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SACH
Soundings Contents
Looking at our family tree
My great-great grandfather was run over by a motor car in August 1912 just outside the village of Brora in Sutherland while he was on his way to the train station. He died of his injuries a little later at the age of 91. That was just one of the fascinating things I discovered when I first began to dabble in genealogy. Of course I'm not the only one to do that. It's big business now, and it doesn't take long to think why that is so. By tracing your ancestry you begin to have a sense of where you have come from - where people lived and worked and died. You also get a sense of what makes you the way you are and with that a sense of identity to carry into the future and to pass on. So, starting with a little bit of interest or curiosity you end up with a family tree. What if we were to draw up such a document for chaplaincy? What would it look like? I worry that I've been in chaplaincy so long that I'd be in the topmost branches! Could we find answers to the questions which people researching their families do? Can we as chaplains discern our roots? Do we know what has shaped our ministries in the places we serve? Do we have a sense of identity that we can pass on to future generations? Modern health care chaplaincy came into being with the advent of the NHS in 1948 and has certainly undergone many changes since that time. For example, gone are the days when only an ordained minister could become a chaplain. We had to wait until the HDL of 2002 before what chaplains do and how they achieve it came under the spotlight again. There have been a number of changes since then, such as the setting up of Spiritual Care Committees, and there are still others to come such as the possible transfer of employment from the Church to the Health Boards. There will no doubt be others that we haven't quite grasped yet. The question then is what will this generation of chaplains leave for the next? What will our legacy be? I would hope that over the coming few years we will have developed amongst our healthcare colleagues a fuller understanding of what chaplains do and how that fits into the overall care of the patient. I would hope that we will have also developed strong organisations which will be able to develop the skills of individual chaplains and lobby for the provision and extension of spiritual care where necessary. I would hope that we will hand over a confident and highly skilled group of dedicated chaplains with a strong sense of their value within the NHS. We're not quite there yet, though. So what is the best way to get there? As you know SACH has been working very closely with the Association of Hospice and Palliative Care Chaplains, engaging in discussions with the various bodies interested in chaplaincy throughout the UK. We have been concerned to find a way forward on the many issues of common interest about which I have reported in previous editions of Soundings . These discussions have begun to bear some fruit and my hope is that by the time of the AGM it will be possible to say in a little more detail what this might involve. Depending on what we decide to do there may be some of those changes on the way that I mentioned. However I don't believe that any which do come about will present huge challenges to a group of dedicated chaplains who have proved equal to the task of adapting to the times while also being mindful of the legacy of the past. Derek Brown |
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A House Divided
The days leading up to July 7 th 2005 were full of strange contradictions: the purposeful rocking and rolling of Live 8, and the peaceful ‘Make Poverty History' marches versus the mindless, anarchic violence in Edinburgh and Auchterarder; the ecstatic celebrations over the IOC's award to London of the 2012 Olympic Games, swiftly followed by the cruel horror of terrorist attacks on innocent people going about their business in that great city. The tensions were as clear as they were bewildering: An outpouring of human compassion leading to a desire to help those most vulnerable and a celebration of human sporting achievement, versus a seemingly pointless quest to achieve chaos and the psychopathic targeting of the vulnerable as a twisted means to some imagined end. Surely no one living through the events of that week could fail to discern within human society the urgency of building hopeful and worthwhile communities locally, nationally and globally. The morning after the London bombings, with the dead and injured still being counted, the first thing I did on arriving at the hospital was to seek out a Muslim friend and colleague. He works hard for interfaith dialogue and I guessed he would be feeling low and anxious. He was. So we talked and shared our feelings, and we reaffirmed our vocation to carry on working together, affirming and celebrating what we hold in common. The following Thursday, along with people throughout Europe, the chaplains gathered with our Muslim colleague in the Medical School, to call to mind those who had been killed, injured or affected by the bombings and to pray for peace and collaboration in our world. Having sent out an email inviting all staff working in Ninewells and, through the University, all staff working in the Medical School to come along, we were joined by hundreds of people from all levels of both organisations. We read from the Koran and the Bible. We prayed for those affected. We prayed for peace and cooperation between diverse communities and we set ourselves to work together to do what we could to build communities of inclusion and mutual acceptance. And, of course, we kept silence. The large scale response to the Spiritual Care Team's invitation was heartening and we all felt on that important occasion that we were fulfilling the significant task set out for us in the HDL to be “a unifying and encouraging presence in an NHS organisation”. In these days of divided communities and media misinformation, the urgent need to work with people of all faiths and of no particular faith is more pressing than ever. David J. Gordon |
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News of MembersIsabel Whyte , chaplain at Queen Margaret Hospital, Dunfermline, retired at the end of August. Isabel was a founding member of SACH and she served two terms on the Executive. We would like to wish her well and thank her for all that she has contributed to the Association over the years. Hilda Smith of Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow, was inducted to Lochgilphead on Thursday 1 September. Hilda has served on the Executive of SACH since 2003. We thank her for all that she has contributed and wish her well for thefuture. |
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"Of course the Health Service in this country did not begin in the year 1948. many of us have associations with the between-the-wars health service; a great patchwork, a good deal of good intentions, a great deal of inadequacies"
