The term ‘chapel’ is commonly held to derive from the portable sanctuary in which the sacred cape (cappella) of St Martin of Tours (which was believed to be the remnant of a military cloak generously ripped in half to give one part away) was preserved. Thus from the outset one could argue that the relationship between church and chapel was one of centre to periphery. A chapel is a place undoubtedly related to the business of the church, but in some sense dislocated from its core activity. Thus, over time, chapel came to describe a place for private or institutional worship or, notably, a location for nonconformist worship. Even within the Anglican scheme, a chapel can mean a church subordinate to the parish church!
In derivation a chaplain is one associated with a chapel and thus plausibly shares in some degree of that same dislocation. At least etymologically, then, there may be some grounding for the commonly expressed sense that chaplains and their work can feel ‘one the edge’. Indeed, a major study of British Higher Education Chaplaincy, undertaken by McGrail and Sullivan et al in 2007 was entitled: Dancing on the Edge.
Chaplaincy can find itself perched between the institutional church and the secular world belonging neither wholly to the one nor the other, but tempted, perhaps, to escape this awkward location by belonging more to one than the other (Moody, 1999, p.15). Yet this liminal position is precisely the one from which chaplaincy gains its unique value in contradistinction to, and as complement of, the parish task.
Following the industrial revolution there has been a marked, and well-documented, disruption of the relationship between the location of work and domestic residence. Moreover, the present economy requires a high degree of mobility, both in terms of commuting and frequent changes of residence, for the purposes of work and also for the purposes of education. Accordingly, one might very well live in one parish, work or study in another, socialise regularly in a third and attend worship in a fourth (Chaplaincy pp.ixf, c.f. Lamdin, 1999, p.149.). Territorial identity has, therefore, largely broken down. Yet the parochial system still mirrors the social structures of the Middle Ages when church and community were essentially co-terminus (Avis, 1999, p.12). Chaplaincy has thus become an essential complement to a still largely geographically-based ministry.
But not only can university chaplaincy feel marginal in relation to its ‘sponsoring’ church due its peculiar modus operandi, it can also feel marginal to the university itself and even what might be considered its key clientele. In a major and recent study Guest et al found that only 2.7% of students who self-identified as Christians reported they were usually involved in chaplaincy activities, while a slightly larger proportion (8.7%) agreed that chaplaincy was central to their Christian experience at university (p.143). Of the ‘Unchurched Christians’- that is those who never attend church at home or at university – none had any involvement with chaplaincies, and only a mere 1.5% engaged with any form of organised Christian activity (p.144f). Results such as this lead to a very sobering conclusion:
“It would be accurate to say for most [UK universities, Christianity] is an ambient, rather than a salient institutional feature, colouring architectural contexts and ceremonial rhetoric, with more positive agencies such as chaplaincies occupying the margins of university life, catering to a select minority and enjoying very limited power and influence on larger campuses.” (Guest, et al, 2013, p.26)
Yet such marginality need not necessarily be a mark of failure; it might, in fact, point to the essence of the purpose of Chaplaincy. As Stephen Shakespeare rightly observes marginal voices neither wish to be left on the edge nor assimilated to the existing system, rather they call for the creating of a different reality ( 2007, p.137). In other words, our marginal position derives, perhaps in part, from our role as sacraments of the ‘Kingdom of God’ – efficacious signs of a different order of things, related to but not to be assimilated by the present ordering of society (including the university).
The thrill of chaplaincy work stems very largely from the privilege of operating at thresholds between: earth and heaven; church and society; adolescence and adulthood; tradition and innovation; secular and sacred; hope and despair (C.f. Forster-Smith, 2013, p.xvii). As Shakespeare (2007, p.135) insightfully suggests, our role is as ‘simultaneous translators’ between the Christian narrative and the narrative of the university. Why? Because we are ministers of a Gospel that has the work of translation at its heart: the Word became flesh (Jn 1:14); the Spirit makes the Gospel accessible to every tongue (Acts 1:8).
If our location ‘on the edge’ has currency, it is important also to acknowledge that, too often perhaps, the distinction between chaplaincy and parochial ministry has been over-emphasised from both sides. If both are called to participate in the Trinitarian mission of God, in the wake of which the Kingdom comes to be, then both are but forms of one ministry!
No thoughts yet on “On the edge?”