Long Overdue

Thank you for your January article on chaplains. It is long overdue.
I was a chaplain for 25 years at the Calgary General Hospital. I valued my job and was accepted by the hospital staff as a member of the health care team, although as far as the church was concerned I often felt like I was in a vacuum. In fact I was not put on the roll of Presbytery for almost two years and one superintendent of missions told me he was sorry that I had “left the ministry.” I was seldom asked by the Presbyterian Church to use any of the skills I learned in health care in any of their programs.
It is beyond time that those people in careers other than pulpit ministry are recognized as having a valid role to play in the Church and are able to make a contribution to the ongoing work of our Church.
I now volunteer my time in several areas of health care and I feel more comfortable there than I do in the church.