A couple of pictures to get us going .... me with some of the choir volunteers and the residents in the chapel
So here goes ....
'This is me' is a booklet of information which each of our residents completes so that we can know them better and therefore support them in a more personal, holistic centred way. I thought I would like to share something about myself so that you might understand a bit more about what it means to me to be a chaplain.
I am a priest within the Church of England and so people expect me to be 'religious' and focused on 'holy' things which to a certain extent I am but I see God at work in the ordinary and everyday experiences of people living their everyday lives - which are often far from ordinary and can indeed be quite extraordinary as witnessed in the lives of many people connected to Care for Veterans.
The other day one of the residents asked me what I believed in. He said he didn't believe in God - almost apologetically as if I would think less of him and thus not be interested in him. I quipped back that if I only talked to people who believed in God I would spend a lot of time on my own! We laughed and decided to find common ground. We decided that we both believed in kindness, in love and compassion, in generosity of heart and we both longed for a world where there was more joy and peace - both between nations but also within our relationships and in our inner selves. In my own small way I think I am striving to help people to discover what they believe in and if possible to help them give a name or an identity to that belief. I am always happy to share my faith in God - who for me is the source of all that is kind, loving, compassionate, generous, joyful and peaceful - and to walk with each person as they seek to find their own way through the trials and temptations, struggles and sufferings which life brings. I may be a priest who has made a public declaration of inner faith but I am also a fellow human being who is subject to the same vulnerabilities as everyone else.
My spiritual motivation is a simple text from the bible. Jesus commands us to 'Love one another as I have loved you'. The painting in our chapel speaks to me of the greatest sacrifice of love, painted in 1916 of Easter Communion in the chapel of the King George Military Hospital in London. The words, also from John's Gospel written about Jesus, 'No-one has greater love than this, than to lay down his life for his friends' is so apt for a home that serves those who have served us. The words of the Communion service say 'Do this in remembrance of me' recalling the saving death and resurrection of Jesus but also focus us to remember the many acts of courage of the men and women of our military services.
'At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.'
