Faiths in Higher Education Chaplaincy project briefing

FAITHS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: CHAPLAINCY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Briefing Paper (web version): 19 January 2007


1. In 2006 the Education Division of the Church of England made a successful bid to the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund (FCCBF) to fund a project looking at the development of chaplaincies to further the involvement of the faiths in HE. Many chaplaincies now list a range of chaplains or advisers drawn from various faith communities as part of their extended teams. A range of models and practice is developing.


The FCCBF Bid

2. The bid proposal stated: "The Multi-faith Chaplaincy Development Project will identify the participation of different faith communities in university chaplaincies; will identify different chaplaincy models which have developed or are developing; will make recommendations for best practice to enable most effective inter faith participation, collaboration and activity; and will disseminate findings to faith communities, universities and interested parties throughout England and Wales."

3. The award by the FCCBF has enabled the secondment of the Rev'd Jeremy Clines as HE Chaplaincy Development Officer for seven months from 1st September 2006.

4. As Chaplain of York St John University Jeremy has established a team of Faith Advisers consisting of a man and woman from each of seven world faiths. He therefore comes to the project with both chaplaincy experience and credibility within the faith communities. The recent launch of the City of Faiths initiative at York St John was an impressive example of what can happen when a group of faith representatives set out not just to work alongside one another, but to co-operate together.


Phase One: Initial Research

5. All chaplaincies are being contacted by telephone to gather information to determine the current participation of different faith communities in university chaplaincies in England and Wales. To date information has been collated from over sixty higher education institutions, and it is expected that information from the remaining institutions will be gathered by the end of January.

6. Initially, both in putting together the bid and in determining the process and questions for the telephone survey, there was wide consultation with contacts from across the faith communities who are currently engaged in chaplaincy work in the higher education context. Informal discussion at an early stage about both the project and the survey with chaplains and faith advisers as well as students, student workers and others with an interest in the development of chaplaincy has ensured that the project has got off to a sound start.

7. In the course of visits the Development Officer has engaged with a variety of bodies in universities and colleges, including the Jewish Society at Cambridge, the Islamic Society at Sheffield Hallam and the Christian Society at Bradford. He has also met Muslim students at Warwick and chaplaincy team members at Birmingham, London Metropolitan and Staffordshire. He has had discussions about the multi-faith societies at Manchester and Cambridge, and has spoken about the project with a range of national groups including representatives from the Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities. There has also been written contact with the Jain community. Furthermore, all chaplains have been asked to share details of the project with colleagues (chaplains and faith advisers) from the faiths in their teams.


Phase Two – the Wider Consultation

8. In November we began a wider consultation with the faith communities themselves, and we are grateful to the Inter Faith Network for the UK for helping us in this respect. Letters accompanied by an earlier project briefing were sent to the nine main faith communities in the UK and faith representatives have been invited to attend a meeting to discuss the preliminary project findings on 22 February in London.

9. By the end of February 2007 the Development Officer will complete visits to 30 Higher Education Institutions. The project will also coordinate seven regional practice workshops (which will take place between 29 January and 9 February 2007), details of which have been widely circulated. The e-dialogues which accompany the workshops are open to all, on blogger, and we are encouraging responses from all faiths to these by 26 February. This is to ensure that all interested parties can participate in the research by contributing views on chaplaincy models, higher education institution best practice in relation to religion and belief, and inter faith working in relation to the HE context.

10. Faith leaders have been asked to identify key partners in the project to ensure as full collaboration and partnership as possible.


Phase Three – Outcomes

11. The expectation is that a combination of research of current provision (quantitative analysis) and research of activities in the ‘field’ (qualitative critique) will enable the production of a report which will explore exemplary practice, in part by telling the stories of work that is currently going work or is developing. Findings will begin to be published in Blogger format during March 2007.

12. The report will also set out the implications of what has been discovered during the project, and will suggest routes to improved working for higher education institutions, routes to enhanced working by higher education chaplaincies, and routes to effective engagement by the faith communities themselves. These also will appear in Blogger format by the end of March 2007.

13. As well as suggested action points for faith communities, chaplains and vice-chancellors, there will also by policy challenges for those who currently have responsibility for chaplaincy, and those who might wish to engage more fully in the future. These will appear in Blogger format by the end of March 2007.

The Church of England’s Role in the Project

14. The Church of England is grateful for the opportunity to host this work. Its bid to FCCBF to undertake it arose out of its experience of its chaplains working in almost every higher education institution, and of emerging models of chaplaincy that are developing; and its conviction that wider representation of the faith communities in chaplaincies is essential to ensure the faith needs of students, staff and institutions are met, that the possibilities of inter faith working are increased, and that each of our faith communities can speak with integrity in a context of open dialogue. All these factors help embed chaplaincies in the life of the institutions which they serve.


FCCBF Funding

15. FCCBF funding comes from the Cohesion and Faiths Unit (CFU), which was formerly part of the Home Office. Recent changes in government structure mean that the CFU, part of the Race, Cohesion and Faiths Directorate, now belongs to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The DCLG combines responsibility for equality policy, housing, urban regeneration, planning and local government in one department. It has a remit to promote community cohesion, and is made up of the Race, Cohesion and Faiths Directorate, the Women and Equality Unit and the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights. The FCCBF fund itself is being administered by the Community Development foundation. See www.cdf.org.uk for further details, including the outline of our particular project.


Contacts

16. Anyone interested in or willing to contribute to the project in any way is welcome to contact the Project officer at any time: by
a) using the email link on the project profile on this Blogger page (top right hand corner),
or
b)
by telephoning Church House on +44 (0)207 898 1000 and asking for Jeremy Clines
or
c) by post to: Jeremy Clines, Education Division, Church House, Great Smith Street, LONDON SW1P 3NZ


This paper was prepared by:

The Rev’d Hugh Shilson-Thomas
National Adviser for Higher Education and Chaplaincy (Church of England)

and

The Rev’d Jeremy Clines
Higher Education Chaplaincy Development Officer