From the Revd John Caperon
Sir, — In his review of Malcolm Torry’s Bridgebuilders: Workplace chaplaincy (a history) (Books, 10 September), Canon Paul Avis suggests that various kinds of chaplaincy — in hospitals, prisons, the armed services, schools, colleges, and universities — are at “the cutting edge of the Church’s mission”. Indeed they are, and it would be good if the whole Church took this on board.
What is surprising, though, is that Canon Avis highlights particularly “schools in the independent sector”. It might once have been true that school chaplaincy was largely confined to independent schools, but that is no longer true.
Chaplaincy is now becoming a central feature of both Church of England secondary schools and of the many academies sponsored by dioceses or by Church-related trusts.
School chaplaincy is increasingly recognised as central to the development of school ethos, is a required subject for report in SIAS inspections, and represents for secondary-school pupils their most likely point of contact with the licensed ministry of the Church. As one school chaplain recently remarked in an interview for the current Bloxham Project research study, in her home parish about a couple of dozen young people were in touch with the parish’s youth ministry, whereas each day she went to work among 1400.
This is without even considering various kinds of informal ministry exercised in their local schools — especially in the primary phase — by parish priests, NSMs, and others. School chaplaincy, both formal and informal, is a key ministry across the board in schools of all kinds.
JOHN CAPERON
The Bloxham Project
Ripon College
Cuddesdon
Oxford OX44 9EX