Congregational ministry and chaplaincy are two very different forms of spiritual care common in our world today. Although our work at Trauma Responsive Congregations (TRC) revolves around congregational ministry and serving those in communal settings, we have staff members who are involved in research and in the ministry of chaplaincy. These areas of spiritual care take on very different forms, but where they overlap provides important insight regarding trauma informed care. To understand more clearly how these two forms of ministry inform our work at TRC, I talked with Ylisse Bess, our Assistant Director and a Chaplain at Beth Israel Deaconess.
According to Bess, one of the greatest strengths of chaplaincy work is that chaplains are trained to engage and care for people of any and all faith backgrounds. Chaplains must be able to listen to and honor the wide variety of beliefs which people bring into their conversations. However, the chaplain’s ability to minister to a member of their community over an extended period of time is severely restricted, due to the limited time available to serve while individuals are visiting the location where the chaplain is commissioned.
This is where congregational ministries excel. They are designed to care for a community for generations and foster communities which promote development throughout its members’ lives. This is realized through shared beliefs and practices for these communities, and agreement that in their shared faith, more transformative relationships are built. Bess noted that the familiarness and trust she has been able to build in her own faith community allows her to witness and experience the gifts of shared living and learning in the community. She shares, “It's beautiful to me that people choose to come together over generations and they still trust the people in the community and trust that God is present there.”
Bess describes her work as a chaplain as making her more comfortable with uncertainty and illuminated to her the importance of relying on community during uncertain times. She compares this relationship with that of Ruth and Naomi traveling together in search of a home, trusting that they will be able to find it together. When life seems to be unpredictable, we can rely on our communities to accompany us, to comfort us, and to lead us into the next step of our journey . Of course, no community is perfect; but we know that we can still experience God’s healing power within them, in the togetherness and the sanctity of each challenging space.
This is our hope at TRC. We desire to assist in the support of congregations as they attempt to care more fully for the hurts that occur in and around each of our partnered communities. Chaplains, like Bess, are accustomed to walking with people in their uncertain times. We, too, will work to support our partner congregations as they endeavor to provide more trauma informed care in their communities, by utilizing the wisdom and experience of Bess and other chaplains.
