspired, and encouraged by the discussion of professionalizing chaplaincy. Thanks for your leadership of our profession! BTW, I'm sending your paper to my bishop and several others on my diocese's staff that have trouble understanding chaplaincy as a legitimate calling and vocation separate from parish ministry.
Blessings back to you,
Mary Green
Staff Chaplain
St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital
Houston, TX
Applause, applause for the wonderful job you folks did with the Hastings Center Report!!
Excellent work! Much appreciated I'm sure by many of those in the profession. In your article I appreciated the following points: translation of signs/symptoms of imminent death for families; 29 areas of competency; intense clinical experience; and that other professions overstep boundaries that are the chaplains role.
I look forward to ongoing research in the areas listed in the Hastings Report.
Rev. Joanne Mumley
Winter Park, FL
I somehow missed the Dec.13 issue of PlainViews but I was able to download the pdf file of it. I was then able to go to the Hastings Center Report and the very fine article about what chaplains do. It was very descriptive. One small correction would be that it states that the academic training is in a seminary. Most chaplains I have worked with have a university training. This would include most Catholic sisters, you can see.
Also, the other articles in the Hastings Center Report were quite interesting and good; I really only had time to scan read them and not concentrate on details. A lot of work went into these reports. Work that obviously was not direct patient care but which hopes to translate into better care in a more global way. That of course is the crux of the matter; on the other hand, proving that chaplains are a profession and professionals seems to have been ongoing ever since I was first certified in 1981! Frankly, I haven't seen all that much return for all that effort. Really, this may be measuring the immeasurable. I don't think this effort should be discontinued, only it should be put in perspective and not become an overriding obsession. In one sense, the effort to prove can prove counter-productive.
Thank you for your efforts!
John P. Stangle, MA, NACC BCC Chaplain Emeritus
Re: Jenny Lannom, "'Til Death Do Us Part"…Considering the Justice of Gay Marriage (PlainViews, 12/3/08, Vol. 5, No. 21)
Thank you Jenny! I serve in a Catholic healthcare system, the same system in which I did my CPE. I have always been out about my sexuality. It has never been an issue. I actually find it to be a benefit most days as I have been able to be a source of support, understanding, and hope for the many staff members that come to me, both gay and straight. Since I work in pediatrics in a state that is not well known for supporting the rights of same sex partner parents, they too find a comfort in having me around. Even the occasional teenage patient who has attempted suicide or is in the hospital struggling with an illness can find a comfort in my presence.
But on that night in November as most of the country and even my own city were celebrating the era of new hope and change, my partner and I did not sleep as we kept getting up to watch the percentages in California inching up to take away a civil right that we had finally won. The only group some say, who has had a civil right TAKEN away in this country of freedom.
My partner has supported me as I have gone through CPE, proudly tells people of the work I do, and is the best companion I could have at the end of a long day, or a particularly tough death. We are both involved in our church, the same one actually where we met. We pay our taxes. We are by all means a married couple, but we have no protection beyond what our families and legal contracts would grant to us.
This Christmas my partner came to the hospital with me. I had volunteered to work so others could be off. For three hours we joined a group of employees and families and delivered gifts to children throughout the hospital. It was an amazing joy, and we spread more comfort and peace that day than I could have done in a week. We may not be considered legally married in 48 states in this free country, but that day we functioned as a family spreading the Good News of Christ’s birth to children who had little hope. And it was good that we were able to do it together. We plan on making it our Christmas tradition.
Chaplain Dave Bieniek,
Chaplain Services Dept.
Dell Children's Medical Center
Austin, TX
Both the writer's theology and her denomination would reflect what would be a classic "liberal" view of the gay struggle...it would be interesting if a conservative cpe supervisor with a dmin (if there is one) would be willing to write a response...It is an issue that has long divided the country and the church, as well as individual both gay and straight...it would be interesting to hear conservative views of what can be reconciled with liberals and what cannot and vice-versa. Resistance indeed is a two edged sword, both ego challenging, and ego protecting...Would a conservative supervisor and or therapist, with a dmin or Phd view the author's position as a resistance to the greater goal of wellness for the gay person through long term psycho-dynamic work or CBT as more important for their well being rather than simply staying in a gay relationship or even marriage...Would conservatives also site case studies where they left their gay relationship after much pain and therapy and ended up in heterosexual marriage or minimally celibacy....In a grand rounds several years ago, I listened to a psychiatrist, who taught adolescent psychiatry and conducted research on gay/lesbian originations, quite assertively state, the most recent evidence clearly stated there was no genetic link and that he felt what was needed was to rechallenge the APA and re-invest in the therapeutic task of helping gay and lesbian clients to work through their sexuality issues...He went on to say he was an atheist and did not see this as a moral issue, of good or bad, but one of human development. However, he did also say that the APA was in a deep political "resistance" and this would probably not happen...(of course his colleagues somewhat disagreed but offered little "resistance" because he was a lead researcher on the current evidence.) One must ask about the nature of resistance especially on this issue. How much of is it political and people on both sides are adapting to the group that is the most persuasive (or has the most money), whether conservative or liberal. Is this not also true for the church? Which interpretation of Scripture and interpretation of "resistance" guides a community, eventually public policy and subsequent views of justice? I suspect the resistance to that dialogue on either side will unfortunately take a very long time, with many anecdotal stories on both sides. Meanwhile, there will be much pain for both family and individuals who are gay, and have gay loved ones in this process.
Dennis DuPont
Spring Grove Hospital
Baltimore, Maryland
I am not an expert in Second Temple Judaism, but it seems to me that the contrast Jenny Lannom posits between supposed Jewish rigidity and the flexibility of Jesus and his followers may have a homiletic point but is built upon doubtful images of each group. I don't know that this is an accurate picture of that time period.
More to the point, today one may see a contrasting dichotomy. Three of the four major movements in American Judaism (Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative) now allow ordaining gay rabbis and allow gay marriages (Reconstructionist and Reform) or commitment ceremonies (Conservative). [Some of their affiliates outside the US have not endorsed these moves, and the Conservative movement law committee had minority opinions opposing these moves.]
Of course there are variations within Jewish movements, and among congregations and individual rabbis. Not all Jewish individuals or communities are yet open and accepting of gay people. However, there clearly have been major changes over the last quarter-century. The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, for example, began admitting openly gay rabbinical students in the mid-1980s and the current president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association is a lesbian.
I know that there are debates and changes taking place within many Christian groups. I look forward to the day when three out of four major Christian denominations take similar progressive steps to welcome our family members, neighbors, and fellow children of God.
Rabbi Robert Tabak, PhD
Staff Chaplain
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA
I am a UCC Hospital Chaplain and I often find articles in the PlainViews very helpful. I cannot say this about the article written by Jenny Lannom. I am also glad that we are able to express our views in a free country because of the freedom of speech we enjoy.
My view would be considered by my colleagues as conservative about this issue. From Genesis to Romans, the Bible is authoritative and my source of truth. I cannot tear pages out of the scripture that reveal that God Loves all and has made us Male and Female. God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve. I am somewhat taken back by someone who appears to be a professional clergyperson and who can twist and turn around an issue that needs no debate. As the numbers of people grow who accept this lifestyle, so also the outcry is heard because as a Christian I am suppose to love them anyway. I do love them but I can never love their choice to corrupt what God has made us to be. Finally, I can say that as I write this my heart is very saddened and I feel that I am seeing times revealed by our very nature. In the 31 years I have known Christ, I have experienced the need for more of God each day not less. One has to be aware not to offend anyone because we are to love with God’s love. Guilt and shame has often been my traveling companions but I have never asked God to forgive me to hear him say not today. What does all this mean if I except that people want to be married and enjoy the benefits of union when it is between two people of the same sex?
Chaplain (MAJ) Anton K. Ciomperlik
Chaplain Clinician
Brooke Army Medical Center
San Antonio, Texas
The metaphor of the eunuch presented a paradigm I had not explored. So I sought insight from a friend whose spiritual journey has included being a eunuch for more than 20 years. In his early years he reported grieving much and feeling very, very sorry for his self. He reported becoming extremely bitter. In subsequent years he reported having a much stronger gratitude for and more trust in God. My friend came to rejoice as he experienced God consecrating his afflictions to his gain.
