This past July, David Madison and I met with some representatives of other worldwide Anglican school associations—Australia, Great Britain, and Southern Africa—to discuss the ministry of chaplains in our schools. We began to think about ways in which we might speak with a unified voice to the Church regarding the importance of chaplains and their vital role for the future of schools and the global Church. Our discussion led me to do some thinking about the current state and future direction of school chaplaincy, particularly as we enter into this new school year and build upon the experiences of these past sixteen months.
NAES is the primary vehicle for the support of Episcopal school chaplains, and frequently we are involved in the initial stages of search processes for school chaplains (in an advisory capacity, rather than as search consultants) and outreach to theological seminaries advocating for the importance of school ministry. As a result, it is vital that we continue to have our pulse on what chaplains experience, how schools view chaplaincy, and what the Church needs to know about the unique opportunities chaplaincy provides.
From my perspective, and at this point and time, I would like to share with you some of the pivotal realities and opportunities we see in the world of school chaplaincy.
The irony of school chaplaincy.We continue to live with something that remains a great puzzle to us. There is no avenue of ministry more promising for the future of the Church, no better access to the growing number of people who claim no religious tradition, no more inviting, accessible way of encountering and working with the increasing religious diversity of our culture, than through school chaplaincy. At the same time, we do not sense unified, concerted momentum within the Church itself toward seizing upon this opportunity and understanding what this form of ministry has to offer, not only to individuals considering this as a call to ministry but to the future shape and flourishing of the Church. Parish ministry continues to be the natural, perhaps easy way for the Church to conceive of 21st century ministry. Central as parish ministry is to the very notion of church as a worshipping community, there is a tangible reality that sits alongside the unique opportunity: the number of paid positions in parish ministry is in decline, while the market for school chaplains remains stable. To be sure, there are some wonderful exceptions to how the Church regards school ministry, but we continue to live with a sense of missed opportunity on the part of the larger Church.
The shrinking market of candidates. It is becoming increasingly clear that school chaplaincy searches are taking more time and, in the process, yielding a smaller number of strong candidates. Thankfully, most of our chaplaincy positions are being filled, but at a slower pace and a necessitating a more persistent recruitment of candidates for these positions. In some parts of the world the shortage is becoming acute, as the number of Anglican schools increases while the market of candidates shrinks.
In this way, Episcopal schools are experiencing the symptoms of what is becoming a growing shortage of clergy, clearly seen in the search processes in many parishes today. This reality has already left some Episcopal schools to consider candidates from other denominations, or laypeople who possess a theological education but come without ordination credentials.
This may also mean that Episcopal schools, when undertaking a search for a chaplain, may need to be ready for a search process that takes some time in order to yield the best candidates for this crucial role in the life of the school. So, too, it may require schools to consider more carefully such factors as the compensation package for a chaplain, as well as ways that the community can better support and welcome chaplains into the community.
What the pandemic has taught us. In our individual conversations and Zoom call-ins with chaplains, over the course of this pandemic, we have been impressed with and moved by the ways so many chaplains have responded to the demands of remote learning, including the manner in which they have led worship, taught classes, and done pastoral care. The pandemic months have revealed many things to us, among them the importance of chaplains to the well-being and sense of community of schools living amidst isolation, dispersion, and the lack in person opportunities to gather as a total school community. Chaplains have reflected the creativity, agility, and willingness to go the extra mile that has been shown school-wide by faculty, administrators, and staff. In many cases the outreach of chaplains has expanded, touching more parents and graduates of the school than ever before. What’s more, as schools have examined more carefully and responded to the calls for racial justice, and become more aware of the impact that the pandemic has had on the emotional health of students, the importance of the chaplains’ relationships with DEIJ directors and mental health professionals in the school have never been more urgent.
School as parish. As the percentage of the population claiming no religious affiliation continues to grow, accompanied by increases in the numbers of those who come from a blended religious background, Episcopal schools, and their chapels, take on a new and emerging significance. For an increasing number of our families, the only recourse they have to a spiritual home is the school; it remains as one of the few institutions with whom these families have an affiliation—what Marc Dunkelman, in his book, The Vanishing Neighbor, refers to as “middle ring relationships,” where people have some ongoing, civic and institutional contact with others. With schools taking up that vacuum, in the lives of many families, there is an inevitable need, an inevitable expectation, that the school will in some way minister to the spiritual needs of families, needs that may or may not be known or articulated. That means, in part, that the school chapel takes on more and more of a parish flavor, providing families with a place to for memorial services, weddings, and in some cases baptisms.
In our recent webinar for chaplains new to Episcopal schools, Ashley Brandon, Lower and Middle School Chaplain at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Austin TX, spoke of how a school chaplain often works with families who have complicated religious histories, frequently grounded in difficult experiences with religious institutions. The ministry of a school chaplain, and the resources available through a school chapel, can help many families develop a whole new religious narrative. The “school as parish” thus becomes a mediating type of institution for these families, providing parish-like ministries while at the same time being able to minister in a manner less threatening toward many families who bring with them a mistrust of religion and what is often referred to as “organized religion.”
The perennial, creative tension of Episcopal schools. Built into the very nature and mission of Episcopal schools is the correlation between faithfulness to the tradition of being an Episcopal school and its goal of becoming a more inclusive community. It has traditionally been one of the toughest and most demanding things that schools, and chaplains in particular, have had to work out in terms of worship, self-understanding, and ways of articulating the school’s view of itself to the outside world. We see real movement in our schools away from viewing these two goals as an “either-or” phenomenon. Thanks in part to the manner in which Episcopal identity and the work of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice have grown closer, over the recent years, we see intensified efforts to view inclusion through the lens of Episcopal identity, and vice versa. No longer is a matter of saying, “We’re an Episcopal school, but we are diverse,” as much as saying, “Because we are an Episcopal school, this is why we do the work we do, why we are an inclusive and welcoming community.” This manner of collaboration holds the promise of a fuller, common understanding of the mission of Episcopal education, along with an elevation of DEIJ work to something more than an add-on, now embedded in the very heart of who we are.
Despite the tensions and ironies, at no point in my fifteen years as Executive Director of NAES have I seen school chaplaincy as more central, more appreciated, more relevant to the future directions of our schools, than now. While we continue to make the case for school chaplaincy—to our theological seminaries, to bishops of the church, to those who sit on the councils of the church—we do so from the standpoint of strength, more aware than ever of why we have chaplains and what they can do and be for our school communities.