| SACH Scottish Association of Chaplains in Healthcare |
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SACH
Soundings
Picture this. You are at a function of one sort or another and you discover that the person you have been talking to is a dentist. Instinctively you think to yourself, 'have I flossed this week?' and resolve that throughout the rest of the conversation you will keep your mouth firmly shut. I have been amused by the different reactions people have when I tell them that I am a healthcare chaplain. I have been met with a bemused silence, a dismissive, 'oh how interesting', or something like, 'isn't that a bit depressing?'. I can only speak for myself, of course, but if there's one thing I have never 8found my job to be over the past 17 years is depressing. One of the counters to that kind of thinking is to say, 'No it's a real privilege to work with people at a time of need.' While I do understand what that means I can never quite bring myself to say those words and I've never quite been able to think why. It may be because it's the idea that privilege has notions of being granted some kind of special right or advantage or honour which I find difficult. I haven't yet come across a patient or relative who, in extremis, feels that they are bestowing something on me as the chaplain. They don't want to be where they are and I think that most would rather I took their pain from them. Perhaps there is something which we as chaplains will have to think about more closely. Do we see ourselves as being allowed to do things by others, whether patients or staff, or do we see that our vocation, our gifts and skills give us a sense that we are present with others in our own right? Now I'm not one for extolling my virtues, for which I have suffered in the past, but the time is upon us as chaplains to refrain from selling ourselves short. There's
a lot of good things happening in chaplaincy departments up and down
the country, but we can be a little bashful about sharing with others.
It's too easy to say what we don't do well, so I'd like to think that
in time we might be as confident in saying what we do do well. Why not
use the pages of Soundings to tell your fellow chaplains what is happening
in your area? Why not consider putting something about good practice
in the Journal? As we move towards the professionalisation of chaplaincy,
should we be engaging in a debate about how we might see ourselves in
five or ten years time?
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Advent I open this season of Advent (At the lighting of the of Advent candles) Let us be a light to the world
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David Mitchell, formerly chaplain at the Marie Curie Hospice, Glasgow,
and now lecturer there in palliative care, and Tom Gordon, chaplain
at Marie Curie Hospice, Edinburgh, were the principal speakers and facilitators
at a conference in St Thomas's Hospital in London on 10th September,
entitled "Spiritual Care: So much froth and not much substance?".
The conference, jointly sponsored by Help the Hospices, The Association
of Hospice and Palliative Care Chaplains (AHPCC) and Marie Curie Cancer
Care (MCCC), was designed to introduce health-care professionals to
the "Religious and Spiritual Care Competencies for Specialist Palliative
Care" prepared by a cross-discipline team of MCCC staff and launched
by MCCC at the end of 2003. These competencies had been presented at
the AHPCC annual conference in May of this year, and were greeted with
interest and enthusiasm by chaplains. In addition, and encouraged by comments from the AHPCC conference and
feed-back from other chaplains, David and Tom have taken the competencies
one stage further, and have prepared assessment tools for all four levels
which the competencies outline. These tools - levels 1 & 2 being assessed through the PPRD process
and levels 3 & 4 using a self-assessment approach - have been published
by MCCC and were launched at the conference. The response from the delegates was very positive indeed, and the feedback
was that they felt both empowered and equipped to take discussions on,
and delivery and assessment of, spiritual care to a new level. The competencies
are designed to inform and enable, and the accompanying assessment tools
can be adapted for use in a variety of healthcare settings. David Mitchell
(From left
to right) |
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As promised
at the AGM there will be a meeting open to all chaplains on Topics to be covered will include -
Look out for more details in the New Year but please put the date in your diary NOW. |
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The Executive - comings and goings At the AGM on the 26 October we welcomed some new folks on to the Executive, re-elected a current member and said goodbye to one or two. Joanne
Finlay stood down after serving three years as an ordinary member. Once again, thank you to those who have served on the Executive and are now standing down. Your commitment is much appreciated. And welcome to those who join us. We look forward to working with you. Members
of the Executive represent SACH on various bodies: |
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The
membership of SACH continues to grow each year. We now have over 150
members. The current system of collecting annual fees is proving to
be less effective as we grow in numbers, so we plan to put in place