He is a compassionate and humble man and points to the struggles he has been through along with God’s tender mercies for enlarging his soul. I came away from my visit with renewed gratitude for the love he radiates. His strength rubbed off on me and I found myself giving thanks for not only “my” strengths but also “my” weaknesses. (I confess I tend to forget the source of these gifts.) After visiting with him I had a sweeter, stronger confidence that if I was more humble or teachable that God could eventually turn my weaknesses into strengths. I left in greater awe of God’s grace and, interestingly, God’s justice.
In gentle irony my friend noted that since he had become less concerned about “his” sexual gratification, “his” sexuality, “his” will and “his” identity that he has been able to spend more time empathizing, loving, giving, listening and caring about and for others. He said, “I am now a little more in tune with God’s way rather than in demanding my way.” Regarding the Ethiopian Eunuch he reflected that in the early days of his own suffering and grief that he would not have gladly met the Lord’s disciples and asked for baptism. He had been way too bitter. Now, however, he feels ready to meet the Savior with open arms and with tears of joy and gratitude.
Because I had invited him to read Lannom’s reflections he went on to note some of the similarities and differences between those who struggle with sexual identity versus those who struggle with an asexual identity. I repeat just a part of what he said with concern for doing his words justice. He noted, “For those who struggle with ‘their’ religious identity, ‘their’ moral indignation or for those who struggle to understand ‘their’ identity, I pray that their hearts might soften so that they might be inclined to seek, to learn and then to do, like the Savior, God’s will. I have learned by faith only when I did God’s will. My will to feel sorry for myself brought no learning, only spiritual paralysis. I think that by being loving and submissive to God’s will I have somehow garnered oil for my lamp. I needed the oil not only to meet the Bridegroom but in order to feel comfortable in God’s presence.”
That my friend’s long term familial relationship is not, he reported, dependent or based upon sexual attraction nor upon sexual gratification may raise questions or expand understanding of our presuppositions about the priorities generally found in our culture, at least about marital underpinnings.
v/r Steve Lineback
Chaplain,
UVRMC
Provo, UT
I so appreciated Jennie’s LongView article.
Thank you.
Amy Jones
Hospice chaplain,
Providence Health Systems
Portland, OR
Re: Martha Jacobs, Can We Measure Good Chaplaincy? (PlainViews, 12/3/08, Vol. 5, No. 21)
I was greatly heartened to read in the current edition of PlainViews that many of the issues concerning the future of chaplaincy which we are addressing in this country are ones that you are also grappling with. The whole question of measuring, or auditing, what we do and providing evidence to back up our claims is at the very heart of what it means to be a healthcare profession today. If we want to be taken seriously then we will have to learn some new skills and a new language.
In Scotland we have developed a series of standards for chaplaincy which address some of these issues. The 2007 Standards for NHS (National Health Service) Scotland Chaplaincy Services sets out how spiritual and religious care will be put into practice by chaplaincy departments. A self assessment tool is included to allow for audit.
Earlier this year the Spiritual and Religious Care Capabilities and Competencies for Healthcare Chaplains was published. This is a framework for individuals working as chaplains to assist in education and training and work based learning. The document is referenced to the 2007 Standards and to the NHS’s Knowledge and Skills Framework which covers all staff. These documents provide us with the first steps towards a professional chaplaincy with equality of service provision and an integrated approach to the delivery of spiritual care, whilst acknowledging the need for the diversity of local need.
I am delighted to say that I will be presenting a workshop at the Orlando summit looking specifically at how these standards have been developed in palliative care. They may not have the glamour of rushing to intensive care but I think we will find that they undergird everything that we do, providing a solid base from which we can explore and create new ways of helping the people that we meet.
I look forward to further developments and dialogue.
With best wishes,
Rev. Dr. Derek Brown
Lead Chaplain
NHS Highland
Raigmore Hospital
Inverness, Scotland
Thank you for providing the Hastings Center Report. This will be very helpful in my ministry area. I work in the oncology outpatient department and plan on providing copies to our medical staff. I have been welcomed into the department by all staff, however, this helps to solidify the relationships. Thanks again and blessings on your ministry.
Dave
David McNeil
OP Oncology Chaplain
Saint Joseph Mercy Health System
Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Hastings Center Report is an excellent group of articles. I personally think that Martha Jacobs' article is one of the best I have ever read. Way to go Martha!
Everyone would do well to read the articles, and if you know Martha or one of the other authors, take time affirm them for their good work.
Rev. Larry Austin, D.Min.
Greenville, NC
Inspired by the Hastings Center essays, I have begun two series on quality in chaplaincy on my blog, "Episcopal Chaplain at the Bedside." One is to serialize and update my article, "“Performance Improvement: Theological Reflections”, (Chaplaincy Today, Vol. 16, Number 1 [Summer, 2000]). The second is a consideration of what about chaplaincy we can measure, and the pros and cons of each measurement. For those interested, the easiest way to access both series would be at http://episcopalhospitalchaplain.blogspot.com/search/label/PI%2FQI. Remember that with blog posts the most recent material will be at the top of the list, and the older material below.
Marshall Scott, BCC
Chaplain/Manager of Spiritual Wellness
Saint Luke's South Hospital
Overland Park, Kansas
Re: Jenny Lannom, "'Til Death Do Us Part"…Considering the Justice of Gay Marriage (PlainViews, 12/3/08, Vol. 5, No. 21)
I read with interest the essay “’Til Death Do Us Part . . .” Initially, the author makes a sympathetic case for her position. Unfortunately, she then lapses into the same kind of group-bashing that she claims to deplore.
As evidence of the contemporary Christian church’s exclusion of “gay, lesbian, and bisexual people of today,” the author offers the ancient narrative of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8). She writes that, “eunuchs were the sexual outcasts of Jewish religious society.” This characterization of their status is not universally accepted among modern scholars.
She writes further, “the Ethiopian eunuch had probably found himself despised and rejected by the religious leaders in Jerusalem.” She suggests that he was “cut off . . . by the religious leaders.” Her words “despised and rejected” and “cut off” are coded words. They come from the Servant Passage in Isaiah 53. They infer that the eunuch was a similar Servant figure, something that a basic reading of the text in Acts does not support. The eunuch claims no such status. Nor, do I believe that Philip regarded the eunuch as a Servant figure. Indeed, the Acts passage gives us no clue as to the eunuch’s experiences in Jerusalem, good or bad. It merely reports that he “had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home.”
The author might have continued to read further in Isaiah. “For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast to my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” (Isa. 56:4-5, NRSV).
According to I. Howard Marshall, in his commentary on Acts (The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries), “Luke’s . . . language suggests that he may have intended his readers to see a fulfillment of Isaiah 56:3-8).” Marshall also writes that this man had gone to Jerusalem “to worship there . . . he served God to the best of his ability” [italics in original]. Given the fact that the man was reading Isaiah, it is unlikely that he had been ill-treated in Jerusalem. Undoubtedly, it was quite the contrary.
The reflections upon the book of Acts, by the author of “’Til Death Do Us Part . . .”, with reference to how eunuchs were regarded, are debatable. That notwithstanding, to make her case she labels and libels Judaism of the 1st century as hopelessly intolerant in contrast to the good, kind, and loving position of ”Philip, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance” who then proclaims the “Good News of Jesus Christ to the Ethiopian.” One wonders if she intended her derogatory remarks made toward 1st century Judaism to apply to contemporary Judaism, even if she does not state so explicitly.
Even before this, the author appropriated for herself a triumphalist position when she referred to the words of the “lawyer in Luke 10.” Without mentioning those sources by name, the lawyer quotes from Deuteronomy 5, and then Leviticus 19, “You shall love the Lord your God” and “[love] your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus immediately affirms these words as the road to life (what Jesus calls the Great Commandments in Matthew 22.) The audience in the 1st century understood these citations as coming from the Hebrew Scriptures. The way she quotes them in the PlainViews article, one might well think that they are the words of Luke.
