Broadcast of Chap. Prof. Joy David-Mike on 26^th Oct. AD2022 on the Occasion of the Chaplaincy/Spiritual Care Week Celebration from October 23^rd to 29^th AD2022

Theme: Relevant and Responsive in Times of Crisis.

Welcome: I welcome you all severally and collectively to this year’s weeklong celebration of chaplains and their impact in the society world over. It is wonderful having another weeklong celebration of our unique profession –“Chaplaincy.” I give God the praise for keeping us all alive to witness this week, may His glorious name be praised for ever and ever, Amen.

Introduction: This year’s theme is unique and compelling in nature because of its clarion call for us as wholistic care-providers in meeting the need of people in crisis situation. To meet need in crisis situation is not an easy task but a herculean one for that matter requiring us to be relevant, responding to every call, reaching out and offering beneficial profitable service that meet the most felt need of the care-recipients.

After considering this theme, I wish to add another ‘R’ to it which will help us to understand the theme better and also see the need and the urgency to answer this call and then strive to meet the needs required effectively with positive outcomes.

I pray you follow me as I divulge into this discourse, once again you are welcome. God bless you richly.

The 3 Rs of this Theme: Relevant, Responsible and Responsive to Crisis.

Definition of Terms:

1.     Relevant: Connected: having some sensible or logical connection with something else such as a matter being discussed or investigated.  Having social significance: having some bearing on or importance for real-world issues, present-day events, or the current state of society.

2.     Responsible: Answerable to somebody: accountable to somebody for an action or for the successful carrying out of a duty; Important: conferring the authority to make decisions independently and requiring conscientiousness and trustworthiness; Being dependable, conscientious, trustworthy, reliable, sensible, mature; Liable: Liable to respond, likely to be called upon to answer.

3.     Responsive: Showing positive response: reacting quickly, strongly, or favorably to something or people, showing emotion.

4.     Crisis: Dangerous or worrying time: a situation or period in which things are very uncertain, difficult, or painful, especially a time when action must be taken to avoid complete disaster or breakdown; critical moment: a time when something very important for the future happens or is decided, A crucial stage or turning point in the course of something; An unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty.

For one to be relevant after education and training, he/she must take the responsibility of engaging in a particular service provision or product production in a responsible and responsive manner that meet a particular need and solves a particular public problem.

Crisis is a problem, to anyone it comes to and the people that is around the person, even the community at large and the time of crisis is very excruciating period in anyone’s life which require urgent attention and solution to curtail more destructions on the individual, relations and friends.

Being Relevant: For one to be relevant in any chosen work and profession he/she must have prepared and equipped him/herself adequately and be able to make use of his/her acquired knowledge to bring to reality the needed services or produce a product that meets the need of the public and resolve the crisis they may have had due to the lack of such services or product(s).

One can be relevant in his/her choice profession through adequate preparation, equipping, learning and training to enable him/her to offer the services to the public or produce or invent a product  that meet the need of the public.

In line with the theme in chaplaincy profession and practice as chaplains, for us to be able to offer the needed services in any crisis situation whether individual, family, group, community, society or nation, we must first and foremost seek to be relevant:

 in ourselves, with chaplaincy profession, its practices and service delivery (i.e. having the needed knowledge), with the environment where we live and operate and relevant with the crisis situation at hand.

Other things that will make us relevant are the followings:

1.     Education and training: A chaplain who want to be relevant in crisis situations must have given him/herself to the needed education and training required in order to equipped, qualified and certified that he/she is capable and worthy to handle such crisis unless he/she wants to remain a second fiddle or armature, rendering only first aid support before a professional will take over; this I called ‘holding space’ for the right person.

Having or acquiring proper and profitable education and training, will help one to garner needed knowledge and skill to be able to meet a need in any given situation.

2.     Realistic applications of knowledge acquired: The chaplain’s ability to bring into reality the acquired knowledge makes him/her relevant. This can only be done or achieved by engaging in actual and right chaplaincy practice; this requires skills, courage, competence and confindence. This is where relevant matters most.

The ability to bring into reality what has been learned is what improves skills and competencies that will engender chaplains to the public and announces them, their services and impact in the society because they are able to meet needs that satisfies service users.

3.     Keeping one’s self abreast: Keeping yourself abreast of development, events and happening around you, around the world and around chaplaincy profession and practice will help chaplains to be relevant and enable them to offer needed support to people in crisis.

4.     Readiness and willingness to learn new things:  Any chaplain that want to be relevant must be prepared to be a learner, ready and willing to unlearn, relearn and learn new things. This is known as CPD or CEP. No short cut to this!

5.     The chaplain must make him/herself relevant regularly through preparation, equipping, learning and training in his/her choice profession to know what need to be known about crisis situation, effects and methods of handling such.

After making one’ self relevant comes “Being Responsible.”

Being Responsible: The preparedness of chaplains to be responsible practitioners will make them to practice their choice profession with caution as they seek to help and support people in crisis until resilience is attained. Being responsible will prove that you are trustworthy, dependable and have the ability to make right decisions independently and take responsibility of whatever that comes out of the decision made.

In some crisis situation, victims are sometimes disenfranchised with the inability to make or take decisions for themselves, you as the care provider will need to help making some decisions that will assist the victim(s) in recovery and as well take responsibility for the outcome without blaming any one.

Taking the right decision to act in crisis situation will help on how to respond to the crisis at hand. This will bring us to the next point “Responsive.”

Being Responsive: Being responsive is the stage where a professional practitioner or care-provider makes him/herself to care-recipient(s) to respond to their calls or situations and to help and stand with them in their pains, suffering and experience, offering the needed support until they bounce back to normalcy to live and thrive in life with meaning and fulfillment. This bring us to the last point: Crisis.

Crisis: Crisis is a crucial situation and moment in any one’s life and existence, and a threat to peace, joy and comfort which require urgent attention because of its debilitating effects on victims.

As chaplains we are called with a call to care for people in crisis of whatsoever and we must be prepared to attend to them with a matter of urgency and emergency to salvage them from further ruins. The ruins of:

i.        Traumas.

ii.      Depression.

iii.    Victimization effects.

iv.   Stigmatization effects.

v.     Frustration.

vi.   Confusion.

vii. Suicide thoughts and actions.

viii.  Psychological, emotional, spiritual, mental distress.

ix.       And other mental health situations.

In times of crisis, we are to help the victims to regain or be in the state of wholeness and wholesomeness to enable them have their lives back and live wholistically in sound health and wellness after the incident of whatsoever.

English adage says, “A healthy person is a wealthy person.” This apply also to families, communities, societies and nation at large. If individuals living in these institutions are healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, psychologically and spiritually, I believe we will have a better family, community, society, nation and world and life will be more meaningful, palatable and enjoyable for all.

There will be reduction of crisis, crime, suicide, mental health issues, terrorism, war and the likes in the world and we will have what we have been clamouring for – “PEACE and peaceful co-existence.” Is this not wonderful! Wonderful indeed.

I join my colleagues nationally and internationally to make a clarion call for all chaplains to join their hands and efforts together to work assiduously for crisis-free individuals, family, community, society, nation and world.

And I call on Nigerian chaplains both the professionals and non-professionals to make themselves available to learn ‘new dimension’ of chaplaincy to enable us do the needful and earn the recognition we are clamouring and desirous of.

Let us arise and shine for the light is come; for the glory of God that called us had already risen upon us. It is time to manifest this glory and be celebrated. God bless you all richly.

Chap. Prof. Joy David-Mike SCC, CPC, BCC.

26^th Oct, AD2022