Chaplain Jon

This week marks the beginning of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) for most of the students from my class at Sewanee. There are four of us who are commuting from Sewanee to Chattanooga to work at Erlanger medical center. Erlanger is the Level 1 trauma hospital for a large region which includes parts of TN, GA, NC, and AL. This means that in the course of the next ten weeks we are likely to see victims of car and motorcycle accidents, gun shot wounds, strokes, heart attacks, major traumas, etc.

The point of CPE is to expose seminary students to pastoral care in a hospital or rehabilitation setting. As such we are assigned to provide chaplain services to various parts of the hospital and other local facilities, like hospice.

In my first few days I felt very overwhelmed and inadequate to the task, but the staff and long term students who are training us have been very helpful and I am beginning to understand the role of chaplain much better. Within the scheme of activities in the hospital, from surgeries to diagnosis and so on, the chaplain's role is to provide comfort, a listening ear, and a shoulder to cry on. In a humble and quiet way we are to be the face of Christ to suffering people, whether they are Christians or not.

Probably the most important thing to remember in all this process is that God is in charge. What this means specifically in pastoral care is that God will be caring for his children and providing them with all they need to be whole. This can be hard to see while folks are going through profound suffering, but it is true. Approached from this point of understanding, the chaplaincy becomes an opportunity to meet fellow pilgrims in tough places on their journey and spend some time with them. That's really about all we have to offer... I want to think that we offer hope, but patients and family who are not looking for hope probably won't find it in me. I want to think that we are offering faith, but again, those who aren't seeking faith probably won't find that either. There is a better than even chance that over the next several weeks I will meet people who are hostile or scared, but there will also be some who want to talk about baseball or show me pictures of their families... I pray that I can be of some use no matter where they are on their paths.

peace

Jon