It is a beautiful sunny autumn day near the picturesque Avon River. The punts are still out. I am just outside Christchurch Hospital, speaking with patients about chaplains. Many of these patients are seriously ill, although some are outpatients.
Once they understand the reason for my approach, these people are eager to share their stories and feelings about chaplaincy. Although the Chaplains’ Office is near the hospital’s entrance – complete with a prayer-request box to leave notes for the chaplains – few of the people I speak to are aware of this service at the hospital. Those that told me they had encountered chaplains in the past described mixed experiences.
One woman describes a ceremony taken by a chaplain in the hospital chapel for a baby who had died in hospital. She feels like it helped everyone who was there, and made the tragedy a little easier to bear.
Another woman, Jasmine, aged 27, reports that the chaplain she’d met just asked empathetic questions with no mention of God or prayer. Jasmine tells me she thinks chaplains should be paid for by their churches. The taxpayer money currently being spent on chaplains, she feels, would be better used on non-religious support services.
I speak to one couple who tell me they had asked for a chaplain to visit their mother not long before she died. They say that they were given a Catholic chaplain, and it had not gone down well – the mother was an “anti-Catholic Christian”. They say the priest had insisted on reading the Catholic version of the last rites, despite the family not wanting that.
I meet another couple whose teenage daughter has autism spectrum disorder. Her father tells me the chaplain “had no wisdom” and had told them “death is part of God’s plan”. The couple both say the encounter had a “completely life-long negative impact”. Their daughter agrees.
What do chaplains do?
I asked chaplains at Wellington Hospital about what their role entails. When talking with them, they came across as warm, caring people, and took care to emphasise to me that they only provide prayer, rituals, and spiritual discussions if asked specifically to do so. When that happens, one chaplain told me, she would talk about the love of Jesus, and how God could allow suffering and evil to occur.
Chaplains, as committed (confessional) religious professionals, provide services that include religious rituals, theological conversations, and spiritual support.
One of the key differences between a counsellor or psychologist and a chaplain (aside from the former’s qualifications and registration requirements) is that chaplains are expected to tend to the religious and spiritual needs of the people they engage with.
While people define the term spiritual in many different ways (to some it can mean almost anything, like the power of love, or a feeling of being connected with nature), definitions usually reference something supernatural, and may include beliefs about reincarnation, life after death and animism, as well as gods.
Rituals
Our lives are full of rituals, both religious and secular. Secular rituals can even be complex. My daughter’s secular baby shower and gender reveal rituals for her children were elaborate. We were showered with blue confetti at Liam’s reveal, and pink for Mia’s (I am guessing some will use every colour of the rainbow).
The rituals a chaplain may perform include:
- Lighting candles to represent a person who has died, the light of their God, or ineffable feelings of spirit, continuity, eternity, mauri, māfana, etc…
- Saying prayers, including the last rites to commend the person’s spirit to God, asking for forgiveness, and putting the person at peace with their God.
- Sprinkling holy water as a cleansing ritual.
The dangers of exorcism
I was told hospital chaplains will not carry out exorcisms, although they still occur in some Catholic, Pentecostal, and Anglican churches, and can cause significant harm in New Zealand. In Auckland in 2000, a South Korean woman died during a violent exorcism carried out by an Assemblies of God pastor, Luke Lee. A mākutu lifting in Wellington (Māori exorcism) in 2007 resulted in death from drowning of the “possessed” victim (Janet Moses), in a procedure that resembled waterboarding. More recently, there have been complaints about Christian exorcisms being a little rough on the ‘possessed’ – in July 2024, the Bishop of Christchurch expelled the priests of the Sons of The Most Holy Redeemer from the diocese after claims that people had been tied up during exorcisms.
Chaplains are everywhere in Aotearoa
Schools
Religious schools provide chaplains from their own churches. Most private and integrated schools (238) are Catholic. There are also smaller numbers that are Anglican (34) and Presbyterian (14). All provide chaplains. We now have a few Muslim schools, a Hare Krishna school, a Hindu school, and one or two Jewish character schools. These will also provide chaplaincy or pastoral care services. State schools also have access to chaplains through organisations like Lifewalk.
Armed Services
Recently (28 August 2024), journalist Anna Whyte reported that the The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is spending almost $3 million per year on 29 Christian chaplains, with an annual pay of almost $100,000. The starting salary is $93,000, $10,000 more than a psychologist in the NZDF.
Former Defence Minister and Labour defence spokesperson Peeni Henare told Whyte he thought the chaplains “Offer a very good service… any cuts there, I don’t think can be tolerated.”
Green Party defence spokesperson Teanau Tuiono told Whyte it was “important that that is available for people of other faiths as well”.
Prisons
Tira Tūhāhā Prison Chaplaincy Aotearoa New Zealand provides religious and spiritual support to all New Zealand prisons, under contract to The Department of Corrections (and private prison provider SERCO in Auckland South). It has one of the broadest ranges of chaplains. Their Board includes representatives from the Anglican, Pentecostal, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Salvation Army (Christian) Churches of New Zealand.