At the conclusion of her essay, she asks, “How much more time do we need to learn to embrace the diversity of sexuality present in this world”? I do not know the answer to that question. Personally, I wonder how much more time do we need to learn to embrace the diversity of religions present in this world.
Whatever the merits of legalizing same-gender unions as marriages, and therefore having a religious aura to that status, it does not further this cause by perpetuating the same kind of prejudice, and engaging in blanket criticism, in this case against Judaism, which is a form of group-bashing that she deplores in contemporary Christianity.
Rabbi Dr. David J. Zucker, BCC,
Director, Spirituality,
Shalom Park, Aurora, CO
With all due respect, we often wrestle with the sins we do not want to give up and rationalize even against the written and revealed Word of God by redactive criticism.
Chp Thomas Pesaresi, MDiv, MA, PhD
VA Medical Center
Albuquerque, NM
The LongView Conundrum Lannom describes reminds me of this leadership opportunity available to chaplains in creating safe space and services for all people in our institutions. Two students in my past ACPE unit realized the additional staff education and services necessary to adequately respond to a gay couple and a transgender individual. A “Coming Out of Bereavement” group was developed, a workshop was presented to the Access Conference of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization which led to a workshop with the Gay Lesbian Medical Association. A resource we found helpful is the “Annual Survey: Healthcare Equality Index” which has information reviewing necessary steps to support patients and families as well as staff. I’d like to see chaplains take the lead in promoting this survey. Here’s the contact information. Attentiveness has made a difference at VITAS Innovative Hospice Care.
Annual Survey: Healthcare Equality Index
The Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association are seeking participants for the annual Healthcare Equality Index survey. The survey focuses on healthcare facility policies related to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender patients. Topics include nondiscrimination policies, cultural competency training, and recognition of families that are headed by same-sex couples. For your convenience, the survey can be submitted online. To obtain your facility's unique username and password for the online version of the survey, contact Tom Sullivan at 202/216-1594 or HEI@hrc.org. The survey deadline is Dec. 31, 2008.
Learn more about this project: http://www.hrc.org/hei
Martha Rutland, D. Min., BCC, ACPE
Director of Clinical Pastoral Education
VITAS Innovative Hospice Care
Miami, FL
In her article, a United Methodist pastor and chaplain, Rev. Jenny Lannom, writes skillfully, intelligently and persuasively. So did the philosophers, David Hume, Voltaire and Bertrand Russel.
While promoting homosexual "marriage," Rev. Lannom writes; "History reminds us that the institutional church is often resistant to accept change," and then goes on to instruct us "to embrace the diversity of sexuality present in this world and learn from one another." Sure!
The argument she supports [is] that since society is changing, the church must change and adapt to society. I beg your pardon?
Checking through The Bible, I could find no passage which states, "Jesus changes with the times." On the contrary, I found in Hebrews 13:8: "Jesus Christ, the SAME yesterday, and today, and for ever."
It is not the mission of the church to adapt to society but rather to adapt society into the image of Christ. Homosexuality is not a new sociatal phenomenon. It was even more rampant when the Bible was written. It was so prevelant in the days of the Greek philosphers that the men were all admittedly bi-sexual if not out and out homosexual. And God saw this activity as wrong and sinful...and condemned it.
Regardless of what God says, Rev. Lannom proclaims; "For justice to really exist, human beings must be able to embrace diversity (homosexuality) as a God given gift." (!) How's that again?
She curiously pairs the Ethiopian Eunuch with homosexuals listing them among the sexual outcasts. Her understanding of this history is skewed. Homosexuals lead an active (abnormal) sex life. The eunuchs have NO sex life. There is a big difference here. And many of those became eunuchs in order to sing higher notes and to be trusted to work in the king's harems.
Her telling statement [that] an issue of justice is in creating an environment where people can accept, celebrate and live out their sexuality in an authentic manner shows how corrupt liberal thinking has become. In San Francisco on certain days, you can see nude homosexuals publicly performing deviant sex acts and parading on the streets and sidewalks in full view of everyone, including children. This is what Rev. Lannom is endorsing. Yep, they're living out their sexuality in an authentic manner. God help us all!
Women heralded a great victory in breaking through the 'stained glass ceiling,' when the church, over a lot of objections, permitted women to be pastors. This is the result. Women pastors overwhelmingly endorse homosexuality and abortion, totally disregarding The Bible and God's law. This article published by PlainViews perfectly exemplifies the problems of getting away from tradition and brining in 'change.' Some things cannot be improved upon.
Rev. Austin Miles
Pastor and Chaplain
Northern California
Re: Alex Chamberlain, A Challenge to The New York Times Hospice Chaplains Article(PlainViews, 11/19/08, Vol. 5, No. 20)
Thank you, Alex, for your challenge. You cover some areas in which we have all had questions and challenges. Regarding the authenticity of prayer, I have been roundly criticized for saying that if a patient asked me to say a traditional prayer in Hebrew at the moment their death, that I would do so. Other persons of that patient’s faith tradition held that the prayer was valid and welcomed only when said by specific persons within that faith community, not be others, and never by an outsider.
Your statement that professional guidelines regarding demonstration for respect of patients’ beliefs and opinions “do not always line up with [your] practice” gave me pause. How, I might ask, do you reconcile the ethic of acting against the beliefs and opinions with those with whom you come into contact as a chaplain? It seems that you are using the words ‘respect’ and ‘accept’ as synonyms; I wonder if it might be more useful to think of accepting a patients beliefs in accepting that they have them, even when they may be toxic and would benefit from assistance by a pastoral guide, as you later delineate.
Because we might accept that someone has a particular belief does not mean that we must support its continuance, or even its validity. Recognizing that there is a problem is, after all, the first step in addressing it. While it is deeply painful to recognize that pedophiles and abusers live in the world, we accept that it is so, but we do not respect that condition and we work with every fiber of our beings to build a world in which it is not so.
I strongly challenge your statement that “[T]o “respect” a belief implies that all beliefs are equally valid and must never be tested in conversation…” Respect does not buy silence and tacit complicity. Respect for the inherent worth and dignity of all persons does not mean collusion with destructive, illegal, and/or abusive behavior. It is more respectful to treat a person with the dignity of courteous opposition than to cast down your eyes and retire, a process which may injure your own soul. The steps you recommend – challenge, guide, come alongside – are not disrespectful; they are more respectful than your silence.
The Reverend Jill M. Bowden, BCC, MPA
Director, Pastoral Care & Education
Winthrop-University Hospital
Mineola, NY
Alex’s response:
Thank you for your response. I sense through your words that if we were face to face we would arrive at a similar sense of how we can ethically provide care to someone whose faith tradition differs from our own, or even how to offer compassion to someone whose values and practices are so different from ours that we find them repugnant (child molester, white supremacist.)
I appreciate your calling me out on using "accept" and "respect" as synonyms. In the dictionary "respect" has the additional definitions of "esteem" and "honor." As stated in the article I will always respect a person, thereby giving me the right heart and mind to offer compassion to those with whom I disagree. I also "accept" that someone will be in a different place than I am (rather than rail against situations over which I have no control, thereby deflecting me from the task of ministry.)
Perhaps I came across as more strident than I actually am. Last year a Native American from a nearby reservation wanting a smudging ceremony in her hospital room, but fire code prevented it. As an alternative we met with the elders in the outdoor chapel courtyard, held the ceremony, and gathered the smoke in a five gallon pail. We carried the now cooling smoke/aroma to her room and continued the ceremony in a manner that met the needs of all concerned.
I would still maintain the distinction (which was my main concern in the article) between respecting all the people we encounter and accepting (now using your terms!) that they may hold beliefs and practices that we may not embrace, while not necessarily respecting (honoring and esteeming) those beliefs that we believe are toxic to the individual, contrary to human dignity, or are a threat to those around them. I agree with you that selectively challenging those beliefs actually shows respect for the other person.
