Chaplaincy ― A Word in Season

Kate Bradford

Words

Christian Chaplains are followers of the incarnate Word, the One who shares their humanity. Chaplaincy, as a Christian ministry is never separated from the incarnated Christ or his inspiring Word.   The chaplain enters the suffering of another: being, listening, hearing the pain ― yet without the spoken word it is possible that the chaplain has entered a conspiracy of silence. Chaplaincy is an offer to care in thought, word and deed.

Only when the chaplain’s offer is accepted does the chaplain have the privilege of sharing someone else’s journey; and it is true that there are no answers without first hearing the question. And even hearing the question does not guarantee that there will be answers, but to believe that there is no answer – nothing that could ever satisfy – is a betrayal of the trust that has been placed in the chaplain.

Ecclesiastes 3 tells us there is a time for silence; however this silence is paired with a time to speak.  Silence and speech are not simply quantitative, either absent or present, but rather they are qualitative ― nuanced with awkwardness or companionship and infused with coolness or warmth. There are biblical passages that warn against the excessive use of words and it is true that the wrong thing should not be said, but Scripture contains no injunction against speech containing kind, gentle and gracious words that bring comfort and healing.

Perhaps the right kind of speech does not always come easily or naturally but this is not the same thing to say that the right words cannot be learned.

We speak to care for another; not to simply disseminate information or display our knowledge, neither to dominate nor command the conversation. At this point theological training is inverted. Unlike the critico-analytical method where a case is stated and then argued for, when the chaplain responds to another person’s words, there is a scarcity of words – words – skilfully placed into the conversation just at the right time.

These pared back words are placed with the same careful timing of an orchestral triangle-player, who following the score, plays the single note with precision at just the right time. The triangle player does not fumble; he or she plays decisively with the all the skill of a percussionist and has engaged critically with the theory of music long before this moment.

In the same way for the chaplain critical-analysis has been used to engage with the biblical text forming the background to a chaplaincy encounter. The structured thought behind the scene allows a seemingly incidental conversation to have structure with the aim of opening out a space to allow someone explore their own spiritual world and elucidating truth.

Conversations

Pastoral conversation may endeavour to be diffuse; work in a mist; deal with paradox; to illuminate; to elucidate; working deftly with words so that they are felt physically in the body and in the tap into a spiritual (poetic, or perhaps parabolic) dimension. The selection of language is not arbitrary, but serves to point to a reality beyond that that can be seen or felt; ideas and thought are juxtaposed against each other to pries open another layer of reality. We use language to open this space to allow more time to explore or ponder matters of faith. As we work in this area our words are operating as retractors that are keeping open a space between the physical world and world of spiritual ideas or concepts.

We begin with the person’s present reality: in the real not the ideal[1], being careful not to fuel unlikely expectation. Like a surgeon presented with a tray of instruments, the chaplain carefully selects the one or two words that will gently cut through to a spiritual space at just the right angle.

We stay with them in the present watching their cognitive and emotional responses. We seek to slow the process down with the aim of opening up a vertical space[2]; using oblique language rather than opaque. We attempt to slow things down and help people feel. We do not want to cut to the chase or cut to the quick. We use language to cushion, not shock. This is a very different method to that of the evangelist who aims to cut to the heart of the matter wishing to startle and disorientate the listener, confronting them with a new idea.  

The conversation moves forward only one step at a time accommodating chaos, fragmentation and discontinuity that the sufferer feels; moving forward only as much as necessary, each new word or concept takes energy to comprehend. This can create a dissonance between feelings and cognition.

By contrast to some forms of proclamation, hospital chaplaincy attempts not demolish props of various beliefs or meanings before first seeing the patient safely resting on another. Removing hope, even a false hope without replacing it with anything else may drop someone into an abyss.  Deconstruction has with it the responsibility of not leaving an ‘empty house’ but to be actively involved with reconstruction. Images of support and reconstruction are found in the One who has suffered and understands suffering, the One who is willing to walk with people through the valley of the shadow of death, the One who offers his yoke, the One who lays down his life in order that another may take theirs up.

Christian Chaplaincy offers the possibility of extending an offer to an invitation into the future. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Rev 21:4

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[1] Working with ‘the real not the ideal’ was an idea that I first heard in a lecture in Sydney by Dr Susan S. Phillips, American Sociologist and Christian Spiritual Director.

[2] Eugene Peterson introduces the vertical space, in his article ‘Teach us to Care and not to Care’, in  The Crisis of Care: Affirming and Restoring Caring Practices in the Helping Professions.  Susan S. Phillips, and Patricia Benner, eds. 1st ed. Georgetown University Press, 1995.