At Ridley we have ‘Chaplaincy Days’ when final year students have the chance to meet chaplains from a range of sectors. The chaplains very generously shared stories of their experiences in the navy, air force, school, prison, hospital, sports field. For example, a military chaplain surprised us by explaining that the chaplains are involved in teaching values to new recruits. Another chaplain discussed how an aspect of the job is speaking truth to people in power and calling out immoral actions. A schools chaplain described the role of the chaplain as being ‘Christian ballast’ as the school faces unexpected challenges. It was also mentioned that it was the chaplain who recognised a pressing need for mental health support and worked hard to find ways to make this provision possible, even though this wasn’t part of the job description.

In all these stories, we saw that these ordained chaplains are not ‘less than’ priests because they do not have a parish. Indeed, they stand at the coal face of Christian ministry. They must act as public theologians in a moment’s notice. And they stand in the uncomfortable interface between church and world.

They are bound by their denomination but also the institution in which they work. Their narratives revealed a loyalty to both and a calling to negotiate the complex pathways between them. They articulated a sense of dual responsibility.

In the midst of this, they brought a sense of delight in their vocation and a desire to think theologically about their work. They drew on Scripture in some compelling ways. For example, a prison chaplain shared from the book of Revelation, noting that the author, John, was himself a prisoner. Nevertheless, he was intrusted with God’s vision for the world and the call the prophesy to those on the outside. Another person read Ephesians 2 through the lens of sports chaplaincy, ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.’ For sports professionals, for whom performance has been everything for their entire life, it is good news indeed that God free gives salvation not based on human performance. A hospital chaplain spoke powerfully about how her vocation was crystalised when reading in John 5 about how God came out of the temple, via Jesus, and walked among the ill people at the pool of Bethesda. It struck me that each chaplain was giving us a glimpse of how their work as a chaplain causes them to read the Bible with a particular lens. This led to some fascinating insights into passages, shedding new light on the familiar words.

At Ridley, we champion the call to be a chaplain, either as a full-time vocation or as part of a portfolio of missional and pioneering ministries within a parish. Chaplains pioneer ministry within the secular yet religiously plural contexts of contemporary life with often considerable creativity and skill, generating a wealth of insight to be gleaned for understanding the place of faith in the modern world.

Want to read research about chaplaincy? See Chaplaincy and Practical Theology: Researching a Pioneering Ministry.

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