Anglican Chaplaincy

The Anglican Chaplains

Michael Wood is Anglican Chaplain to UWA where he works an integrated member of the Student Services team. Michael is an Anglican priest. He has a working background in the Australian Merchant Navy, Human Resources Management, Professional Leadership Coaching, Parish Ministry and on the senior staff of the Anglican Diocese of Perth.

Telephone: 6488 4762

Email Address: angchaplain@admin.uwa.edu.au

Richard Pengelley is an Anglican Priest and Chaplain to St. George's College. Richard has a background in high school teaching and has played water polo at the Olympic level. Along with his chaplaincy work, Richard lectures in the School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health at UWA. He is interested in men's health and exploring the connections between sport and spirituality.

Telephone: 9449 5668

Email Address: richardp@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

Anglican Worship

Eucharist every Sunday at 5.00pm commencing on Sunday 3rd February 2008. Services have a simple structure with space for some interactive conversation, silent prayer and reflective music. The service is open to all staff and students of UWA as well as the general public.

Sung Evensong every Thursday evening at 6.00pm commencing on 6th March 2008. This is an ancient and beautiful form of prayer which is sung largely by a choir - in this case, the Winthrop Singers of UWA.

Please feel free to join the chapel community if you don't currently have a parish community

What is a Chaplain?

Chaplains work in a very wide variety of settings including schools, hospitals, prisons and commerce.

The following quote provides background to the word, “chaplain”

Historically the word `chaplain’ originated with Martin of Tours in the fourth century. Martin was garrisoned as part of a military squadron at Aimes (France). One winter he saw a shivering beggar and is said to have cut his cloak in two and given half to the beggar. Partly through this experience he later became a monk and was eventually made bishop of Tours. After his death the Frankish Kings kept his `capella’ (cloak) in a portable shrine. The French took the word on as `chapele’, from which we derive chapel. The caretaker of the shrine became known as the `capellanus’, from which the French derived `chapelain’ which eventually led to the English `chaplain’.

 

von Dietze, E and Baynes, J `Is there a chaplain on campus? Now what?’ in Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association No.25 April 2005 p.33

Theological Overview

Chaplaincy services are available on all Australian University campuses. Whilst chaplains, in the past, were always Christians, this is now changing in light of Australia’s multicultural society. There are now chaplains with various faith backgrounds in different Australian universities. Having said that, most chaplains are Christian, perhaps reflecting the demographics of Australian society (64% of the Australian population reported themselves as Christian in the 2006 census).

An Anglican Chaplain is a general pastoral care practitioner with a transparently stated Christian worldview. As generalist pastoral carers we aim to work with the whole person rather than artificially dividing a person into body, mind, spirit. While the latter distinctions can sometimes be helpful for functional purposes (e.g. a doctor fixing a broken bone), pastoral care seeks to support integration, or reconciliation, within each person, within community, within God.

The primary Christian understanding that “God is love”, whom we understand to be inherently compassionate and non-coercive, means that we focus on the “client’s agenda” and avoid pressing our own beliefs on people. We are also able to engage in religious/spiritual conversation with people in appropriate circumstances when requested.

As `general care practitioners’ we offer time and availability to support people with what ever issues and challenges of life which people are facing. Just as, for “Martin of Tours”, giving a person a part of his coat was an act of compassion to meet a real human need, so chaplains try to attend to the presenting needs of people and respond accordingly. This could include:

a) responding to immediate short term needs
b) providing on going enabling/capacity building support to individuals
c) recognising that individuals are situated within a social/community context
d) recognising that human beings come with a wide range of philosophical and theological perspectives and that sometimes people want to address these in the specific language and frameworks of faith, religion or spirituality
e) asking broad questions and contributing to conversations about the heath and well being of whole societal systems

Responding to the whole person in a whole of life context constitutes the generalist core of pastoral care in which chaplains are trained.

What chaplains do

As Anglican Chaplains we do the following kinds of things:

    Supporting people

• provide pastoral care/counselling to students and staff regardless of religious affiliation
• support staff and students in making life direction/vocational decisions
• contribute to and support the work of any UWA department, the goal of which is the enhancement of the pastoral care of students or staff
• support, in time and skills, UWA initiatives in diversity/equity/justice
• support staff and students who wish to have conversations in the specific language and vocabulary of faith, spirituality, religion
• provide support to students and staff on issues to do with the interpretation of sacred texts (e.g. the Bible)

     ...in the UWA community

• contribute to community building on the UWA campuses and colleges
• as neutral person(s), offer services in reconciliation of conflict
• contribute specific skills and interests to the common life of the university (e.g. Michael’s interest in the Spirituality of Leadership and Richard’s interest in Men’s Spirituality)
• encourage interfaith dialogue and relationships as a way of supporting the holistic development of leadership in UWA students; and as a contribution to combating ignorance, building shared understanding and building peace
• provision of retreat style activities for staff and students

    ...and in the Anglican Christian community

• lead worship and other religious rituals and practices within our own faith tradition (e.g. at St. George’s College chapel)
• provoke and contribute to conversations related to the UWA motto, “Seek Wisdom” including offering a specifically Christian theological perspective in conversation with other academic disciplines
• represent a faith position(s) to the university on matters of social and academic policy
• build and enhance relationships between the university and faith communities

Funding

The Anglican Chaplains are funded by the Anglican Church of Australia and St George’s Anglican Residential College and work as honorary employees of the University of Western Australia which provides office, administrative, and professional collegial support.

Code of Ethics

We are bound by the Policies and Procedures of the University of Western Australia, and the Code of Professional Conduct of the Anglican Church of Australia. Our services are open to all students and staff of the university regardless of religious or non religious background.

Related links

Anglicans Online

http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1301

http://www.perth.anglican.org