Police
District commanders can appoint Chaplains for their police officers. They may also call in religious leaders to bless a location. In 2010, the Greymouth Police Station was blessed by their West Coast police chaplain, Derek Cone, after it had been the operations centre for the Pike River mining disaster.
Sports Organisations
Phil Pawley is the National Director of Sports Chaplaincy NZ. He told me there are around 100 “Sports chaplains [who] volunteer their time to the sports entity they serve by invitation…Often, they are professional pastoral carers within their own employment sector, such as clergy”.
Universities
Universities provide chaplaincy services on campus. For example, Otago University has strong historical links with the Presbyterian Church, and The University of Auckland has had Maclaurin Chapel since 1947. Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington has Ramsay House for Chaplaincy.
Media and journalism
Anyone working for a media organisation can consult Media Chaplaincy New Zealand, run by the Christian Broadcasting Association, at no cost.
Hospitals
Since 1972, Te Whatu Ora (the Ministry of Health) has contracted out hospital chaplaincy throughout New Zealand to the Interchurch Council for Hospital Chaplaincy (ICHC).
Wellington Regional Hospital’s patients may notice a poster advertising its chaplaincy services. It has a photo of the six chaplains who work there – two ordained Anglicans (one a deacon), a Presbyterian minister (who is gay), an Anglican Māori minister, and two Catholic women (who will not be ordained as their church still only ordains men). The poster advertises that a chapel and a Muslim prayer room are available in the hospital, and states:
“For all faiths, and none. We have time to listen to you and provide rituals on request.”
Despite his misgivings, the CEO of ICHC, Barry Fisk, agreed to an interview at his office outside of Wellington Hospital. He had been annoyed to discover that I had interviewed one of the ICHC chaplains without his permission, and later informed me that he would have been unlikely to have granted permission – so I was somewhat glad that I hadn’t known to ask first. Informally but smartly dressed, he seemed to me to be defensive and righteous. The two ICHC chaplains I had previously interviewed backtracked after Fisk had talked to them, and abruptly said they would no longer be happy to be quoted for this story.
The ICHC Board of Trustees currently comprises representatives from a group of partner churches; Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, Acts (a Pentecostal group including Equippers), Salvation Army, Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist. There are also independent trustees.
Fisk told me the ICHA is unapologetically Christian, and while his chaplains would not proselytise, they offer their services to any patient regardless of their faith or beliefs. He stated:
“The service is highly regarded, and received a significant number of referrals from within the hospital setting… For example, we carried out 95,000 visits, 6,700 received referrals, a significant number of rituals, and 27,000 pastoral care hours”.
Currently, the ICHC has about 85 chaplains, some full time and some part time. “Having part-timers”, Fisk points out, “allows for more diversity”. However, it should be noted that every ICHC chaplain is Christian.
Fisk confirmed that the salaries for hospital chaplains are similar to those of chaplains in the armed services. Te Whatu Ora pays ICHC between $2.5 million and $3.4 million per annum, and the organisation raises a further million dollars from other sources (e.g. churches, grants, and foundations).
The Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) training course is taken by many of ICHC’s chaplains. in an interview with North and South magazine, Fisk stated that:
“CPE in Aotearoa is experience based theological education, combining the practice of pastoral care with in-depth pastoral education with peer group reflection.”
The CPE reading list mostly features books on resolving conflict, communication, listening skills, and care. One recommended book is by American Christian theologian Anton Boisen, who believed that some conditions diagnosed as insanity may actually have religious or spiritual causes – which appears to have been the thinking behind the performance of some exorcisms.
An agent for change
Colin Woodhouse is a Clinical Nurse Specialist who works in a neurological ward in Christchurch Hospital. He has completed his Master’s thesis in Health Science, looking at chaplaincy here in Aotearoa, and has strongly advocated for the inclusion of non-religious pastoral care in our health system. He mentioned to me that Leicester Hospital was the first hospital in the UK to appoint a salaried non-religious chaplain, back in 2018.
“They are opening up chaplaincy to include salaried Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Humanist chaplains”, one patient talking about their experience with Leicester Hospital’s Humanist chaplain commented. “As a non-religious person, I didn’t realise that chaplaincy was for me. The support I received during my treatment helped me to get through one of the most challenging times in my life.”
A human rights issue
Woodhouse’s thesis reports that he consulted Human Rights Law Professor Sarah Joseph, who told him the current limited range of chaplaincy provided by Te Whatu Ora could be classed as intentionally biased, and a possible breach of our human rights obligations. All the chaplains are Christian, while the 2023 Census shows that just over half of us in NZ identify as having no religion. This is up from 48.2% in 2018. Christianity remains the largest religious group, although it has dropped to 32.3%, from 36.5% in 2018.
Woodhouse has sent several Official Information Act requests to Te Whatu Ora, and has been stonewalled in his desire to see them consider paying for a greater range of chaplains, including openly atheist ones. While patients will generally opt for chaplains from their own church, there are exceptions. Woodhouse told me of a Catholic woman who had opted for a pregnancy termination after an 18 week scan had shown her foetus was non-viable:
“She did not have any doubts in her belief, but could not speak to anyone from her [Catholic] church. She and her husband certainly had spiritual issues they needed appropriate support for.”
