Chaplain's Log - Always Remember to Carry your Facemask!

 

As the newbie on the block for More than Writers, I was wondering how to introduce myself to you all as the kind of writer I am or would like to be. Looking at my bio (see below), I thought for this my first posting, I would focus on the workplace chaplaincy side of my writing life. It has provided me with a rich seam of experience, and as many writers past and present have found, life experiences have been both a source of inspiration as well as trepidation in whatever literary format they sought to express themselves in.   

The title for this blog came from a posting I originally made back in September last year for Black Country Urban Industrial Mission (www.bcuim.co.uk) when it looked like there might be some easing of COVID restrictions. In the end they turned out to be something of a damp squib, but since then thanks to the success of the vaccine programme among other things, we appear to have light at the end of a dark tunnel. So while some Chaplains have progressively began returning to old haunts and habits along with using social media and emails to keep in touch with those they minister to, the recent easing of lockdown, de-furloughing of staff to return to work and the re-opening of schools and shops etc has meant that workplace chaplaincy can tentatively begin again. However, we are likely to find much has changed and the new normal will have a distinctly surreal feel to it.

For myself, I find great solace in expressing my inner most thoughts through the medium of prose or poetry, sometimes both.

Here then are my (updated) reflections on our new and unfamiliar ways of doing chaplaincy, and how to write about it.

At last, the brown leather notebook telling of my life as a workplace chaplain can be opened again. A sense of excitement abounds as I fit a new ink cartridge to my pen. Old fashioned my approach may be, but there is a pureness about gathering one’s thoughts, pausing and reflecting before the sound of scratching nib records the memory of faces and conversations, laughter, banter, grievances and frustrations onto crisp white pages. Yet our technological obsession means writing and annotating has now given way to word processing, cutting and pasting, spell checks, memory sticks, Dropbox and iCloud. The traditional art of longhand gradually usurped by impersonal shortcuts; but hey, at least we now have Zoom!

Some trepidation there is still to be found: COVID has made bureaucrats out of us all with risk assessments and action logs, and death by PowerPoint added to the mix. Best of intentions implied, yet much remains out of our control, awaiting clearance from new operational heads adds to the frustration. Diabetes confronts me like a barricade; never felt vulnerable with it before, now being forced to maybe re-consider, yet my first instinct to ignore it still holds strong, to be more like the Apostles and let nothing prevent our mission. Bum sitting is no longer an option.

But it’s not all doom and gloom: PPE, initials originally signifying critical shortages, now in abundance with masks, shields, gloves and aprons all part of the armoury we now have to wear along with hi-viz and safety shoes. One-way traffic flows indoors and out, following the arrows yet all the while hoping you can retain your sense of direction.

Reminders everywhere to keep your distance, "mind the gap" has taken on a whole new meaning, bottles of hand sanitiser sit alongside perfumes in handbags up and down the land, and the humble blue roll is eulogised and mythologised in the fight against spreading infection.

We are a compliant nation are we not? Perhaps that’s a rhetorical question as any frustrated bus driver, shop worker, security guard, police officer or paramedic will attest? Younger people seem oblivious to the risk that they pose to their elder peers, yet the fines have no effect and us who are older, are left to wistfully shake our heads.

So as we venture out to our ministries once again, fully COVID compliant - or so we dare hope – to our  checklist (PPE, vaccination cards, track & trace apps, money, car keys, bus pass, ID card, notebook, prayer book, New Testament & Psalms) we now include an important addition-:

As God walks with us and beside us, striving to keep us from harm, we Chaplains can help in lightening his task,

And just like the wartime generation once had to do,

To always remember to carry your mask!

Michael Cronogue originally from London now resides in Walsall in West Midlands region of UK. Writer and blogger discussing matters of faith and theology on his new(ish) website www.michaelcronogue.com .  He is also a regular contributor to Black Country Urban Industrial Mission (www.bcuim.co.uk) writing on workplace chaplaincy issues. Has previously been published by Green Arrow Publishing in their magazine, Scriptor, and has also contributed work to a number of charity anthologies raising funds for Cancer Research UK and MIND, the mental health charity. He blogs creatively at https://blackcountrylondoner.wordpress.com