1. Introduction:
In this course you will meet a number of different professionals who work in Further Education colleges as well as staff members and a student. You’ll be able to read about their experiences and reflect on the impact of chaplaincy on them.
Pastoral care
A chaplain is a pastoral care giver as the role would usually fit in with support services. A chaplain should be a non-judgemental listening ear. There may also be other unique support that the chaplain can give; this could be pastoral care during a bereavement or terminal illness and also care around someone’s religious background.
Educator
A chaplain is also an educator as one of the main roles of chaplaincy can be to inform and educate students and staff as part of SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) education.
To find out more, have a look at the fbfe publications in this important curriculum area.
Further Education colleges: opportunities for chaplains
As a chaplain, you’ll find that there are many different settings, environments and timetable opportunities within the college which will lend themselves to interactions with both students and staff. Sometimes formality may be important; sometimes informality. The way you set up a room or an event will influence the response you get from people.
2. Beginnings:
There are many routes into Chaplaincy; they don’t all come from a faith base.
When I started I too was nervous, worried about how they would see a religious person and worried that they would think I had some sort of agenda to convert. I have never really experienced much opposition. As long as I have always acted with integrity and accepted the accountability of the college (even when it has hasn’t been asked of me) I believe there is little opposition to good chaplaincy work.
3. Pastoral Care:
3.1 Barriers to an effective chaplaincy
Let’s consider how the chaplain presents himself or herself.
How do people know you’re the chaplain? Is it because you wear a dog collar (collar worn by Christian ministers)? Is it because you wear a kippah (Jewish skullcap)? Does it matter that you are wearing something which is associated with a particular faith when you’re working as a Multifaith chaplain?
With some of the kids it was a barrier. If the college counsellor was busy, the kids wouldn’t want to see me because they thought I was too religious. After a few years, things changed and students were prepared to see me. On one occasion, I was talking to a student who had lots of problems and she was talking away and then suddenly paused as she noticed my dog collar. She said, “Are you religious or something?” I replied that I was a Church of England minister. “Is that a problem?” “No, no,” she replied and she just carried on talking. I felt then that the dog collar was no longer a barrier.
Personally I have had the wonderful experience of advising on wedding protocol to several staff members who are recently engaged (I have also had the blessing of leading a wedding for a staff member). Sharing with happy occasions goes for students as well, a student passing their driving test or securing their first accommodation on their own have been occasions I have celebrated with a student.
Many young people expect the chaplaincy to be an authoritarian group of people who are narrow-minded and strict. They think that chaplains will be judgemental and critical and not relevant to their life so they won’t engage. One of the reasons for this is that the media often portrays stereotypes of religious people.
How can you overcome this as a chaplain?
- Create a tagline such as ‘The chaplaincy offers all members of the College community a non-judgemental listening ear regardless of faith or belief.’
- Declare openly that you bring love, tolerance and reconciliation to your work
- Be highly visible
- Focus on spirituality as well as faith. Many students are not religious but will respond to talking about cultural identity,
- Make sure you include fun elements to the events you organise.
- Have drop-in sessions: fun elements, different workshops, cultural identity not particular faiths. Students realise they have some sort of spiritual angle, don’t call themselves religious.
3.2 Journeying with people
As chaplain you will create relationships by being seen as a familiar face within the college community. However, for some, familiarity takes time.
Many Multi-faith chaplains work part-time at Further Education colleges. This, in itself, can present challenges.
The mentors had an established presence in the College and staff and students knew what mentors did, so this was a really helpful way to get to know people and link up with other teams who otherwise wouldn’t have got in touch with the chaplain.
Otherwise I really struggled to build up a chaplaincy in two and a half days a week across three sites – it was taking a long time to get to know people however much I advertised the chaplaincy, which was a new position.
Whereas mentoring is a very practical role – first-hand safeguarding and crisis management – chaplaincy has become an extension of mentoring, but covering spiritual, cultural and moral issues.
Your office
If you are given an office that’s great and it will be an invaluable space to have when you are involved in crisis care but don’t forget that the student spaces such as the refectories and student centres are important places in the college and so you need to be seen there.
Try to make the room comfortable – include things like soft chairs and offer tea and coffee. If you want to put a sign on the door, have your name there rather than the label “chaplain’s office”.
Sharing your office with people like the student liaison officer can be useful because there will be more student traffic and more people will get to know you. However, you do have to be able to guarantee a student privacy if they want to discuss something sensitive.
Around the college
Very rarely does a student or staff member find you out without meeting you (the exception being maybe at a time of bereavement). It’s important to be seen and say hello to people. ‘Hello’ will be start of the journey and for some you will never get past this but you will be amazed just how many conversations that you will have regularly with someone just from being seen in around the building.
Walking and talking with people can be a very effective, non-threatening way to discuss something rather than trying to engineer a face to face talk.
