Autumn 2012 | Edinburgh West Workplace Chaplaincy | 07980 162788
The Chaplain is on Fire
I’m always feeling guilty that because I am spread pretty thinly, and only have a part time post, I don’t get to spend valuable time with various people in my care. One such group who deserve more support are the firefighters at Edinburgh Airport. So it was great when I was able to spend a morning with Blue Watch doing some training. (Picture above!) And I was interested to read of Revd Monica Arnold. She’s a minister from Bloxwich, has been awarded a Citizen Recognition award for her chaplaincy work with firemen.
Her duties are split between general work around the parish churches of Bloxwich and an innovative chaplaincy role with the West Midlands Fire Service. It is part of a scheme organised by West Midlands Fire Service and the Diocese of Lichfield.
“Fire Service chaplaincy is a national thing” says Revd Bill Mash of the Black Country Urban Industrial Mission, a charity partnership of four church denominations. “We now have chaplains in seven fire stations in the region, and the aim is for every station to have their own chaplain.
“The community puts its fire-fighters in difficult and dangerous situations and then subjects their actions and decisions to detailed scrutiny. Chaplains are there to complement other welfare provision that the fire service makes, picking up on the concerns that this gives rise to, to be a listening ear.”
As Revd Monica puts it. “People in church often don’t understand what being a chaplain is about. It doesn’t translate into bums on seats on a Sunday. It is about being an expression of Christ’s love to people in their workplace. Faith is about relationships and vulnerability.
“There are four fire service watches based at Bloxwich Fire Station plus an ambulance.
"When I began, most of my time was spent getting to know the crews. Now we know each other well, there are no no-go topics in the office”.
But being supportive to staff isn’t what has earned her recognition and an award from Walsall Borough Council. The nomination was made by the Fire Service for her work with the wider community. The Fire Service currently spends a lot of time in the community on preventative work.
“We’re all about making people safe in their homes,” says Station Commander John Kempson. “There are many people who won’t open their doors. Monica is an important link who meets and works with community groups, spreading the Fire Service message and enabling us to make contact with those who need us to fit alarms – both smoke and community/panic alarms which we fit in partnership with Social Services.”
“She comes into the station every week, and is always willing to offer a compassionate ear to anyone. We inducted her in and all Watches have received her very well. I can’t praise her enough really, we’ve a very good working relationship.”
Describing the award as an acceptance of the church within the community, she said: "Chaplaincy is not about the person offering the role but the people who are open to receiving and embracing what the role can offer a community. It was a great privilege to receive the award on behalf of the Bloxwich Fire Station community.”
Diocese of Lichfield
Adapted from
Spiritual Exercise
‘God is nowhere’ …. or …. ‘God is now here’
The tiniest of spaces can make a world of difference. As we begin to explore the beauty of the world we may awaken to a connection with Something… or SomeONE greater than ourselves. It reminds me that there is more to life than meets the eye, that there is a deep mystery at the heart of existence; WHY is there anything existing at all anyway?!
For much of life, it can seem that God is nowhere; as we experience the agony of pain and losses. Or simply the dull monotony of the daily grind
But maybe such moments are the very trigger to spur us into looking deeper, to bring Hope and Meaning to the present moment.
The trick is perhaps to try and quieten our past and future thoughts, and inhabit the present moment, to create the tiny space, so that ‘nowhere’ can become ‘now here’.
Do you more naturally gravitate to ‘God is nowhere’ or ‘God is now here’? Why? Think of the times when you have experienced the opposite. What does “the tiny space” mean to you, and how can you create it?
Preparing for work
For an ancestor, a sculptor in wood
Going with the grain is easy;
The pen slides across the sentence.
Even the pause of the semicolon
Curves smoothly with the right tool.
Some words whittle to their shapes
With nothing but time
And application; some resist
Expression – the knots remain.
Here in the panelled room I take
The rough-hewn planks of thought
Hacked with hurts and misplaced saws
And try to cut, with style and wit
And rub and rub the scars until
The form of something more than words
In shape. But difficult to carve
This wood, these words.
Rosemary Hector – NHS project co-ordinator
Book Review
The Way We’re Working isn’t Working:
The Four Forgotten Needs ThatEnergize Great Performance
- Tony Schwartz ed.
- Simon &Schuster
- ISBN 9780857200488
- RRP £12.99
Schwartz says, Don’t focus on TIME but ENERGY. There are 4 categories; physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Treating humans as computers or machines is unsustainable; ‘performance’ becomes ‘survival’ becomes ‘burnout’.
Instead, we should reconnect with our natural rhythms, seasons and cycles and work according to them, finding within daily, weekly and monthly patterns space to “renew” ourselves. Packed with useful stuff about how to get more done in less time but in an unforced way.