IN THE Church of England, chaplaincy is developing: there are now about 20 dioceses where chaplaincy-development leads have been appointed, with 20 per cent, or more, of their time allocated to the position — although “each diocese does this slightly differently”, acknowledges the chaplaincy adviser and leader of the mission-development in the diocese of Bath & Wells, the Revd Michael Haslam.
And an emerging network of Anglican chaplaincy leads has also been developing, from both diocesan and sector ministry — including the prisons and armed forces, education and health care, waterways and town centres — in exploring ways in which chaplaincy can be better supported and developed.
“This is principally an Anglican network,” says Mr Haslam, who is due to move to a new post in the Church in Wales later this month. “Some of us are formally appointed. Some of us just get things going.”
Chaired by Mr Haslam, the network has been looking at vision and strategy, vocation and training, and funding and deployment of chaplaincy within the C of E.
“So, for instance, we now have pages about chaplaincy on the Church of England website. Before that, if anyone Googled ‘Church of England chaplaincy’, there were a few diocesan pages that came up. Now there’s a small signposting hub from the Church of England website to other places, if people want to explore vocation, or posts, or anything else.”
The network also helped to create the post of Lead Bishop for Chaplaincy and appoint to it. “Since July, we now have Bishop Ruth Worsley, Acting Bishop of Coventry, as lead bishop for chaplaincy,” he says.
The network is continuing to promote vocations, enabling people who are called to chaplaincy “to know what to do with that calling, and to be able to find their way through either an ordained or a lay vocations process within the Church of England”, Mr Haslam says.
It is also looking at formation and training pathways. “We’re particularly aware that, increasingly, NHS trusts and others are saying that a classic Anglican ordination training is not sufficient to prepare you to be a hospital chaplain. So, if we want Anglicans to continue to be present as hospital chaplains, we need to find new training pathways for them,” Mr Haslam says.
“It’s not just the sort of the professional courses, university-level courses: it’s also the exploratory courses for people who want to dip a toe in the water.”
The network is also looking at deployment and finance, hoping to do some more work with the C of E on its Strategic Ministry and Mission Investment Board funding, and other national funding.
And, finally, the network is working on advocacy, to tell the story of chaplaincy and the effects that it has.
At a time when church numbers are decreasing nationally, chaplaincy is growing. “And we want to see how we can be part of, [the Archbishop of York’s] term, ‘the mixed ecology of the Church’ . . . and be part of church growth.”
The Revd Mike Haslam
In the diocese in which Mr Haslam serves, more than 70 new chaplaincies have developed over the past seven years: some full-time posts, some part-time and voluntary.
“That’s quite some potential, and we can continue to build on that,” he says. “I see that being echoed around the country. The diocese of Oxford is doing amazing work growing chaplaincy, particularly in schools; and from Carlisle to Durham to Truro, all over the place, it’s growing.”
In education, one new area opening up to chaplaincy is community schools. Another is pupil chaplaincy, in which young people are chaplains alongside adults. On the other end of the age spectrum, Anna Chaplaincy is growing rapidly.
“We then have chaplaincy in town centres; we have chaplaincy in industrial sites. We have chaplains in open spaces, parks and gardens, offices, railways, markets, a whole range of different contexts, wherever people meet.
“We have chaplaincy growing in villages and estates, they are part of the ministry of the local church, and could be called local pastors, but they find the language and ethos of chaplaincy helpful, and that’s really positive.
“We have sports chaplaincy growing. We’ve just been asked to help set up another court chaplaincy, which is really positive. . . And I was talking to somebody yesterday who’d been asked to be chaplain to a hotel wedding venue. It’s a civic wedding venue, but the hotel had discerned that many of their families preparing for a wedding experience times of crisis.”
Mr Haslam says that the C of E needs to recognise and celebrate that chaplaincy can help local churches grow, and can be helped by local churches.
Chaplaincy is deeply missional, he says. “It’s about joining in the presence of God, the work of God, where that’s already happening, and making it explicit, sometimes in the public square. It’s very much going and meeting people where they are rather than waiting for them to come to us.”