This goes for staff care as well. Many staff especially the non-teaching ones will stay in their area of the college and not be seen very often in any other part. Make sure you use the staff room when you have lunch and be seen. Pop into different departments so that you become a known face.
It was about them taking that little step which might mean that they could take a bigger step later on. It drew people in.
Out and about
There are many ways to work with young people in college. Conversations don’t always happen in the college; they might happen in the pub.
He had this big reputation, threatening to stab people and that kind of thing. We ended up playing pick-up sticks together – a perfect way to carry on a conversation without being intimidating. Doing something like that together really takes the edge off things.
Other forms of communication
On rare occasions, staff may e-mail about a concern, although they tend to be aware that their emails can be tracked so they can be rather circumspect about this form of communication.
Dumen received the e-mail below from a member of staff at the college where he is Sikh Chaplain and Multi-faith Chaplaincy Team Leader.
Take a look at the email and think carefully about what’s going on.
‘Hi
I’m from the teaching staff over at Z Block and I have a problem that needs to be urgently but sensitively resolved and I need your help.
We have a number of Muslim students who, obviously, have to meet their prayer duties throughout the course of the day. However, since term began three weeks ago, I have a number of males who are repeatedly late for afternoon classes (after lunch) and, on occasions, late for morning lessons. Their repeated reason for lateness is that there have been hold ups/queues/or have been unable to access the prayer room in time to both pray and get to lessons on time.
Now, I have my doubts about this as many students who require use of the prayer room do so and have no impact on attendance or punctuality. However, in confronting the late students referred to above I feel on very difficult ground: if I challenge them I am in effect saying that class is more important than religion and/or (even worse) I am accusing them of lying with regards to their reasons for lateness.
Can you please confirm what the process is for using the prayer room and what the College’s standpoint is on this issue (as they will miss a lot of work, plus they disrupt lessons by being late) and what you could suggest about me addressing the issue appropriately and effectively?
Of course, if their reasons are fabricated excuses and there are no issues with access to the prayer room or prayer time, please also let me know so I can challenge them and deal with them as per the Learner Code of Conduct.
I really appreciate your time on this!
Many thanks’
You’re probably wondering what sort of reply a chaplain would need to give this tutor.
First of all, let’s assess what’s happened here:
The tutor knows he/she can contact the chaplain – the contact details are available and the tutor is expecting that the chaplain will have the kind of knowledge required to deal with this. The tutor is also expecting that the chaplain will recognise the sensitivity of the situation.
Remember that e-mail requests like this give you time to consider how you want to answer.
Below is Dumen’s reply to the e-mail:
‘Dear
Thanks for your e-mail.
Muslims are required to pray five times a day (normally three of the prescribed times would fall within the college day, 5mins approx. each). The times change daily accordance with the Muslim calendar. http://esalah.com/ It may be worth checking that the students are praying in accordance with their calendar times. I would suggest giving a copy of this time calendar to all staff in Z block.
Students have to access the prayer room by collecting a key from reception, this is logged in and out, so it would be worth checking that the students are saying where they are is correct. There should never be a queue for the prayer room unless there are too many students in the room at once. (which has never happened to my knowledge).
I think it will beneficial to meet up, just to discuss the approach.
Best Wishes,’
You will find further information about e-mail in Course C.
3.3 Crisis support
The Chaplain will be seen and valued especially during times of great loss and crisis. Inevitably this will be when there is a death within the College community.
Crises in the student population emerge and unfold in different ways:
- Someone turns up in the chaplain’s office to tell the chaplain.
- The tutor tells the chaplain: (a) The student has asked for the chaplain to be told (unable or unwilling to approach you directly), (b) The tutor has suggested that the student talks to the chaplain. (see above), (c) You may sometimes spot wider issues than the tutor is aware of.
- The chaplain receives an e-mail.
- The chaplain might be asked to be with the tutor when they share the news with the rest of the students. It might be good to mention that you are available at an opportunity such as that.
- There is also an expectation at times to hold an act of remembrance or an actual service in memory of the student. There are many ways in which the chaplain can do this (all need to be agreed with senior leadership within the college as this is such a sensitive area).
The chaplain may be able to draft a letter of condolences on behalf of the Principle. On a purely practical level, the chaplain should notify Enrolments of the situation. This can prevent ill-timed, inappropriate communication to a bereaved family.
It is essential that an agreed formal College Procedure concerning the death of a student is in place and followed by all college staff involved, including the chaplain.
One of the ways that can help people is to do the act of remembrance in the person’s area of the college. For example, if the deceased person was from the hair and beauty area, why not ask if one of the larger rooms or salons could be used to hold a short time of remembrance?
At times a larger, more accessible room with the college might be needed (such as a conference room) but the idea of holding something like this where the person actually studied and spent their time has been welcomed by many.
Sometimes a student in crisis benefits from a more informal session.
