Spirituality or Religious?

[Bill Evans]

This is a second attempt to start a thread that was mistakenly deleted. I am in my new employee orientation as a "Spiritual Care Advisor" for a hospice that is new to my area. They have a number of offices in other parts of the state and I have been shadowing two other "SCAs" in other communities. Each of them conduct their ministry from a theological foundation that is significantly different than my own and is pretty far to the left of mainstream thought. However, in observing each of them in practice and conversing with them following each patient visit, they are remarkably effective in forming a meaningful relationship with the dying patient and/or their family.

My question is a broad one. Since the hospice stresses the difference between spirituality and religion in reaching out to the patients on hospice service, I am interested in the perception that others have of the distinction between the two.

Charles Christian posted on the deleted thread that Wesley's teaching on prevenient grace might be applicable in the lives of my two co-workers. What do the rest of you think?

[Ian Gentles]

I think spirituality in end is all that matters. We can comfort falsely,but surely our job is to get folks into Heaven?

[Hans Deventer]

I think spirituality in end is all that matters. We can comfort falsely,but surely our job is to get folks into Heaven?

Ehhhh.... no. Our job is to show the love of Christ so that they turn to Him in order to find healing en become who God intended them to be. Now after they die, they'll spend some time in heaven, but they'll end up on the new earth and stay there for all we know. The location isn't that important, it is the being with God that is.

[Barbara Moulton]

My "working definition" of spirituality at the hospital is "...the art of making connections that help one find meaning, purpose and hope."

I know...this is very broad.

But I believe that my role as a chaplain is to connect with people where THEY are at in their spirituality. If I can listen to someone talk about what in their life brings them meaning, purpose and hope, I can usually find something in common with them very quickly.

I can embrace this definition of spirituality very easily. The first and foremost connection that I make is with God and in His Son Jesus Christ. My ultimate source of meaning, purpose and hope.

But there is a spirituality for me as well.... in my family, nature, music, art etc. And if I can build a bridge with others, based on things like this, then it is amazing how God uses me to simply be His presence in a room.

It is not my role to get people to heaven.

I love my work. In January it will be six years since I started. They have been wonderful years. When I am out and about in the community I meet people all the time with whom I have shared signigficant moments. So many doors open.

Someone wrote a prayer in prayer book in the hospital chapel. They wrote that a chaplain in the hospital (it was one of the volunteers I had trained) had helped them on their way with "...broken things within."

God is good.

[Wilson L. Deaton]

I spend 24 hours a week serving as a hospice chaplain, though I've only been doing so since Sept.

I'm still working through the whole issue of the overlap and separation between religion and spirituality, but here are my latest thoughts....

God created us as spiritual beings. This means many things. The most important thing that it means concerns our relationship with God. While that is first and foremost, that doesn't mean that there are not lesser things involved in our spirituality. Things like a desire for meaning/significance, things like our relationships with those other than God, etc.

As a Christian minister I believe that ultimate/total "healing" of even these lesser spiritual issues will hinge upon the status of the first and foremost element--the relationship with God. But I also believe (due to prevenient grace?) that at least some healing can take place even while the main issue remains unresolved. Helping a person with their relationship with God is a valid and worthy goal or objective and I constantly look for windows of opportunity but I also still help a person with the lesser issues of spirituality when I am unable to work their relationship with God.

By way of analogy, our nurses will care for our patients' physical needs even though they cannot cure the terminal diagnosis our patient has. Our nurses would never say, "I'm not going to change that dressing because the patient is going to die even if I do."

As a chaplain, it is the same for me. That is, even when I can't help with their relationship with God, I can still help them find at least some meaning in their life. I can help them to know that they are valuable and important (even if just by my presence). I can encourage and help them to reconcile with an estranged loved one. I can help them to know that at least someone cares about them. Etc. (And of course, sometimes I can actually help with their relationship with God!)

Somewhere along the way I was told, "There are no atheists in a foxhole and hospice is a foxhole." This has been mostly true in my limited experience. The vast majority of my aware and oriented patients are open to talk of God and always appreciate prayer.

Wilson