Chaplaincy

Anna Chaplaincy seeks to accompany and support older people of all faiths, cultures and spiritualities in their later years. It is person-centred and offers spiritual care to all. Anna Chaplaincy is a rapidly growing network, enabling and inspiring ministry with older people, within and beyond the churches.

Anna Chaplains often work within care homes and sheltered accommodation, supporting residents, staff, and families. Anna Chaplains do this by helping older people to reflect spiritually on their lives, helping to process moments of hurt and regret, and assisting in preparing people at the end of their life. Chaplains support relatives through conversation and pastoral care as they explore the spiritual concerns of later life and end of life. Chaplains also offer this service to staff working in care homes, to ensure the provision of better spiritual care of older people and to attend to the spiritual concerns of the staff themselves. 

Throughout the country in church and community schools, chaplains work alongside staff, pupils, and parents to ensure the spiritual flourishing of young people and the school community at large. This work may be connected to a local church and done on a voluntary or part-time basis, or chaplains may be full-time staff members of the school.

School chaplains offer pastoral care and support on many topics, from the pressures of education, bullying, relationships, home life, identity, and much more. In church school contexts, chaplains have a role in leading worship for the school community. In other contexts, the chaplain may hold a space for staff and pupils to come and pray or to be quiet for a while within the busy school day. They often help with running clubs or activities to promote wellbeing and community building. Chaplains are usually called upon to navigate a school through times of tragedy and crisis. The support of staff’s spiritual and personal wellbeing is a key part of the role and seeks to uplift all members of the staff team. In some contexts, chaplains are expected to take on a teaching role as a full member of the staff. 

Chaplains in FE and HE settings  such as colleges and universities hold a similar role to school chaplains, but the context is much more varied and diverse. Colleges and universities tend to gather people from across the country and indeed the world. This creates a diverse community of social, ethnic, and religious backgrounds in which the chaplain works. In some HE contexts, the chaplain may take on academic research as part of their role.

For more information, visit:

• The Centre for Chaplaincy in Education offers training, support, resources, and strategic advocacy for chaplaincy in education.
• Churches Higher Education Liaison Group offers support for higher education chaplains.

Chaplains within hospitals are an essential aspect of the personal care given to patients. Often working within an interfaith team of chaplains, both lay and ordained, hospital chaplains provide compassionate care to patients and their families. Chaplains walk alongside people who have just received bad news, have been told about a life-threatening illness, or who are very close to death. Health care chaplains also enable each patient to worship and celebrate according to their religious tradition.

A hospital chaplain will support families spending time with their loved one during very difficult times and make known the love of God in times of great despair. Chaplains also rejoice when a patient’s treatment goes well and their health improves, assisting them in prayer and thanksgiving.

Hospice care is a vital part of the health and social care service and chaplains support the work of hospice care. As people come to the end of their lives, spiritual questions or concerns often arise. Chaplains enable patients to reflect on these questions and find peace. Hospice patients and their families experience a range of emotions such as fear, grief, anger, and deep sorrow. The chaplain is there to help navigate this experience through a spiritual lens as people come to terms with death and dying.

Hospice chaplains are also well placed to provide advice on funeral arrangements and planning.

Hospice staff can often experience significant emotional and spiritual exhaustion from their work; hospice chaplaincy has a key role in caring for staff. A chaplain is able to walk alongside staff and support them as they grapple with the spiritual and pastoral challenges of working in hospice care. 

For more information, visit:

• NHS England Chaplaincy programme
• Support for health care chaplains: College of Health Care Chaplains, UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy

It is a statutory requirement for all prisons to employ a chaplain to care primarily for the spiritual welfare and rights of prisoners. Chaplains in prisons will operate within an interfaith team and include lay and ordained chaplains. Prison chaplains hold a number of key statutory responsibilities within prisons. Chaplains have a responsibility to visit all new prisoners upon arrival, ensure their religious needs are met, and check on their wellbeing. Chaplains visit all segregated prisoners each day for spiritual support and to ensure prisoners are being treated appropriately whilst in segregation. The lead chaplain will meet with prison wardens to discuss the treatment and welfare of prisoners.

Alongside statutory duties, prison chaplains facilitate access to formal worship and the celebration of major feasts and holidays across the spectrum of religious traditions within the prison population. Chaplains work with prisoners and prison staff to ensure prisoners have access to religious clothing and artefacts, have their religious dietary requirements met, and ensure that prisoners’ rights to religious expression are upheld within the prison. 

For more information, visit:

• Faith and pastoral care for prisoners
• Framework for Anglican Prison Chaplaincy
• Support for prison chaplaincy

Armed forces chaplaincy is an extremely diverse and challenging context, full of life-changing opportunities. The role of armed forces chaplains is to support the spiritual wellbeing of all military personnel from the lowest to highest-ranking officers. Chaplains go wherever the armed forces go, at home and abroad, by land, air, or sea, to provide pastoral support, moral counsel, and compassionate guidance.

Training to be an armed forces chaplain requires both spiritual as well as physical fitness, as you will serve alongside the men and women within your care. Chaplains to the armed forces receive rigorous training and hold an honoured place within the life of the military.

Chaplains lead worship, offer moral counsel, support in challenging situations, give support to families and loved ones, and provide a pastoral presence to every one regardless of religion or rank. 

For more information visit:

• Chaplaincy in the Royal Army
• Chaplaincy in the Royal Navy
• Chaplaincy in the Royal Air Force

Waterways chaplains are a network of volunteer chaplains working up and down the country to support the needs of all people who live or work on our rivers and canals. Waterways chaplains are lay and ordained and are connected to local churches from which they are sent to be a kind face and listening ear to all the people that call the waterways home.

The Mission to Seafarers is a chaplaincy organisation that supports the welfare of the 1.89 million seafarers across the world. The chaplains based at ports around the country offer compassionate welcome and care for all seafarers. The chaplains also play a role in reporting unsafe or exploitative working conditions.

Over recent years, chaplaincy has begun to appear in a wide variety of business and leisure contexts, from shopping centres, market squares, street pastors, to Hinkley Point and Canary Wharf. These ventures can be small and volunteer-led or full-time paid positions working in partnership with business owners to offer better support to workers and customers.

The work of Street Pastors has been ongoing for many years and they offer vital care and hospitality to partygoers and nightlife lovers in our towns and cities, often helping the most vulnerable find a safe space.

Guilds and uniformed groups often have chaplains to support the life of their organisations, such as formal merchant guilds, cadets, scouts and cubs. 

Learn more about chaplaincy in the workplace, sports, railways and the theatre to name a few.