a more efficient and effective system. Increase
in Membership subscriptions Linda
Stevens |
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 Derek
Brown |
President's Report to The AGM, October 2004 A couple of weeks ago I was looking to buy a new bike. My present velocipede was bought when my son was weeks into his first year. Strangely that's the position I find myself in again, only this time he's weeks into first year at Edinburgh University! At the bike shop I discovered a world of confusing terms and new developments which left me a bit bewildered: triple butted aluminium frames, cro-moly forks; Kevlar strengthened tyres; STI shifters. I was very grateful for a patient and helpful sales assistant who could explain what all this meant. I can't help but think that there are some similarities between the bike shop and our AGM. There will be confusing jargon, unfamiliar concepts and practicalities to grapple with. I'm sure that I, and the rest of the Executive, will do our best to guide you through. REPRESENTATION
CO-OPERATION Co-operation
is also the watchword on the UK level. I had a meeting in Leeds last
month with the College president and the chair of the AHPCC at which
we looked at issues of common interest. As health is a devolved matter
there is a definite Scottish dimension to much of what we do but there
are some issues which concern us all. Registration as a healthcare profession;
code of conduct; Agenda for change; continuing professional development
to name them. REGISTRATION AGENDA
FOR CHANGE I want to mention the Journal and commend the editors for their sterling work year by year. It is an incredible resource of exceptional quality and with a truly international reputation. I tried to extend that by promoting it at Dublin and also to a passing Texan.. no not George Dubya. I hope that it continues to develop and the executive are committed to seeing that we give every support possible. THE
FUTURE THANKS
Derek
Brown Minutes of the 2004 Annual General Meeting |
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THE CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION What
is this spirituality? Is it no more than the latest fad of new-age hippies, who dress up in ridiculous costumes, invade venerable sites like Stonehenge or Glastonbury, and leave a disgusting mess of entirely modern litter? Is it an apt part of the delusional system of those who are not entirely in touch with reality, like the much-to-be-pitied psychiatric patients from whom I had six requests for exorcism in my first fortnight as a chaplain, not one of whom (in my very possibly flawed judgment) required it? It sounds perilously like a vague eclecticism, which requires no commitment to anyone or anything, open to the same criticism as the eighteenth century deists, whose beliefs made no demands of them, and no difference in their lives (criticism alas by no means confined to the eighteenth century deists). It can certainly sound nebulous, after the manner of those who claim to believe in "a sort of a god in a kind of a way." How is it different from this to say, "Spirituality is what the patient says it is?" Having a nasty streak, I have always liked the story of an Oxbridge student who claimed to be excused from the very early morning prayers then mandatory for all members of his college on the grounds that he was a sun worshipper. The next morning he was wakened half an hour before dawn, far earlier than morning prayers would have required, by the Dean's servant, summoning him to worship his god. "The
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man" seem to me excellent
constituents for a faith worth living, but not if that faith has no
teeth. I have
an uneasy recollection of lectures in ecclesiastical history on the
period immediately before the Reformation, when Christendom was on the
boil with all sorts of ideas and excitements that came in the end to
nothing because they were not grounded in scripture or tradition, and
ultimately were about what was not real. Where there are fads and fashions,
some people will follow them and others will pander to them. But that
does not make them real. How
does spirituality sit with various scriptural sayings? Be instant in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4.2). What about the NHS's "no proselytising" rule? It makes sense in the secular society in which we live, and chaplains as servants and employees of that society must certainly not abuse their privileged position to push their own ideas onto vulnerable people. Woe to me if I preach not the Gospel (1 Cor 9.16). I do not think that St Paul meant us to nag on at people in every waking moment, but are we never to mention it at all? And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever (Daniel 12.3). How well does that tobacco suit my spirituality pipe? And finally (to come out, you may say, in my true colours?), what if spirituality is the latest trick by secularists (or the devil?!), who are out to geld religion or cut it out altogether, and we've sold out to new age or secular humanism? I remember a humanist teacher whom I met in a long ago school chaplaincy, who was very concerned to forbid any religious observance, but took every chance to promote humanism. I am not sure whether he did not notice or consciously refused to own up to behaving as if his humanism was a religion. THE CASE FOR THE DEFENCE Spirituality is not foreign to