You will find more information about dealing with the death of a student in Course C.
Over time it emerged that there were wider issues than the tutor had picked up in class. I had to handle these issues with sensitivity – I didn’t want the tutor to feel undermined or the student to feel I had breached any confidentiality.
Quite a difficult balance really!
A chaplain was approached by a student after her boyfriend committed suicide. Her boyfriend was Roman Catholic and his parents told her “he’s gone to hell.” She was terribly upset and didn’t have many people to turn to.
Great sensitivity is needed in this situation. The Chaplain needs to show respect for the grieving family’s beliefs but also needs to support the student who is grieving too and may not understand the family’s reactions.
Resources for a memorial service
A suggested order of service is available on the resources page. This service can be altered to suite a specific faith group or the faith elements can be changed.
4. Educator:
4.1 Tutorials
Having built an initial relationship with key members of staff in the college (maybe with the principle or vice principle), you might be asked to take some tutorials on faith subjects. Once you’ve taken a few tutorials, you’re likely to find yourself established and from there other tutors will start to invite you to take a tutorial.
Before you plan tutorials, it’s best to contact whoever is in charge of curriculum. They should be able to point you in the direction of subject leaders.
Tutorial subjects might include faith or ethics in the workplace or conflict resolution.
Chaplains often help in creating staff development programmes.
You will further information about tutorials in Course C.
There is further information about Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in Course C.
Mark, a lecturer in Health and Social Care, approached the Multi-faith chaplaincy about giving a tutorial to a group of students. He warned the chaplain that they wouldn’t be particularly easy to engage. They were notoriously reluctant to voice their opinions about things and were not particularly easy to teach.
After the tutorial the chaplain and the lecturer met to discuss how the lesson had gone and to look at the written feedback from the students.
Mark and the chaplain came to the conclusion that the students weren’t really comfortable giving their views. The chaplain suggested that he should take a different approach to the next lesson, using activities instead of trying to get the students to voice their opinions.
Even the most experienced Chaplain can find tutorials challenging! What this case study demonstrates is the importance of collaboration with the lecturer and being responsive to feedback.
Despite the lesson giving airtime to some of the students’ unsavoury views about people from other religions, the relationship this Chaplain has with the staff remains very good, probably in part because he responds to feedback and shows a willingness to be flexible:
Many Further Education students will enter the working world where they will be expected to interact with very diverse people. One Further Education college offers a qualification in Air industry services which includes customer services. A student on this course attended one of the Multifaith Chaplain’s tutorials:
Resources
- Festive Resources – this extensive resource offers a set of trending Christian resources of potential use in tutorials.
- Foundation Learning – this area lends itself very well to activities and tutorials that as a Chaplain you may be able to deliver.
4.2 Enrichment activities
There are many different types of enrichment activities you can organise as chaplain. Activities should relate to current and historical events to make the enrichment activities more effective and come to life.
Once you have started to engage with your college and get a feel for it you will then begin to have an idea about what you can do there.
Further Education colleges are very diverse institutions and there are many different faith and spiritual festivals throughout the year. You can also recognise other special times throughout the year. You can recognise a different faith festival every week during term time.
In Course C you will find further information about enrichment.
Resources
5. Celebration & Commemoration:
A Chaplaincy team can play a huge part when it comes to the college response to celebration and commemoration.
Celebrations or commemorations which a chaplain can lead:
- Diwali
- Holocaust Memorials Day
- Inter-faith celebration
Celebrations and commemorations can bind a college community together. They also increase the profile of the chaplaincy service within the college.
These examples highlight important points:
- Bringing an act of commemoration or celebration to people allows more of them to engage with it and have the experience. They may be more likely to want to engage in this way again. Serendipity works!
- Being in a neutral space has a different impact from going into a sacred room or building.
- The chaplain becomes more visible and accessible.
Making Remembrance Day commemoration a Multifaith event
Planning Remembrance Day can be quite challenging.
There will always be people who say that including prayers means it’s too religious and if you leave out prayers, people will say it’s not religious enough.
You can’t please everyone.
But what is universally agreed is that first impressions are hugely important. They create the context for people’s experience of an event.
The important things is that planning will involve collective decision making – after all, it’s ‘their chaplaincy, not mine’.
You will find more information about planning a Multi-faith Remembrance Day commemoration in Course C.
6. Prayer & Worship:
6.1 Prayer and contemplation rooms
The majority of college while they may not have a chaplaincy provision will hopefully have a room set aside for prayer and contemplation. Although sometimes these are not very accessible and can be almost hidden away these are still important rooms especially for people of faith. If you have a room you need to make sure that it is set out to accommodate this.
Below is a list of basic requirements for a prayer and contemplation room:
- The room should be large enough for the number of worshippers performing the prayers as Muslims pray side-by-side in rows facing the direction of Makkah (Mecca). Some faiths pray towards statues so the room layout needs to accommodate this.