One last example from my own setting. In Southern Idaho we have a large LDS population. In the 1800s their founder (Joseph Smith) taught that mainline Christianity's teachings were anathema to God and that all its clergy and professors were on the payroll of the devil. To this day, they consider my beliefs and practices are heresy and signs of a "fallen" church. They are the true church, reestablished. In turn, I find their beliefs fall well outside of orthodoxy, and some of their practices bizarre. When I meet a LDS patient there are opportunities for shared prayer, laughter, tears, and all the ways in which we convey God's love. I accept that these people are fed by their faith community. I respect many aspects of their practice (commitment to family, encouraging young people to be committed in ways that demonstrates sacrifice.) I choose not to challenge the portions of their beliefs that I find questionable, because they are a patient and I am their servant...they are in a position of vulnerability and I have no "agenda" in terms of getting into a theological debate.
A somewhat long winded and rambling response. Rather than edit it carefully, I felt that your interest in my words deserved a timely note in return. May this holiday season provide many opportunist to connect with your faith and those you love.
Alex
Re: John Williams, Documenting the Pastoral Care Initial Visit (PlainViews, 11/19/08, Vol. 5, No. 19)
I agree we chaplains need to chart. However, no one has ever been able to show me where in the JCAHCO regs it requires chaplains to chart. In fact, in a note to my hospital in 2007, Eileen Chabot of the Standards Interpretation Group of the Joint Commission wrote that there 'are no requirements for documentation' by chaplains or pastoral care providers. I chart for the reasons the author of the article suggested, but not because of a rule. It doesn't exist.
Rev. Dr. Charles P. Leger
Director, Pastoral Care
Suburban Hospital
Bethesda, Maryland
Re: Nancy Berlinger, Who's the Boss? (PlainViews, 11/5/08, Vol. 5, No. 19)
Thanks for your insightful commentary!
Bon Secours Health System and the Sisters of Bon Secours support whole person care. There are several of us with pastoral care backgrounds who have moved from the bedside to management and on to administration in our system.
With a background in both nursing and chaplaincy, I have just been promoted from Director of Mission Services (Spiritual Care department, Music and Massage Therapy-Emmanuel Services and Faith Community Nursing) to VP Mission. The smaller of two hospitals that I am now located in has never had a mission presence so I feel privileged to begin shaping that presence and experience here.
The Director of Spiritual Care now reports to me. Faith Community Nursing now reports to Senior VP Mission with an expanded role as Director of Ministry Formation; leading the corporate spirituality. With her 4 units of CPE and MDiv, she expands the spirituality peace even further to those who don't have access to the phenomenal corporate ministry leadership formation programs we are involved in.
I see my new role as integral to further shaping the professional identity and essential role of chaplains in the delivery of care.
Especially relevant at this hospital with women’s services - there have been great strides in the past year in my previous role.
Currently, measurement data is sent to our corporate offices on chaplains presence at every death and critical care assessments. Our patient satisfaction scores on spiritual and emotional needs being met is one of the highest in the system.
I requested of my Senior VP Mission to allow me to continue the important role of teaching a one hour session in nursing orientation every two weeks on Self Care, Spiritual Assessment, the role of Spiritual Care and Family Systems theory as it relates to their care of patients. I consider it one of the most important things I do!
There is tremendous support for the essential dimension of care that professional chaplains bring to the healing of patients in our clinical settings, hospice, home health and palliative care services!
Karen Riley
VP Mission
Bon Secours Health System
Re: Tom Kilts, The Non-Theistic Approach to Theological Reflection (PlainViews, 11/5/08, Vol. 5, No.19 )
Thank you to Chaplain Kilts for speaking up from his own perspective and experience, informed by the Budhist "non-theistic" tradition. One beautiful thing, I believe, about the method of engagement and inquiery we have learned in our discipline is that we all have the wonderful opportunity of challengning and being challenged--and thus having our assumptions revealed! Thus we grow and thus we are stretched--none exempted, (if we are willing to submit to this discipline of relational inquiery.) My experience tells me that we are all in for many suprises, not the least of which is realizing what we have been projecting on to others.
Don Moore,
Staff Chaplain
University of Virginia Health System
Charlottesville, Virginia
Re: Joan Paddock Maxwell, Encouraging Patients to Offer Spoken Prayer (PlainViews, 8/20/08, Vol. 5, No. 14)
Having worked as a Chaplain with a Hospice for over 12 years, I have come to the realization that praying for each other is a vital way we connect. However, assuming prayer often encourages a dis-connect. Therefore I have learned to offer prayers by saying to the other, "If it is ok with you, I will keep you in my prayers". I pause and wait for permission, and then say also, "Will you keep me in your prayers too?" Prayer is a two way street in every direction. (This exchange is often followed by, "would you mind praying for me now?")
I have found this to be a better way as it lends itself to receiving permission for prayer from the patient and therefore empowers the relationship. While it may be true that most folk want to be prayed for, not everybody wants to be prayed for by the one asking- and as the patient has so little control over their physical lives as they decline, this is one place they are still able to exercise choice.
Along with that, in holding the patient's hand, I always place my hand/s under the patient's. It again lends itself to the control of the patient, as physical weakness makes it more difficult to pull your hand from under another's, and lifting or sliding off another requires less strength to do so, and the patient's now have less strength.
Rev. Pam Hudson, BCC
The Foundation of FirstHealth
Pinehurst, North Carolina
About Rachel Naomi Remen on Public Radio
Bill Zeckhausen asked that the following be included in PlainViews.
Public Radio's weekly program Speaking of Faith had the following interview with Rachel Naomi Remen, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom. When you link to it, click beneath the photo to Listen Now.
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/listeninggenerously/reflections.shtml
Most readers will be very familiar with the following, but some may not be. Many physicians love, fear and/or feel anger towards their patients and the medical system. Many patients feel the same way towards their physicians and the medical system. Rachel Remen, M.D., national mentor for physicians as well as a patient herself with Crohn's disease is a healer for physicians and patients alike. She has written the best selling book, Kitchen Table Wisdom, Stories that Heal as well as My Grandfather's Blessings. She believes and practices medicine as a spiritual discipline encompassing science as an essential but limited part of that enterprise. Science addresses cure, temporary for all of us. Spirituality addresses healing, a life goal for us all, cured or not. Her presentations at national physician's conferences have resulted in standing ovations for years. She teaches at medical school the importance of knowing patients unique stories as well as diagnoses, as fundamental to understanding and healing. To hear her words is to experience her ability to reach our hearts and help us integrate healthy spirituality into our understanding of ourselves, and of others. We may choose to share this NPR interview with our physician(s) among others, besides returning to it ourselves for taking in its depth, compassion and wisdom over time.
Re: DonnaLee Dougherty, CPE in the Zen of Knitting (PlainViews, 11/5/08, Vol. 5, No. 19)
Lovely article on the zen of knitting...but I felt excluded as a male
knitter!
Appreciatively,
Pastor Dan Gleckler
Bethesda United Methodist Church
Baltimore, MD
A request from a Canadian Colleague
I am writing PlainViews colleagues to share this renewed website. I have been granted a 'sabbatical' from the front-lines to fulfill speaking engagements and writing. You might be interested in sharing the site... and responding. The site, www.strathmor.com has a portal to "recent activities" www.strathmor.com/activities.html, "selected presentations" www.strathmor.com/presentations.html and even a bionote www.strathmor.com/morrison.htlm There is a blogspot there too, and I hope to develop that weekly, along with my own preferred links, which will be posted soon. A memorial meditation to the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Conference is found as the most recent blog at www.strathmor.blogspot.com
I ask you to take a peek at the site only if you have time; and if you have suggestions, that would be great. Specifically you might have topics you wish me to note in the blogspot, or a link to consider posting.
