Spiritual Care in the 21st Century – Chapter 1 excerpt

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in March 2020, AdventistHealth Chaplain Ney Ramirez—like other hospital chaplains across the country—redefined the scope of his work. Rather than stepping into hospital rooms with patients and meeting families face-to-face, he supported patients and hospital staff at a distance.[i] Months later and only three days into her new job as the Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, retired Rear Admiral Margaret G. Kibben comforted legislators when supporters of then-President Trump stormed the Capitol. Drawing on her combat experience, she engaged in a “ministry of walking,” circulating among lawmakers to comfort, pray, and reduce stress. Days later, she described how her experiences “confirms why there is a chaplain here in the House and why that’s so important. It’s not related to a particular faith tradition, it’s that there is somebody here who comes alongside in this moment.”[ii]

Long chaplaincy history in the US

While the specifics vary, chaplains have long played these roles in settings across the United States. One hundred years ago in Newport News, Virginia, a chaplain was engaged in “waging a noble warfare”—according to a sailor’s magazine—against “the vampires of the waterfront,” or the crimps who took advantage of sailors by ensnaring them, through liquor, gambling debt, ladies, violence, and even kidnapping.[iii] Port chaplains established Inns where seafarers could stay in port and fostered community apart from alcohol and gambling. On college campuses in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, university chaplains tried to instill morals in students often assuaging the concerns of parents that higher education was a space of “godless institutions.”[iv]

Spiritual care at the margins

From hospitals and prisons to ports and universities, chaplains have long histories—often at the margins of institutions where they are frequently overlooked. I briefly summarize that history in the context of the American separation of church and state and the settings—the military, federal prisons, and the Veteran’s Administration—where chaplains are required today. I also consider the Christian history of the concept and term and ways it has—and has not—been adapted by and for people from other religious backgrounds, including none. Winnifred Sullivan calls chaplains, “ministers without portfolios” who are “strangely necessary… religiously and legally speaking, in negotiating the public life of religion today.”[v] I explore how they came to these roles and offer important historical context for those working and considering working in chaplaincy and spiritual care today.

[i] Godwin Kelly, “Flagler hospital chaplain comforts those dealing with COVID-19 pandemic,” Daytona Beach News Journal, October 25, 2020, https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/flagler/2020/10/25/adventhealth-chaplain-ney-ramirez-covid-first-responder/3671034001/.

[ii] Press Release, “Pelosi Appoints Rear Admiral Margaret Grun Kibben First Woman to Serve as Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives,” December 31, 2020, https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/123120; Jack Jenkins, “How House Chaplain calmed tense hours in besieged Capitol with prayers for ‘God’s covering,’” January 9, 2021, https://religionnews.com/2021/01/09/house-chaplain-siege/.

[iii] “Crimping at Newport News,” The Sailors’ Magazine and Seamen’s Friend 80, no. 7 (July 1908): 197.

[iv] James Angell, quoted in Margaret M. Grubiak, “The Danforth Chapel Program on the Public American Campus,” Buildings & Landscapes 19, no. 2 (Fall 2012): 79.

[v] Winnifred Sullivan, A Ministry of Presence: Chaplaincy, Spiritual Care, and the Law (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014), x.