A great patchwork, a good deal of good intentions, a great deal of inadequacies - sound familiar? John S. McKinnon |
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Scratchings from the Training and Development Officer He was waiting for me with a piece of cardboard in his hand on which my name was written in red ink. As he took me over the winding roads past seascapes, peat moors and grassland, he asked my life story and told me his. He was proud of the place he lived, his name was Lowrie and his people had been in Shetland for generations. And so, finally I visited the 23rd of the 23 Health Boards in Scotland. It was a good visit, they were very welcoming and they shared a number of issues which were remarkably similar to those of Greater Glasgow, Fife, Lanarkshire etc. Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy are still being well discussed and worked at in many parts of the country and the health service. Some places of course, more so than others. Recent times in the healthcare Chaplaincy T & D Unit have been varied. We have moved, we have changed our employer, our office and the place where we belong. Meg has left the Unit to become a French teacher and Anne Richardson now fills the role of PA and secretary to myself and the Unit. I'm sure she looks forward to meeting many of her constituents. We live now in the pale green windowed modern office block you can see from the Kingston Bridge - to the right of the Daily Record Building and on the third floor. This is where NES (West Region) has its office and we are now part of this particular health board. NES (NHS Education for Scotland) looks after the training of health professionals - doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, occupational therapists etc, and now they have chaplaincy on the list. Several people have asked me, "How do you feel being part of a large organisation?" It's a change , from being a small unit and able to behave like something of a "free radical" , to being part of a Health Board which has protocols for travel arrangements and where you can eat your sandwiches. Basically I think it's marvelous, to be seen and understood as working for chaplains, chaplaincy and spiritual care, alongside those who are working with the other health care professions. I like to think it says that spiritual care is becoming accepted and better understood as an integral part of health care which requires acknowledgement, training, monitoring and review, because it is important and not just a minority interest but for all who are challenged to revalue and adjust and develop their sense of self and value when coping with illness and faced with the "realities of the human condition". Both myself and Anne are employees of the Health Service as chaplains will also become. Yes it's strange not to be employed by the church but it has two particular strengths, it is incarnational in terms theological, and it is clear in terms of employment. I am enjoying meeting others who have a training remit for health care professionals and I hope to learn from them and I also hope, and believe, that they have something to learn from us. Within this context I look forward to continue working on the educational and training part of my role and also on study days and conferences. With the help of a small group of chaplains and others I look forward to preparing standards for a chaplaincy service and to developing these and more general NHS standards with QIS (Quality Improvement Scotland) in times to come. Educational contacts with divinity faculties and with Glasgow Caledonian University, with chaplaincy initiatives from elsewhere will, I hope, continue to develop, enabling people to sample CPE (clinical pastoral education) and learning form research, palliative care and counselling. All these areas can help us to develop not only our skills as specialists in spiritual care but the confidence of colleagues as to the worth of what we are about. The aeroplane touched down in Inverness, Kirkwall and Sumburgh on the route north and the same going south. I had never realised that Lerwick is nearer to Bergen than it is to Aberdeen. In Shetland each person seems to have several jobs so the multi-professional team can appear quite small. It is quite fascinating to see the variety of the communities which make up Scotland and the similarity of concern as we grapple with the relationship between, and the reality of, spiritual and religious need. Let's hope we can keep moving forward. Who knows what opportunities might beckon? For you too there might be someone carrying your name not necessarily on cardboard but written in red ink! Chris Levison
NHS Education for Scotland (NES) |
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Annual General Meetingon Monday 24 October 2005 10.30 am – 3 pm at Stirling Royal Infirmary Education and Conference Centre
Our guest speaker will be Chris Swift, Chris will speak on “The Fate of Professional Chaplaincy in the 21st Century” For more information please contact *AGM Elections* SACH needs YOU!Several posts on the Executive will be coming up at the AGM. Please think about whether you might stand for one of the positions We will be looking for 3 ordinary members (at least one of whom should be a part-time chaplain). Ordinary members serve for a 3-year term. We meet 4 times a year in Perth. The Secretary is also standing down this year. The term of office for President, Treasurer and Secretary is one year. We would like nominations to be sent in before the AGM (a form for this will be included on the AGM call paper) For further information, please contact: Monica Stewart on 01224 554907 or e-mail: monica.steawrt@sach.org.uk |
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Scottish Journal of Healthcare ChaplaincyThe latest issue of the journal, volume 8.2 will be with members and subscribers shortly. Your editors are chuffed with this one. There are articles on the nuts and bolts of chaplaincy: Auditing chaplaincy, recording chaplaincy interventions, chaplaincy in Europe; articles that broaden our understanding of spirituality in the Janki Foundation and Bahá'í spirituality; and all headed up by a thought provoking article that really challenged your editors – Nurses, 21 st Century Evangelists? The Journal has a ‘letters to the editors' page that has never been used. We live in hope that some day someone will write to us. We reckon this issue could do it! Already we are preparing for Volume 9 2006 and would welcome articles for consideration. Our two deadline dates for Volume 9 are 30 th January and 30 th June 2006. We also welcome volunteers to review books and as a thank you (or penance) you get to keep the book. If you would be interested in writing for the journal or reviewing a book please contact the editors. The Editors. |
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You
can find this (and previous) editions of SACH Soundings in full colour
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The next edition of SACH Soundings will be
published in December 2005.
Tel: 01224
553166 |