Strathmor is just a vehicle, and it is not-for-profit. I usually cover R&D myself. We are available to speak. Last week was speaking at the national hospice palliative care meetings (all posted, including on the blog, notes for the memorial service attended by about three hundred from across Canada). My wife and I did a fully subscribed workshop too ... on Loss, Grieving and Healing, and I have heard back from the congress organizers that it rec'd straight 10/10's in all categories, which is humbling.
We shall be in North Carolina for the APOS (Feb 6-9) followed by a week in Phoenix. Mid April/mid May in Europe. By July will be back in the front lines. I really appreciate the good scientific work done by so many for those of us practicing, and those of us who are popularizers' of new skills and ideas.
Best wishes,
David Morrison
Spiritual Care
PEI Cancer Treatment Centre
Canada
Re: Michele Lowery, Just Another Manic Monday (PlainViews, 10/1/08, Vol. 5, No. 17)
I just wanted the share my heart felt appreciation and out loud laughter for and from this article! I am a BCC in Alaska and work both mental health and addictions and I so enjoyed the insight and skill in this small glimpse of one day. It made my day a little lighter.
Thanks.
Fr. Christopher Stanton, M. Div., BCC
Providence Health & Services (Alaska)
I am a psychiatrist with the Cherokee tribe in Cherokee. I practiced for almost 20 years in Durham and Chapel Hill, 3 years at the then new adolescent unit at Umstead etc., and then in WNC mostly since with a five year break in Phoenix AZ, where I am from. My wife is Cherokee and long wanted to move back here and we did when the Tribe opened a mental health center of its own.
I am good friends with Margaret Champion, MD, one of the unit directors at the former Dorothea Dix Hospital and now at the Central Hospital in Butner. In fact “Betsy” attended one of my daughter’s baby shower in the Raleigh area this past weekend and my wife spoke at length in a nice little reunion with Betsy whom we haven’t seen in several years.
I really appreciated your article “My Manic Monday” forwarded to me by a social worker Amanda Burts in Murphy that I have known for about 3 years from I used to consult out there a few times a month.
Again thanks for the article, it was very moving.
Frank Miller MD
ANaLeNiSgi Cherokee Mental Health
Cherokee NC
Re: Special Issue on Mental Health (PlainViews, 10/1/08, Vol. 5, No. 17)
Oh my goodness! Such a timely topic. I "normally" don't work much as a chaplain with mental health issues, but this past week makes me most grateful for the articles posted in this issue of PlainViews.
Intervention with a man who attempted suicide by the consumption of three months' worth of psych meds for Schizophrenia and his significant other who's diagnosed with "borderline personality", plus a friend of theirs who's bipolar--and a long visit today with a man in his late 20's who has Asperger's, make me very grateful indeed for this e-mailing.
Thank you! And thank God.
Chaplain Pauline Morrison
Thank you so much for devoting an entire issue to mental health awareness, advocacy and spiritual care. There is still too much stigma and fear in the larger community regarding mental illness. I have taken to educating patients and families that they have a brain disease, not a spiritual disease or a mental illness since the latter connotates some responsibility in the patient for having the disease.
Other helpful resources not included in the article include www.NAMI.org, faithnet.nami.org, www.pathways2promise.org.
The Presbyterian church USA through its The Presbyterian Serious Mental Illness Network has drafted a document that can help congregations develop caring congregations. The document is called Comfort My People: a new comprehensive statement on serious mental illness. It can be downloaded from the following website http://www.pcusa.org/phewa/psmin.htm.
Peace,
Rev. Michele Monroe-Clark, LCSW
Staff Chaplain ABBHH
Hoffman Estates, IL
PlainViews - I would like to commend you for this special issue on mental health. There is a rich history of chaplaincy involvement with mental disease and mental health as Rev. Craig Rennenbohm has pointed out.
I myself participated in the transition era of chaplaincy training being mainly in large mental hospitals. This was in 1980 and there is a rich history about this time which needs to be written. For instance, as a Catholic I had a Southern Baptist supervisor, Jim Harley, who had trained under Ernie Bruder At St. Elizabeths in Washington, DC. Ernie had practiced under the auspices of the pioneers Anton Boisen (who was a patient in a mental hospital before being a chaplain in one) and Stewart Hiltner. While I was in my first internship in CPE the program was almost shut down and became a focus of an intense investigation and recertification by ACPE for the fact of Jim Harley and Ralph Carney, OFM a Catholic priest having collaborated by having classes together! This
is quite laughable today, as is the fact that when I tried to attend my mentor's institution of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington for supervisory training, I was turned down because I was not a Catholic priest! It took a lawsuit by a Catholic Sister to change this policy! I then did go to the program but didn't finish for some other reasons.
These were heady times and as chaplaincy training and jobs opened up in regular hospitals various conflicts, now forgotten, were bound to take place. For instance,
at one large hospital I briefly worked at chaplains were not allowed to visit the mental health unit! They say history is written by the victors, and a sense this is true for chaplaincy because there were many casualties along the way and potential chaplains
dropped by the wayside, victims of some of these conflicts. Of a couple of dozen of potential chaplains in first units of CPE that I knew, only myself and a couple of others remain chaplains. Where are these others and how does chaplaincy itself reach out and
exhibit forgiveness and mental health to its own people and history?
Thank you again for this issue on Mental Health.
John P. Stangle, MA, BCC,
NACC Chaplain Advanced Emeritus
Re: George Burn, Chaplaincy: Also Caring for the Spirit of the Organization (PlainViews, 9/17/08, Vol. 5, No. 16)
Thanks so much to Chaplain George Burn for his moving retelling of the way he and his hospital's staff moved heaven and earth (and lighting) to support their staff member and her family. What a powerful witness of faith for everyone.
Thanks again for taking the time to share it and for inspiring me in my work in my little corner of the world.
Beverly Suderman-Gladwell
Chaplain & Pastoral Care Co-ordinator
Parkwood Mennonite Home
Waterloo, ON
Re: Penelope Thoms, Looking Back to Laramie (PlainViews, 9/3/08, Vol. 5, No. 15)
This whole story is so very sad... but I really liked the part about the doe laying by his feet...
Kathleen "Kate" Adamson
Executive Director
The University Foundation
2000 West Fifth Street
Marshfield, WI
As I read your article a tear touched my eye too. I sensed as the sheriff and you did ,that Matthew did not die alone. He was held in G-d's hand and by his baptism in Christ lifted to life eternal.
But another tear fell from my eye, as a long ordained Episcopal priest. It was a tear that in your deep disappointment and grief at having the vestry of the parish recall their support for your ordination, not one parishioner, not one priest reached out to you to listen to dry your tear.
Would that I had known of your personal pain. Take this response as a call that would have come to you had I heard a sister was denied her call.
In peace.
Rev. Peggy Muncie
Acting Director,
Pastoral Care
St. Luke's - Roosevelt Hospital
New York, NY
The look back offered by Rev. Thoms is touching, doubtful and confusing. The doe beside Matthew is extremely heart warming. The presumption that the murder was based upon Matthew being gay remains doubtful according to 20/20 unless we just assume that if Matthew was killed it was because he was gay. That Thoms own victimhood as intertwined with Matthew’s gayness makes everything more complicated. The Episcopal world has created myriads of victims as the liberals have abused power to squeeze out the conservatives and vice versa throughout our nation. The murderer sees the event as being chemically (meth) induced and says he was looking to score big on money and drugs that night and Matthew frustrated him. The community acknowledges Matthew as having been heavily into drugs, too. Meth induced beatings are not rare among friends. Drug use does not rule out hate but questions abound The labeling of a hate crime is an interesting theological, not to mention legal, gyration. The term hate crime is doubtful in this case as so many in the community considered the primary murderer to be bisexual and the consuming evidence of his motivation to be drug acquizition. (If the term hate crime label is inappropriately applied does the mislabeling become form of hate crime?) . Finally, the end of the reflection left me totally confused. What exactly about all this has left God smiling? Good heavens, I hope God is not smiling at the failure of God’s children in Laramie to not get along. It is good that the Matthew Shepherd Foundation continues to educate young and old about the importance of words, as Thoms says, but in this case the words of Thoms have created confusion in me.
