title: The Chaplaincy Experience: Negotiating (Multi-Faith) Time and Space in a Northern English General Hospital.
abstract: This article reports on the inception and work of the first multi-faith chaplaincy team in a general hospital outside of London. The problematic beginnings are described as the team, previously run by and based on Anglican Christian ministry expanded to multi-faith care. The importance of the chapel/worship space in such a project diminished and chaplains and volunteer visitors of all faiths and none now minister in more secular spaces throughout the hospital and outside its walls. This is a reflection of their work becoming more interfaith as chaplains ministering to those of different faiths from their own evolved to a more spiritually rather than religiously oriented focus in generating patient-centred care in the context of a changing British culture, now considered simultaneously Christian, religiously plural, and secular.
authors.affiliation: Independent Researcher Adult Education Tutor in Religious Studies Cumbria, UK janet.b.eccles@btinternet.com.
authors.forename: Janet Betty
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Eccles
mesh_terms: D002604:Chaplaincy Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002835:Christianity; D002977:Clergy; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004739:England; D006801:Humans; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010327:Pastoral Care
keywords: hospital chaplaincy; multi-faith collaboration; northern England; sacred space; secular space