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Soundings 9
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| Anne Mulligan is Assistant Chaplain at the
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh |
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SACH
Soundings
No 9 March 2002
A view from Down Under
Last summer I was asked to represent the Diaconate at the World
Diakonia conference in Brisbane, Australia. Being an obedient servant of the Church, I agreed.
There were 550 of us from 45 different countries. Included in my small study group were, a woman who was working on human rights in the Philippines, a young Indonesian girl who cared for homeless teenagers, an American hospice chaplain and an Australian who served as a chaplain in an acute hospital.
In discussion with the Australians, it seemed that healthcare chaplaincy was not that different for them. They too are struggling with how best to care for elderly people in residential and community care situations. At present several semi-retired deacons are involved in this.
I attended a seminar on ritual and pregnancy loss and felt very much at home with much of what was being said and offered by way of help. This wasn’t surprising, as when the resource material list appeared at the end, the Iona Community and Kathy Galloway, (The Pattern of Our Days) were very prominent! I felt quite proud to be Scottish!!
One of the highlights for me was hearing a lecture by Dorothy McRae-McMahon, a minister of the Uniting Church of Australia. Dorothy’s work is very much based on the spiritual life of the community, focusing particularly on marginal groups and creating appropriate liturgies for them. She has written several books and her latest one, In This Hour - Liturgies For Pausing, is published by SPCK. I found her material was really grounded in the struggles and suffering of people and accompanying and journeying were common themes, all of which rang bells with me.
As at most conferences it was the informal contacts and sharing with people that made the conference. It was great to meet so many people and to experience the Aussie culture and encounter the wildlife! Koala urine does wash out.
Anne Mulligan
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