Steven Lineback, Chaplain
Utah Valley Regional Medical Center,
Provo, Utah
Penelope’s response:
Steve - My commentary was simply a reflection on my personal experience: the collateral damage that can occur in religious institutions that profess to be doing "God's work," ignoring the message of Jesus' embracing of the "other." Personally, Steve (my husband) and I lean towards a more pragmatic analysis of the murder. We were at the trials and drugs did not become an issue; albeit they may have been part of the bigger picture. Personally, we believe that Matthew's being small and rich made his attackers approach him in the first place. They were clearly, literally in this railroad town, from the "other side of the tracks.." That he became a martyr IN SPITE OF his family's desire to mourn him in private shows that the media and the greater national culture needed to address his murder as a hate crime.
Ten years later we continue to have mixed feelings about the perps' intention. They may question their motivations as well; if they question them at all. The lives of three young men were destroyed. No, God does not smile at that. But that God was able to offer some small bit of comfort for Matthew as he hung on that fence during that long night; that the doe stayed until the sheriff - a woman - was able to remove him from his place of dying; that there is now in place a foundation that educates the young about the power of their words, those things make God smile.
Thank you for your insights
Rev. Penelope A. Thoms
News from the Ukraine
As I had informed you in my previous e-mails, developing palliative care, and working in cooperation with different churches on the theme of medical chaplaincy, we need support of related organisations. We plan to publish information on bereavement, spiritual support at the end-of-life, and many other activities. We are in the contact with European Network of Chaplains and Rev. Stavros Kofinas who knows about our work. If possible, let us know whether you are interested in the cooperation with Ukraine and then if possible we shall discuss details of our further cooperation. Meanwhile let me send you our last news about event organised by All-Ukrainian Council for patient rights and safety and All-Ukrainian Association of palliative care (on 11 September 2008).
On the initiative of Minister of health of Ukraine Vasyl Knyzewich, All-Ukrainian Council for patient rights and safety and All-Ukrainian Association of palliative care the first meeting of the Minister with representatives of non-governmental and religious organizations active in Ukraine was organized. The event was organized in the form of the round table on the topic "Palliative care: spiritual aspects: Spiritual care to incurably ill and dying". About 10 different Churches participated in the meeting, uniting in the face of the common problem - improving of life quality of incurably ill and their families.
The work on establishing a system of palliative and hospice care starts in Ukraine. This system is directed on ensuring of medical, psychosocial and spiritual services for improving of life quality of those with incurable diseases and their families. The main task of palliative care is - pain control, care, psychological, social, spiritual support.
During the meeting the actual questions of palliative and hospice care development were discussed, among them, the patient right aspect of getting spiritual support.
The work on preparation of the Palliative care development national plan for 2010-2014 was started. To elaborate the draft documents, the Coordination Council on palliative care was created, and representatives of Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social affairs, Ministry of internal affairs, representatives of Churches and religious organizations as well as non-governmental organizations joined the work of this group.
During the meeting on 11 September 2008 Minister of Health of Ukraine Vasyl Knyzewitch underlined necessity of solving this problem, stressing importance of the dialogue about the spiritual support in health care facilities. The main theme for discussion was spiritual aspect in education of medical workers and society at whole. Participants of the round table underlined that establishing of social responsibility can be done on the ground of such human values as charity and support of neighbour.
Representatives of different Churches and religious organizations expressed readiness to support events dedicated to celebration of the World palliative and hospice care day (11 October 2008). During the event the Declaration about medical chaplaincy in the sphere of palliative care was announced.
This event continues a wide range of events initiated by All-Ukrainian Council for patient rights and safety and All-Ukrainian Association of palliative care. In 2006, the meeting of representatives of different churches in Kyiv was organized, and many prayers were initiated; in 2007, the international French-Polish-Ukrainian conference on the theme
of palliative care, medical chaplaincy and humanization of medical care was organized in Kyiv; in January 2008 the official visit of representatives of Ukrainian Orthodox Church was organized to Paris, where questions related to collaboration between Church and State were discussed.
Thank you very much.
Alexander Wolf
Palliative care program director
All-Ukrainian Council for patient rights and safety
Re: Paul Tarr Payway, Loss and the Ministry of Caregiving (PlainViews, 9/3/08, Vol. 5, No. 15)
I think there is nothing romantic about death and loss. True, ministering to the grieving touches us at profound depths, but romantic is the wrong word.
Overall, I appreciated his ministry to the family and his service of naming, the moreso having been a perinatal chaplain myself.
Brown Kinnard, retired BCC
Dexter, Michigan
Re: Penelope Thoms, Looking Back to Laramie (PlainViews, 9/3/08, Vol. 5, No. 15)
I just read Penelope Thoms’ offering in the recent issue of PlainViews. My heart broke open a second time over this deeply tragic event—the first time being when the news of what happened in Laramie reached me here in Connecticut. What a powerful, potent, courageous model of hope she is to those of us who know the difficult path of vocation, and who yearn deeply for the healing of our fragmented world! Blessings to her!
Marcia Klepper-Smith
Chaplain
Manchester Memorial Hospital
Manchester, CT
Seeking colleagues to go to Ghana
I am the chaplain at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. The largest hospital in Ghana with a bed capacity of about 2000. I will be grateful if other chaplains could come to Ghana to help our chaplaincy set up in hospitals.
We need support to help build effective and efficient chaplaincy to promote health care.
Thank you and God bless you.
Rev Nana Kwesi Bart-Plange
Hospital Chaplain
Korle Bu Teaching Hospital
plangenk@yahoo.com
Re: Joan Paddock Maxwell, Encouraging Patients to Offer Spoken Prayer (PlainViews, 8/20/08, Vol. 5, No. 14)
A unique perspective, one I will incorporate.
Thank you,
Chaplain Sharon Lund
West Suburban Medical Center
Oak Park, IL
Resources Sought
I am part of a leadership/training/teaching/supervising program, the Spiritual CareGivers Program for a local hospital in this area. This SCGP trains people, volunteers, who feel a calling to visit, listen, and pray (if appropriate) with patients and their families.
We are looking for training materials and/or a program similar to the Stephen Ministry training materials used in doing comparable training or education for people in faith communities. The hospital is Interfaith and Non-denominational and yet Christians make up the majority of the patients and also the volunteers. A Christian curriculum could work for us as we could and would add Interfaith materials.
Any suggestions and/or leads you could give us for teaching materials would be highly appreciated.
I've been reading PlainViews for 3-4 years now and greatly enjoy your publication. Very useful, thoughtful and stimulating articles.
Thank you very much.
Judith Bouffiou
Tumwater, WA
judeb@zhonka.net
Re: Curtis Freed, Entrustment Ceremony (PlainViews, 8/6/08, Vol. 5, No. 13)
I too had a brief time to prepare such a ceremony. In my case the couple was very young and had not known they were pregnant. They were clear that they were not at a point in their lives (they were both working and going to college) where they could offer this beautiful baby what they wanted to offer a baby. Here is the prayer I prepared:
Covenant of Love and Thanksgiving and Release
Loving God, we come before you today in tears and in hope.
You have blessed us with a beautiful daughter/son, ________,
flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone.
For her/him, we give you thanks.
Today we enter into a sacred covenant with ________ and ________. They will raise our beloved _____ as their own, love her/him and cherish her/him, protect her/him and guide her/him. She/he will be to them flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone.
For them we give thanks.
May their home be a sanctuary, filled with Your Presence,
where _____ will come to know You and love You.
We pray that you give us wisdom and courage to be a light to her all the days of her life.
May she become strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and may Your grace be upon her.
_____,
May the grace of God watch over you;
May the peace of Christ fill your heart;
May the presence of the Holy Spirit fill your sleep
And speak in your dreams.
Amen
Therese M. Becker, MA, M. Div.