our tradition, though we may not have called it by that name. I have heard Professor Alec Cheyne argue persuasively that "We will see what the Lord will do," often repeated in Luther's everyday conversations, was a deeply spiritual openness and commitment to the emergent and still undefined purpose of God. The Scottish reformers closed the church buildings through the week not because of impiety or a failure in spirituality, but because at that time the church was out where the people were. I remember the tradition of family prayers maintained by my own father, and in many ways regret that I failed to continue it. I am convinced that conversion by force is always wrong, that the conquistadores were self-seeking thieves and murderers, that the idea of a jehad was a bad mistake by Mohammet, that no war fought with armaments can be an entirely holy war - and most never come anywhere close. "You can't kill the devil with a gun or a sword." All too often the religious opponents of the "spiritualities" of their day have turned to violence in an attempt to ensure that their cause won - or seemed to. I believe that it is an abuse of authority to assume, without (or perhaps even after?) testing it, that I am right & you are wrong. A friend who visited the USA, and was in many ways an enthusiast for much he saw there, told me of his experience of being unable to convince a US policeman that where he came from it was quite permissible to do a u-turn in the street. The policeman insisted that my friend must know that it was forbidden by a "universal law." A very minor example of what can be a most destructive phenomenon. And it can be very easy sometimes to rubbish something which does not quite seem to square with the quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus. Even pressure, though it may not always be wrong, is always dangerous? Though I have loved since first I came on it the interpretation given, I think by Matthew Henry, of the notorious Compel them to come in of Luke 14. "Because," he says, "they will be shy and backward, and will not believe that they will be welcome." WHAT ARE WE LEFT WITH? I like
to hope that I can always say, "What I think, or what I
believe, is …" These imply distinct modes of knowledge.
I am leaving room to acknowledge the subjective in what I say: no matter
how firmly I am convinced, I need to remember Cromwell's anguished plea
to parliament, I beseech you, gentlemen, by the bowels of mercy,
consider you may be mistaken. "One Way" may include many lanes in its highway (I hope). I cannot believe that there is nothing good in the other world faiths. It may be argued that it is presumed in the Jewish faith and practice of Jesus' day, and therefore to be imputed to Him. But we need, I believe, to remember the Syro-Phoenician Greek woman, of whom Jesus was notably accepting, and St Paul's controversy in Romans 2, St Peter's vision at Jaffa, and many other indications that the universal love of God oversteps even the boundaries of faith. It is God,
and not we, who converts. And (S)He plays some fish on very long lines.
Which means that I may not be the lucky fisherperson who lands this
one. God is a God of chesedh w emeth, which is to say, leal love (RSV steadfast love) and truth. I suspect that implies that (S)He is at the end of every quest for truth, and that anyone who genuinely seeks for it, will ultimately find Her/Him.
Murray
Chalmers |
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Scratchings
Recent study days have been well evaluated which is satisfying as chaplains
tend to be quite honest in their remarks. I think I appreciate frankness,
usually! Next year, we are so far planning three days: a study day on "Issues at the Beginning and End of Life" to be held at the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow on 28th April; a day for chaplains interested in mental health issues in Perth on 6th September (theme still to be decided) and a two day residential conference at Carberry on 28th/29th September on the theme "Is there meaning in Suffering?". Do pencil them in to the bit at the back of your diary. [Diary] Recent meetings and work have been with a variety of Boards, the Equality
and Diversity Forum and Planning Group, Quality Improvement Scotland,
Generic Data Information, and Glasgow Caledonian University on accreditation,
and others. Spiritual Care lead managers, PFPI managers and Equality managers throughout the country (sometimes the same people) will soon have to fill up a self assessment questionnaire about the impact their policies on these areas is having. This is the way the performance Assessment Framework in our area of work is being actioned. This I believe is a significant way in which spiritual care is being better integrated into the ethos and regular workings of NHS Scotland. Chris Levison
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Patient Focus, Public Involvement?
The good news?...This man speaks your mother tongue! |
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| You
can find this (and previous) editions of SACH Soundings in full colour
on the SACH Website: www.sach.org.uk/news.htm If you would like to receive the colour version of SACH Soundings by E-mail in Acrobat PDF Format, send your E-mail address to: Fred.Coutts@sach.org.uk |
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The next edition of SACH Soundings will be
published in March 2004.
Tel: 01224
553166 |