- Washing facilities near to the prayer room for ritual washing before prayer.
- Not contain statues and pictures of living beings on display (but items can be placed in a cupboard if there is access to one.
- Room to place shoes when removing shoes before entering prayer room.
- Indication of the qibla, the direction of Makkah (Mecca) which Muslims face when praying.
- Quiet enough to allow concentration on prayers.
- Sufficient space for both men and women to pray.
- A sign which can be put on the outside of the room asking people to be respectful when a service is being held.
It would be a good idea to keep any literature which advertises the chaplaincy service in this room so people can make the link with you.
In Course C you will find further information about prayer and contemplation rooms.
The Principle took the view that there should be no empty spaces in the college. Rooms must be used the whole time. He wanted to know how many students would use the room and said that all the rooms had to be bookable.
Of course, there are times which need to be booked, for example when Muslim students want to pray or if staff want to have a time allocated to prayer before they begin lectures. But students who don’t always want to book a room when they want to pray or spend quiet time and they need to be accommodated too.
In the end, I was able to get a room as part of Student Services alongside a counselling room.
Freya is an Equalities Manager who provided students with a prayer room in the Student Services building which had lots of privacy. To begin with, the room was well used but after a time the Muslim students started tailing off.
Freya researched other available rooms with a member of the Estates department. The room they found was administered by receptionists who looked after the key so there was an issue around easy accessibility for students.
The reception desk was close to the room so the receptionists could easily see who was going in and out so they were happy to leave the room unlocked while they were there. The important thing was that the students didn’t need to ask to use the room.
The number of Muslim students who used the room to pray started to climb again. They were clearly where they wanted to be – right in the centre of things, part of the community.
6.2 Worship
Acts of worship can differ widely from a weekly prayer time to an annual all souls’ service.
Some colleges hold weekly staff prayers at the beginning of the week. It is important that services of worship are conducted correctly – it’s a good idea to consult fellow chaplains on the team about this. It’s a great opportunity to enhance what the chaplaincy offers.
There may be opportunities to hold services in the college prayer and contemplation room, although this depends on the context that the college finds itself.
This achieves two things, firstly it identifies to us who is grieving and gives us the opportunity to support them. Secondly it fulfils a liturgical act which enables and also releases the concept of community in a college.
There is further information about staff prayer in Course C.
7. Team Spirit:
One of the most important things a chaplain can do is to try to build a team, instead of working alone. Regular team activities maintain good morale and momentum. Dinner, lunch or other team building opportunities should be created.
Building the team
You may not be able to offer any financial payments to people you approach, but finding the right people who can give you some time in their busy lives is worth the effort.
There are so many benefits to working as part of a team:
- There is more opportunity for creativity in a team (hopefully with members in it of more than one faith). More opinions can lead to more creativity.
- If more than one faith is represented, it gives the team a greater sense of supporting specific faith groups.
- A multi faith team also means that specific recognition of different faith festivals can be given a faithful recognition if someone from that faith group is involved in it.
- Having a multi faith team also gives much opportunity to do something during times such as interfaith week.
7. Reflection:
So are you ready to be a Chaplain?
We all come to Chaplaincy on different roads and maybe with different expectations. What we share however is we are all at this point. For us Chaplaincy is important. Even if you really still think you don’t know what to do, you are at this point for a reason.
One of the biggest encouragements for me is when those who do not profess any faith use our service for support or information. Along your chaplaincy journey you will have conversations or interactions that mean the world to other person.
I know I was the member of staff who had the time to listen to him who could talk to him about what trouble him and try to put it into perspective.
When I have difficult days or don’t feel like chaplaincy is working I think of that student and realise once again that it is needed in a college.
We bring values and experience that no one else does, no matter how the college views you a chaplain is a unique practitioner.
How will you know when something is working well?
Word of mouth amongst students may well bring them flocking to the group you’ve set up.
You may be surprised by who turns up to your drop-in sessions. Conversations may touch on subjects you don’t expect.
It’s great to hear that staff members have benefitted from something you’ve done as chaplain.
The college is likely to have a process for reviewing the work of the chaplaincy and this can sit alongside your personal reflections.
You may wish to reflect on your journey into chaplaincy by answering for yourself these questions:
-How did you get to this point or how will you get where you feel you should be?
-What are you learning on the journey?
-Has your faith been of support to you as you go towards your sense of calling?
-What are the gifts you think you bring to chaplaincy?
-What do you think you need to learn?
-What sort of support do you have for this ministry?
Next Steps:
When you are ready, try the course assessment to see how much you have learned.
You can re-try the assessment as many times as you wish until you feel confident enough to progess to Course C: Chaplaincy Nuts & Bolts.
(Please note that you need to be ‘logged-in’ with an active account to access the assessment)
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