The conflict continues
In 2020, the new Dunedin Hospital decided to build a multi-faith centre for chaplaincy. However this is not what the Presbyterian leaders in Otago wanted; they wanted a Christian chapel. But authorities rejected their appeal, saying the centre needed to reflect a diverse population, and that favouring one faith would lead to a perception of inequality.
Woodhouse doesn’t think chaplaincy has changed much here in Aotearoa. Because Te Whatu Ora claims to provide equity for all patients:
“Either they will have to recognise that their chaplaincy is inequitable, and stand up and do something about it, or they will recognise it is completely inequitable, but are just going to continue being completely biased, and supply [chaplains from] a minority group, and not give a shit about anybody else.”
I contacted a range of organisations and people for comment. While a number of organisations chose not to respond, including The Islamic Women’s Council of NZ, a Christchurch Mosque, the Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, and the Council for Civil Liberties – Dr Forough Amin, the founder of the Iranian Women in NZ Charitable Trust, did. She told me that she is not a religious person and feels:
“The less we have religion involved in our [political or public health] system the better, as religions make more harm than good when they are officially in the system, or in bed with power. The cultural and social power that religions enjoy among communities has done enough harm, and caused lots of pressure and prejudice on people.”
A number of politicians I contacted, including Health Minister Shane Reti, either did not reply at all, or said they consider there to be no real issue here. Christchurch Central Labour MP Duncan Webb responded:
“I tend to consider that appropriate support should be available to all, whatever their faith. Not being a religious person myself, I would not avail myself of a chaplain, imam, rabbi or other religious leader. I can appreciate that when demand is low, that it may be more appropriate for people who do want the comfort of a religious leader to have a person from the outside come in.”
Do chaplains improve mental health?
University of Otago Associate Professor Richard Egan and his project co-leader have recently received a grant of $1.4 million to spend the next three years looking into “spirituality within healthcare”. Egan believes looking after “spiritual wellbeing” could improve the physical health of patients, but that “more research is needed.” One problem with one of the studies Egan sent me is that the definition of ‘spirituality’ is so wide it includes things that do not require any belief in the supernatural, such as social connectedness and moral beliefs.
There are few studies looking at whether chaplains can improve the mental health of their clients. Some claim patients find more peace after visiting chaplains, but the findings are not reliable due to small sample sizes, subjectivity, and lack of proper control groups.
There are other groups that provide emotional support and a sympathetic ear to patients. The organisation No One Dies Alone provides free counselling services at Canterbury Charity Hospital, and there are also hospital psychologists and psychiatrists.
Paul Corballis, a cognitive psychologist at The University of Auckland, thinks:
“Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is taught in highly competitive clinical psychology programmes (more competitive than medical school, proportionally) which include a significant amount of supervised practical training, intern/externships etc. before registration… safeguards and standards [are] built into the regimen.
…Chaplaincy, on the other hand, seems to be much more of a free for all, with training offered through all manner of church-based organisations (and probably a large number of religious organisations that are not strictly church based)… there are many scenarios that I can imagine in which well-intentioned but psychologically naive chaplains might do considerable harm.”
Are all chaplains spiritual?
The question about the role of spiritual beliefs and practices in chaplaincy is one worth exploring. There is a history of people who participate in religious leadership roles while holding very nuanced beliefs about the nature of the world.
For example Sir Lloyd Geering, a self-described non-theist, is an ordained Presbyterian minister who was charged with heresy by his church in the late 1960s because of his stated views, including denying the immortality of the soul.
‘Non-theist’ usually describes someone without an espoused belief in the existence of gods, but who may still accept religious moral principles, social structures, and rituals. So one may be a non-theist Presbyterian, or a non-theist Methodist. A non-theist could conceivably still hold other supernatural beliefs such as in ghosts, astrology, reincarnation, and karma.
Closet non-theism is reported within the ranks of both Christian and Muslim clergy, according to research from the Clergy Project website, and therefore it’s also likely to exist within the chaplaincy.
An atheist chaplain
Hema Paterson is a volunteer atheist chaplain who sometimes talks with dying patients. Growing up within her Māori whanau, she recalls being taken to tangi. “It was a normal part of our life, having no fear of the dead,” she recalls. Later she joined the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists, and became a secular registered marriage and funeral celebrant. Now she is involved with pastoral care in hospitals and hospices. She feels the regular religious chaplains “do not want to share with atheists, so my work is done by word of mouth.”
Hema is concerned about some possible negative aspects of religion that could be reinforced by the Christian chaplains when patients ask them for guidance and prayers. This includes beliefs in demons and superstitions, heaven and hell, God’s will, Armageddon, prayer, faith healing, sexual orientation, and gender roles.
Among the dying atheist patients she’s talked to, Hema says she has never met one with regrets, “They all felt they have lived their lives to the full, the best they could without fear or condemnation. I can’t say that for the religious people I have cared for.”
Back on the riverbanks of the Avon on a sunny afternoon, two of the patients I have been chatting to decide they will visit a chaplain. One, David, tells me, “My body’s shot”, and says that he would ask the chaplain if there really is an afterlife, and if so, “How do you know?”