Chaplair - The Official Newsletter of the AEHC

The Significance of Endorsement for Healthcare Chaplains

By the Rev’ds Roderick Pierce, BCC
and Marshall Scott, BCC

If you are an Episcopal chaplain, ordained or lay, serving in the healthcare setting, you will do well to seek endorsement by the Episcopal Church. Let us say it again. If you are serving in the specialized ministry of healthcare as a full-time chaplain, endorsement is an essential and fundamental piece of your chaplaincy portfolio. Of the 425 chaplains AEHC serves nationwide, approximately 150 are endorsed through AEHC/OBAF. More should be endorsed.

If you have been actively serving in hospital chaplaincy for any length of time, if you were ordained to the permanent diaconate as an affirmation of your ministry in healthcare, or if you are serving in a non-episcopal healthcare setting, you should be seeking endorsement. Endorsement serves you as a chaplain, and serves the profession and the church as well.

Healthcare and professional chaplaincies are growing. Pastoral care by chaplains favorably impacts patient recovery and can reduce hospital length-of-stay. Chaplains interact with hospital staff to promote body-mind-spirit awareness within patient care, thereby promoting patient dignity. A fundamental consideration for you as an ordained clergyperson is who knows you’re out there? Are you serving with the knowledge and support of the bishop where you serve? Most chaplains who are not endorsed tell us their bishops have little if any awareness of their ministry and consider them “non-parochial”, a designation that doesn’t describe who we are and what we do. Endorsement provides a way for you to become and stay connected to your diocesan bishop. Through the endorsing process guided by OBAF, your bishop can gain a flavor for the nature of “specialized ministry” (not “non-parochial ministry”) and how it promotes evangelism and outreach of the church into the general community. Before your bishop can appreciate your ministry your bishop must have had the opportunity to understand your ministry as an expression of his or her ministry. Endorsement is your way to become visible, accountable and professional.

Endorsement also serves you as a professional as it establishes your platform for seeking professional board certification. Endorsement helps you and your diocesan bishop understand the necessary educational and clinical steps to be achieved and in what order. Board certification can then serve you as a professional by verifying your preparation for chaplaincy and ratifying your work as a professional.

Endorsement then serves the institution in which you serve. Endorsement assures your administration that the Episcopal Church is aware of and supports your practice of chaplaincy. Certification confirms your professionalism. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is looking at spiritual care and the qualifications of the institution’s pastoral care staff as a part of their triennial survey. The day is approaching where JCAHO and your healthcare institution will require all full-time chaplains to be board certified.

Finally, your endorsement serves the church. Greater communication with your bishop and greater involvement in the diocese raises the visibility of pastoral care in the church at large. As you reflect the Episcopal Church in health care, you also reflect health care in the Episcopal Church. It can support your opportunities to raise the concerns of patients and workers in health care at parish, diocesan, and national levels. Moreover, if you are called to a position in another diocese, your endorsement is an important complement to your bishop’s letter dimissory. It provides a new bishop an image of the quality of your work that transcends the spare information required by the canonical letter.

Through this fundamental yet significant process, you are able to serve yourself, your profession, and your church. For more information you may contact the Office of the Bishop of the Armed Forces, Healthcare Chaplaincies and Prison Ministry. Our Liaison for Healthcare Chaplaincy is The Rev. Dr. David Henritzy at 1-800-334-7626, ext. 6068. Or visit AEHC at our website, www.episcopalchaplain.org. In either case, the direction is clear. Get started with step number one today: endorsement!

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