Manager of Spiritual Care Services
Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center
Santa Clara, CA
Re: Response to inquiry about Pandemic Flu Preparedness (TalkBack, 8/6/08)
The Department of Chaplaincy Services and Pastoral Education at the University of Virginia Health System has done several things to address this concern:
1. We used our yearly Pastoral Care Week educational event for community clergy and care providers to make a variety of educational presentations around the theme of “Pandemic flu”. Attendees listened to professionals with expertise in various aspects of pandemic flu address such themes as: medical aspects of flu; epidemiology, (how a flu outbreak moves through and effects populations of people); psychological first aid and disaster response by clergy and care givers and the place that volunteer and community groups such a churches, can have in disaster preparedness and response.
2. The second thing we have done is to revisit our Departmental Disaster Plan with the direction of our department head, Dr Richard Haines. We have looked at our protocols and have considered such concerns as how we would triage our staff if there were a pandemic flu outbreak. We, discussed, for example, calling staff in to work in the higher risk situation of the hospital that do not have young children or others such dependents at home.
3. We have also worked with our Social Work Department and the Disaster Response Coordinator for our facility to develop dry runs and “desktop simulations” of a possible pandemic event that tests the actual workings of our protocols and communication for such an event.
Thus, we continue to work with hospital administration, community leaders, area clergy and other collaborative teams to anticipate, educate and prepare ourselves for any such eventuality.
Donald E. Moore, B.C.C.
Staff Chaplain,
University of Virginia Health System
Charlottesville, Virginia
Re: Steve Nolan, Chaplaincy in the United Kingdom: Religious Care or Spiritual Care? (PlainViews, 7/16/08, Vol. 5, No. 12)
In principle, I think spiritual care should be separate from care by a specified religious practitioner. Our chaplains are all mandated by a specific faith community and are then commissioned by the Hospital. I say "we minister to people of all faiths & of none." But in a hospital setting the linkage may be helpful to spiritual care departments. It is not just having an "in house" capability--knowing and working with community clergy as they attend to the religious needs of hospitalized congregants--when a specific religious practitioner is needed. This linkage provides Spiritual Care Services with important political support. The commissionings takes place in a ceremony every year or few depending on turn over. They involve senior Faith Community Leaders, top hospital officials & board members. The fact is, Spiritual Care Services has community linkages like no other service. We can fill the hospital's amphitheater as no other service can. Senior Management and the Board are aware that a fund-raising campaign can be helped if community clergy support it from the pulpit.
While we work at showing why Spiritual Care Services delivers spiritual care in a more efficient, sophisticated, effective manner than even caring spiritual individuals without chaplaincy training and certification can, the Faith Communities become important at the level of Senior Management where a tight budget must be apportioned.
This seems a mildly distasteful reality comparable to the need to follow the personal policies of the Hospital's Administrative Manual same as any other service funded through the Hospital by the Ministry of
Health & Long Term care.
Jonathan Wouk, ret.
Ottawa, Canada
One of the most lamentable trends is the growing allergy to the word "religion" and substituting the word "spirituality". The word "religion" implies duties, obligations, responsibilities, structure, limits and boundaries. In the words of Rabbi Daniel Gordis, it implies constancy, intensity and non-negotiability. Spirituality implies having all of the "goodies" of a relationship with G-d without any of the responsibilities. It is akin to a young couple "shacking up" rather than entering the covenant of marriage. One has all the "goodies" of marriage such as sex and companionship without any of the responsibilities.
The real dichotomy is the difference between a visiting clergy and a trained chaplain who is an integral part of the care team. Believe me, the medical world understands specialty. One would not go to an ophthalmologist to treat a case of hemorrhoids! So the medical world must understand the difference between a visiting clergy and a certified chaplain.
Rabbi Louis J. Feldman, Ph.D.
Retired Chaplain
Board Member
Scholl Institute of Bioethics
Los Angeles, CA
Re: William Scrivner, A Clinical Advancement Program for Chaplains? (PlainViews, 7/16/08, Vol. 5, No. 12)
At the Ottawa Hospital, (Ottawa, Canada) Spiritual Care Services facilitates the activities of Faith Communities within the Hospital setting while itself being concerned with spiritual care.
All I can say is WOW! This is a wonderfully innovative, creative program. I am going to meet with my VP of Human Resources to discuss very soon. Thanks for the idea. Doreen
Doreen M. Duley, BCC
Director of Pastoral Care
Ottawa Hospital
Ottawa, Canada
Re: Steve Brown, Blessing of the Hands Service (PlainViews, 7/2/08, Vol. 5, No. 11)
Mercy Health Partners in Muskegon Michigan provides tuition assistance and other support for nurses who are continuing their education. Each year the Nursing Professional Practice Committee sponsors an open-house celebration for RNs who have completed their BSN, MSN or DNP degree, and for LPNs who have become RNs. Since the beginning of this program six years ago, I have been invited to provide a
"Blessing of Hands" service. It is below:
Please join me in prayer:
Blessed are you, O God, in glory above all in heaven and on earth: We thank you for what you have done in the creation, preservation, redemption, and governance of the world. We thank you for graciously calling each of us to join you in your work by loving and serving others. We thank you for bringing to us those in need of care and healing, and for enabling us to minister to them. Today we thank you especially for the dedication, discipline, and diligence of these (x-number) nurses. We thank you for calling them to this ministry -- the profession of nursing - and for guiding and strengthening them in this pursuit. We thank you for the education and training that they have received, and for the knowledge and the skill that they have acquired. We celebrate with you, O God, what they have accomplished in attaining their (BSN, MSN, etc.) degrees. We ask you now, O God, to join us in blessing them. We ask that your blessing may go with them and bless their work. Let them be a blessing, and convey your blessing, to their patients and to their co-workers. Today we celebrate what these, your servants, have accomplished, and we rejoice in what they will do in the days ahead, until that day when you bring all good work to completion in your eternal community. Amen.
(Individual blessing and anointing of each nurse's hands):
In the Name of God, Compassionate and Merciful, Almighty and Righteous, I bless you. I anoint your hands that you may have subtle strength and sure skill as you touch others with God’s Grace. May your fingers feel the pulse of blood through arteries and also sense the movement of emotions in the spirit. May your touch bring comfort to the body as well as solace to the soul. May you always be adept with needle and astute with pen. God bless the work of your hands and God bless you Now and always, Amen.
Let us pray together:
God of healing, wholeness, and holiness: These nurses reflect your glory – In ability and knowledge, in passion and compassion, in strength and tenderness. We praise you for them, and we honor them today. We ask you to watch over them, to give them your Spirit, to strengthen them in the practice of their profession, and to be for them a source of hope and joy. We pledge our prayerful and practical support to them and to their work. We pray that as they work to cure and comfort, speak to instruct or soothe, and touch to heal with your love and power, that they may be renewed, blessed, and fulfilled. Lay your strong and gentle hand upon them, now and always, Amen.
Jim Johnson, Lead Chaplain
Mercy Health Partners
Muskegon, Michigan
Rev. Steve Brown describes a meaningful and "touching" hand-blessing ceremony. (His suggestion of baby-oil gel in a squeeze bottle is a most helpful practical suggestion, too.) Our pastoral care department takes the hand-blessing to units. We check with charge nurses and publish the times we will be on the unit. Some team members like to gather quickly in their break room; others prefer that we circulate and bless hands individually or in small groups. We include any discipline, and physicians, social workers, housekeepers, and others participate. Staff members often respond with surprise and gratitude when we draw their attention to their beautiful hard-working hands, thank them personally, and bless their hands.
Rev. Mardie Chapman
St. Anthony's Hospital
St. Petersburg, FL
Seeking Non-Denominational Resources
I serve as the part-time Pastoral Care Coordinator for a small hospital in midcoast Maine. I would like to have more devotional literature available in our chapel, the kinds of pamphlets and booklets that can be taken home if people choose but that are also not too expensive. I currently buy Care Notes and Jewish Lights. I also receive a few complementary copies of Our Daily Bread (RBC Ministries), Forward Day by Day (Episcopal Church), and the Unity Daily Word (Unity Church) each month. Jehovah Witnesses leave one copy of each of their publications each month as well. It is, aside from the Jewish Lights, a very Christian-heavy collection.
