Suchergebnisse

The author suggests that it is to Europe and not North America that Scottish Chaplains should now be looking for ideas about future development in chaplaincy. The growth of significance of the European Union in the everyday life of Scotland dictates that chaplains must be willing to take their concerns for standards in spiritual care to the European institutions. An important focus for this is to be found in the European Network of Health Care Chaplaincy, founded at Chania in Crete in November 2000.

The author describes the development of electronic communication which has enabled the development of the European Network of Health Care Chaplaincy. He argues that such electronic communities are real communities, but that in this case, the electronic community exists to foster a sense of community which reaches fulfilment in the face-to-face meeting of the participants.

Fred Coutts is one of the chaplains at Aberdeen Royal Hospitals. The team of 5 whole-time chaplains, together with their Roman Catholic and Episcopal colleagues provide chap-laincy services to 1500 patients, their relatives and 5500 staff in a large acute hospital, a mater-nity hospital, a children's hospital, a palliative care unit and a convalescent hospital. Fred gives us a peek into his diary for one particularly stressful week when he was on-call. (Names have been changed to preserve confidentiality)

The following article arises out of an interview with Fred Coutts from the chaplaincy department of the Grampian University Hospitals, which includes Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen Maternity Hospital and the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital. Fred describes a recent period of crisis in the life of the hospital, and how during this period, the chaplaincy department was able to provide a service to both hospital and community. By the nature of their training and day to day work, the chaplains were perhaps uniquely well able to provide this service.