Mission and mental health
Below is the the text of a short paper I wrote for my Selection Conference. The Ministry Division ask you to produce a written reflection on your experience of "Mission and Evangelism". Although I know I "got through", I don't yet know what the selectors thought of it (I get the report soon), but I post it here for your edification (or amusement!).
The issue of “availability” has much to offer to our notions of mission. In exploring this relationship I want to reflect on two areas of my current experience of mission: mental health chaplaincy and church buildings.
As part of my work as a pastoral assistant I am connected with the chaplaincy at a local psychiatric in-patients hospital. The bulk of this ministry is in informal, ad-hoc conversations with people on the ward. In order for such conversations to be possible one has to be content to, as others may see it, waste one’s time: to make oneself available just by being there. This will often involve walking on to one of the wards casually and merely saying hello to those around; sitting down in the lounge and chatting to the patients there. Inevitably they wonder who you are: a doctor, a visitor, perhaps a new patient? I usually explain that I am a lay-chaplain working at the local church and that I come into the unit once a week.
Over the course of several weeks and months one begins to build up a relationship with the patients and to feel that one knows them quite well. Some of the things they say can be alarming or disturbing, but an attitude of openness and acceptance is important. In many cases patients who have had little or no contact with the Church before (or even worse, a past negative experience) will begin to come to our fortnightly service in the hospital and some have begun to come to our church for Sunday and midweek worship.
I believe this work to be an important part of our role in God’s mission to the world. Christ himself said “those who are not sick have no need of a physician”, and it is my experience that those who are being challenged emotionally and psychologically are far more open to the notions of spirituality and faith. This, of course, carries with it the extra responsibility of being sensitive and careful in the work of our chaplaincy, but also means that it is a rare privilege to work there.
Often when we are engaged in forms of sector ministry it is easy for chaplains to think that they are taking God in to a Godless place, when in fact the Spirit goes there ahead of us (sometimes despite of us) and is already making God known. This has been the case for me in the hospital. We are not so much engaged in bringing in God, but in revealing those places where God is already at work: in the healing of people (which is not always equated with medical recovery); in the care of nurses and staff; in the love of family and friends; in the new relationships of support formed with other patients. It is these things that are the good news of the kingdom of God.
In ourselves we are called to embody the Church in this way: to be a place, to provide space wherein the kingdom of God may be worked out. There is something extravagant about a church building because, in a sense, it is an empty space. Unlike a home, an office or a factory, for most of the day a church will be empty and not put to any particular use. A church punctuates the busyness of time and space by being there, being open and being silent. In order for this to have any effect a church needs to be available. Visitors will come in as they pass on their way to or from work, local workers visit on their lunch break, passers-by call in out of curiosity. Crucially the church is there, it is available and it speaks of the presence of the kingdom of God in our midst, of the welcoming and inclusive love of God given to us through his Son.
So it is with us if our pastoral ministry is to spill over into mission. We need to be people who create space in ourselves for the other and The Other, by prayer, self-awareness and study of the scriptures and the faith: in short, by encounter. This space needs to be available to others by our presence in the community and in the institutions of our community, by our time given (wasted?) in such places.
The issue of “availability” has much to offer to our notions of mission. In exploring this relationship I want to reflect on two areas of my current experience of mission: mental health chaplaincy and church buildings.
As part of my work as a pastoral assistant I am connected with the chaplaincy at a local psychiatric in-patients hospital. The bulk of this ministry is in informal, ad-hoc conversations with people on the ward. In order for such conversations to be possible one has to be content to, as others may see it, waste one’s time: to make oneself available just by being there. This will often involve walking on to one of the wards casually and merely saying hello to those around; sitting down in the lounge and chatting to the patients there. Inevitably they wonder who you are: a doctor, a visitor, perhaps a new patient? I usually explain that I am a lay-chaplain working at the local church and that I come into the unit once a week.
Over the course of several weeks and months one begins to build up a relationship with the patients and to feel that one knows them quite well. Some of the things they say can be alarming or disturbing, but an attitude of openness and acceptance is important. In many cases patients who have had little or no contact with the Church before (or even worse, a past negative experience) will begin to come to our fortnightly service in the hospital and some have begun to come to our church for Sunday and midweek worship.
I believe this work to be an important part of our role in God’s mission to the world. Christ himself said “those who are not sick have no need of a physician”, and it is my experience that those who are being challenged emotionally and psychologically are far more open to the notions of spirituality and faith. This, of course, carries with it the extra responsibility of being sensitive and careful in the work of our chaplaincy, but also means that it is a rare privilege to work there.
Often when we are engaged in forms of sector ministry it is easy for chaplains to think that they are taking God in to a Godless place, when in fact the Spirit goes there ahead of us (sometimes despite of us) and is already making God known. This has been the case for me in the hospital. We are not so much engaged in bringing in God, but in revealing those places where God is already at work: in the healing of people (which is not always equated with medical recovery); in the care of nurses and staff; in the love of family and friends; in the new relationships of support formed with other patients. It is these things that are the good news of the kingdom of God.
In ourselves we are called to embody the Church in this way: to be a place, to provide space wherein the kingdom of God may be worked out. There is something extravagant about a church building because, in a sense, it is an empty space. Unlike a home, an office or a factory, for most of the day a church will be empty and not put to any particular use. A church punctuates the busyness of time and space by being there, being open and being silent. In order for this to have any effect a church needs to be available. Visitors will come in as they pass on their way to or from work, local workers visit on their lunch break, passers-by call in out of curiosity. Crucially the church is there, it is available and it speaks of the presence of the kingdom of God in our midst, of the welcoming and inclusive love of God given to us through his Son.
So it is with us if our pastoral ministry is to spill over into mission. We need to be people who create space in ourselves for the other and The Other, by prayer, self-awareness and study of the scriptures and the faith: in short, by encounter. This space needs to be available to others by our presence in the community and in the institutions of our community, by our time given (wasted?) in such places.
posted by Credo at 3/09/2006 04:19:00 pm
6 Comments:
I reckon there's no such thing as a Godless place. God is everywhere, and sometimes you meet Him, with the most impact, where you least expect to find Him.
Px
Polly,
What about the Church of Satan?
;)
Pax tecum,
Peter
X + :)
Peter,
God is there. He is omnipresent (even in hell).
Credo.
True.
Though you're probably less likely to 'find' Him there than anywhere else, I would have thought...!
Moreover, is God really present in Hell? Why do you think this? (I've never heard someone say that, so I'm interested why that should be thought to be so!) Isn't omnipresence a reference to Creation?
Additionally, if evil (following the Thomistic and Augustinian understanding) is simply a privation of good, and since God is the source of all good, then surely Hell (a place of pure evil) must by logical extension, be utterly absent of all good, and therefore of God?
Pax tecum,
Peter
+ :)
In brief...
The notion comes from the words in Peter's letter about Christ preaching to the souls imprisoned and from the line in the creed "he descended to hell".
I know of it via the theology of Hans Unrs von Balthasar (who is brilliant) and Jurgen Moltmann.
The notion is this: if Christ has "harrowed" hell, it can no longer be a Godless place, Christ himself being God. And so no human state, even that of sin and the hells we create for ourselves, are reprobate from God's love.
I hope that scanty explanation helps.
Credo
Hmm - interesting... Thanks!
I had read that when it says "He descended into Hell" it meant that He descended into the 'Limbus Patrum' - the vestibule of Hell - where the Old Testament Saints resided in a state of happiness before being taken to Heaven by Christ after He died.
It would be interesting to hear more of the diversity of theological opinion on this subject!
Pax tecum mate,
Peter
+ :)
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