Do you or your subscribers know of other pamphlets/magazines that are non-Christian or non-denominational that are particularly suitable for a hospital setting? This is not a very diverse area religiously, with many people practicing what I call "Cultural Christianity" and others who are more anti-church and established religion than they are pro-faith. Nevertheless, when questions and issues of a spiritual nature surface in the hospital setting people do come to our Quiet Room/Chapel for solace and I would like to have literature that resonates with them.
Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.
Blessings,
Laura
The Rev. Laura M. Edwards
Pastoral Care Coordinator,
Pen Bay Healthcare
Hospice Chaplain, Kno-Wal-Lin Home Care and Hospice
ledwards@penbayhealthcare.org
Pandemic Flu Preparedness Inquiry
The question has come to me from our hospital administration as to the role of pastoral care if and when the pandemic flu hits our area… Can anyone offer suggestions?
Rev. Paul M. Hugger
Director, Pastoral Care and the
*Wilkes Healthy Carolinians Council
Wilkes Regional Medical Center
North Wilkesboro, NC
PHUGGER@wilkesregional.org
Re: A Reluctant Griever, Virgil Fry (PlainViews, 7/2/08, Vol. 5, No. 11)
How wonderful to read your story, Chaplain Fry! How refreshing to read about your thinking and your feelings now that you have lost your wonderful wife!
Thank you so much for articulating in such a sincere and honest way how you feel after the death of your wife and the fact that we all are entitled to grieve in our own special way. As a hospice chaplain/grief and bereavement counselor I do hear often how some christians feel about grieving: We shouldn't cry...it's a sign of doubt in God and his promises...we should let "her"/"him" go...release her...him...be glad in knowing that "she's in a better place"..."in the presence of God"..."not suffering"...etc.,
Peace to you!
Rev. Kenneth O. Garcia, M. Div.,
Mission Hospice
Grief and Bereavement Counselor/Manager
Chaplain
Re:
Respecting Differences While Celebrating Similarities, George Burn (PlainViews, 7/2/08, Vol. 5, No. 11)
Kudos to Chaplain George Burn for his visit to the European Network of Health Care Chaplaincy (ENHCC) meeting in Tartu, Estonia. Having just presented a seminar on "The Spiritual Care of Elderly Patients, esp. Dementia Patients" to the Association of Professional Health Care Chaplaincy of Latvia, I heartily concur that Chaplains Dana Kalnina-Zake, N. Olijevska, V. Kaupuza and the other members are most open to sharing multi-cultural pastoral care experiences. Immersing myself in their culture for 17 days, with a Latvian chaplain CPE classmate, certainly expanded both me and my pastoral care. And yes, they would love to have more chaplains from around the world share experiences of pastoral care in person, in their country.
Chaplain Donna Zuroweste
Aquinas Institute of Theology
St. Louis, MO
Re: Musician's Ears; Chaplain's Ears, Sandra Katz (PlainViews, 7/2/08, Vol. 5, No. 11)
I thoroughly enjoyed the connection of musicianship and the Chaplaincy. I was transported back to my college days. At one time I also wanted to be involved in the music ministry. I will never forget my theory professor saying; “Pianissimo Mr. Smith, pianissimo!” during our sight singing times.
I would suggest that there are also time we, as Chaplains, need to be student conductors. As we orchestrate the different things that are happening around us. We assist other disciplines as we go up and down the emotional scales of the lives of our patients and family. There may be a time to increase the tempo or volume, depending upon the situation and, as conductors; we often see the whole “piece” better than others.
Then, too, we are also playing the big bass drum. We are keeping a cadence that is in keeping with the Great Composer’s intent for the “piece”. We assist our staff in keeping centered on the main beat of what all is happening around us.
Finally, we are the “tonic” cord for all that need our “presence”. We sort-of become a “perfect authentic cadence” so they can come “home” to resolution.
Steve Smith, BCC
Chaplain
Liberty Hospital
Liberty, Missouri
Re: A Psalm of Lament, Michele Monroe-Clark (PlainViews, 7/2/08, Vol. 5, No. 11)
Six years ago, this very month, I too was grieving. I grieved the death of my only son, Mark 18, of injuries received in a collision with a tractor-trailer rig. This was before we met Mark's right kidney recipient, Caitlin.
Ann Weems' Psalms of Lament and Nicholas Woltersdorff's Lament for a Son were constant companions. I recall coming to work, closing my office door, reading aloud one of Ann's contemporary Lament Psalms, and weeping openly.
My heart resonates with Chaplain Michele Monroe-Clark as she laments personal and professional losses due to suicide, illness and change. Blessings, PlainViews, for publishing this helpful article!
Thanks, Phil
Rev. Phil Pinckard, M.Div.
Thank you for the fully expressive personal psalm and your openness in lamenting. Your writing reminds me of Psalm 39. I read that psalm once to a dying patient and asked the patient their thoughts on it. The patient exclaimed: "That is reality." Sometimes life happens. Keep breathing in the midst. Remember to exhale.
Amy Jones, BCC
hospice chaplain
Providence Hospice
Beaverton, OR
Re: Summer Reading, Nancy Berlinger (PlainViews, 7/2/08, Vol. 5, No. 11)
Nancy Berlinger's review of this book, And a Time to Die, is right on target. I read this book a few years ago and recommended it to our ethics committee as well as the Director of Medical Formation at the hospital. Before I retired I placed a copy in the Medical Library.
While reading the book I felt the author had followed me around our hospital viewing what was so common in the end of life issues for our patients.
Dr. Joanne Bellaire, BCC, retired
Livonia MI
Re: A Blessing of the Hands, Steve Brown (PlainViews, 7/2/08, Vol. 5, No. 11)
Each year during Nurses’ Week, the Vice President of Nursing joins me for responsive reading of this blessing over the PA system in the hospital. This has to be done at least twice, to accommodate the rotating A/B shifts, and we do it at shift change, to catch 7pm to 7am folks, as well as the day-shift staff.
We do a written plan which all patient care units receive beforehand, then I make a preparatory announcement about 15 minutes before the Blessing begins, asking all staff to gather at nursing stations around the hospital. We invite physicians and other staff to join in, and mention them in the prayer of blessing that follows the formal litany.
This has been a high point for our yearly celebration for the last six years.
Rev. John E. Renfro, DMin, BCC
Director of Pastoral Services
Conway Medical Center
Conway, SC
New Journal Available On-line!
Rev. Cheryl Holmes, CEO of Healthcare Chaplaincy Council of Victoria, informed PlainViews that their new journal, Australian Journal of Pastoral Care and Health, is available on-line. You can subscribe to it by going to: www.pastoraljournal.org.au
Re: Response to The Importance of Presence – Even During Rounds, Fred D. Wilcoxson (PlainViews, 6/18/08, Vol. 5, No. 10)
In Hospice, the clinical care team meets each week to discuss the needs of the patients and their families and to update the plan of care. As the chaplain for the team, I provide a time of centering and reflection at the beginning of the team. After awhile, the staff would ask for copies of my meditation. The requests for copies became the idea for a more extensive piece to provide inspiration and support for our work. "Soul Notes" was born from those requests. I provide a 4 page inter office newsletter each week that provides inspiration, support, and humor for the team. Soul Notes can be personalized according to the present needs of the office, the issues of the day and specific ways to pay attention to journeys we travel each day with our patients.
Karen Pickler
Good Shepherd Hospice
Long Island, NY
Re: Response to Not Dead Yet, Nancy Berlinger (PlainViews, 6/4/08, Vol. 5, No. 9)
The one factor that demands our attention is caution in the use of the term "brain dead". There must be destruction of the brain stem as well as the cortex--in essence, the equivalent of being "decapitated". Thankfully, there are very sophisticated tests to determine if the patient in question is really dead.
Rabbi Louis J. Feldman, Ph.D.
Retired Chaplain
Board Member
Scholl Institute of Bioethics
Los Angeles, CA
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