CHAPLAINCY
amended
July 3, 2005
1. AIMS
The aims of this policy are:
to provide the school with a chaplaincy team which will provide a consistent
and co-operative overview of the school as a Catholic Christian centre;
to support the chaplaincy in forging links with wider Christian church, and
especially with the Roman Catholic church, and with the local community;
to support the chaplaincy in developing vocations amongst the school community,
including vocations for marriage and for the religious life;
to support the chaplaincy in providing religious education and instruction for
adults, including the teenage pupils of the school, and in sacramental preparation
and ministry;
to support the chaplaincy in making clear, positive and purposeful links with
the RE department and with their work as educators in religious knowledge and
understanding;
to support the chaplaincy in promoting and developing the prayer life of the
school, including daily prayers, weekly Masses and prayer links with staff,
parents and pupils;
to support the chaplaincy in managing and providing retreats for all sections
of the school community;
to support the chaplaincy in managing and providing an appropriate range of
spiritual and religious experiences for sixth-form students;
to support the chaplaincy in managing the liturgical life of the school and
the regular acts of worship in which the school community joins together for
prayer, celebration and worship;
to support the chaplaincy in providing pastoral care and counselling for the
school community;
to support the chaplaincy in working for justice and peace locally, nationally
and throughout the world;
to support the chaplaincy in supporting and promoting the work of Christian
charities;
to support the chaplaincy in communicating the Catholic Christian life of the
school to the community of pupils, students, staff, parents and parishioners.
2. PREAMBLE
The school has a vision of chaplaincy in which the Catholic
Christian message and Christian Catholic values are promoted not by an individual,
nor even by a team of individuals but by the very ethos of the school, by the
very spirit in which the school works and behaves. This policy describes ways
in which a team of individuals can work together to create the structures and
forms of chaplaincy, but unless there is a realisation of the spirit of Christ
driving the work of the school, the work even of this team will remain dry and
sterile.
The school has appointed a new lay chaplain and will be working during the autumn
term 2005 to establish a new modus operandi for the new post-holder.
The success of the Chaplaincy work will be assessed by the headteacher on behalf
of the governing body, which may wish to invite outside experts into the school
to make observations, or to convene appropriate staff meetings at the school.
3. OBLIGATIONS REQUIRED BY THE POLICY
These 'obligations'
were worded when the work of the chaplain was dispersed through a team; it remains
to be seen how this policy will have to be re-shaped following the appointment
in September 2005 of a full-time lay chaplain. For the time being,
then, these obligations should be seen as a kind of definition of the role of
chaplaincy as a whole.
The chaplain for the community should
promote Christian ecumenism within the school;
forge links with other faiths as appropriate, with the work of primary feeder
schools, with other Roman Catholic schools, with the parishes served by St Peter’s,
with the diocese of Clifton and with national and international Catholic bodies;
use these links to improve the Christian life of the school.
The chaplain for vocations should
find opportunities to present to the pupils and students of the school facts
and opinions about vocations, both secular and religious;
encourage, in assemblies, or elsewhere, the discussion of vocations and the
importance of making life choices seriously and thoughtfully.
The chaplain for RCIA and sacristy should
manage, organise and support sacramental programmes within and beyond the school
as appropriate and after liaison the parish priests serving the school community;
support the work of the school in providing opportunities for non-Catholic members
of the school community to learn about and, if they wish, to join the Roman
Catholic church;
manage the sacristy to ensure appropriate sacramental resources are available
for the celebration of liturgy;
be responsible for the maintenance of the fabric and furnishings of the school
chapel and for the management of the use made of the adjacent counselling room
and chaplaincy office.
The chaplain for religious education should
link the work of the chaplaincy team to the work of the school’s RE department,
finding opportunities to develop curricular work, for example, with relevant
extra-curricular activities;
be responsible for linking the work of the chaplaincy team, particularly its
counselling and pastoral care work, with the sex education programmes of the
school.
The chaplain for the prayer life of the community should
provide opportunities for prayer groups to meet in the chapel at appropriate
times in the week;
provide weekly or termly programmes of prayers for tutors to support their work
at the beginning of the day;
contribute to the prayers said over the tannoy, including angelus and the early
evening prayer, providing a thoughtful variety and carefully worded petitions,
including prayers of thanksgiving;
work to ensure that Tannoy prayers are not confused with messages, nor regarded
as pointlessly formulaic, nor subordinate to other Tannoy announcements;
organise weekly form masses, liaising with visiting priests and with form tutors
in order that the pupils can contribute to and benefit from such Masses as thoroughly
as possible.
The chaplain for retreats and sixth form spirituality should
ensure that each year group is given the opportunity to attend day-long retreats,
and to lead the management of the retreat programme;
ensure that the school community is aware of the retreat programme so that links
can be made as appropriate between the day retreat and curricular work;
provide the opportunity for all key stage 4 pupils and sixth-form students to
attend residential retreats;
ensure, explicitly and thoughtfully, that no pupil has been excluded from such
residential retreats through lack of money; the retreat co-ordinator should
work with the headteacher and with the governing body to provide funds to ensure
that all pupils and students who wish to attend residential retreats may do
so;
work towards a significant majority of key stage 4 pupils and sixth-form students
attending at least one residential retreat whilst at St Peter’s;
offer an annual retreat to school staff and other adults;
work with the timetabled teachers to develop a programme of religious education
for the sixth-form, designed to address moral and ethical issues from a religious
and philosophical point of view and to strengthen the spirituality of the sixth-form
students.
The chaplain for liturgy should
work with local clergy and with school pupils and students to manage the liturgical
life of the school, providing opportunities for the school to follow the church’s
liturgy throughout the year, developing themes for Masses and making amendments
to the orthodox liturgy where appropriate in order to make the Masses and other
ceremonies relevant, meaningful and memorable for the school’s pupils and
students;
ensure that staff at the school can also celebrate holy-days and other ceremonies
together as appropriate throughout the year;
take responsibility for the management of year group Masses throughout the year,
but especially during Advent, during Lent and on the summer holy-days;
take responsibility for the management of other liturgical ceremonies during
the year, including reconciliation services and special services such as the
distribution of ashes, managing the liturgy for such services with a team which
includes pupil and student representatives from the year groups involved;
provide induction programmes, for use by tutors, so that non-Catholic pupils
and students and staff new to the school, and especially those in years 7 and
12, can understand and share in the liturgies.
The chaplain for pastoral care should
manage the provision of counselling within the school, using counsellors from
within the school community and from outside as required;
liaising with parents about problems with their children which may require counselling;
ensure that counselling is available for all members of the school community;
consider the development of peer counselling schemes within the school community;
manage the appropriate counselling and support of members of the community unable
to attend the school through sickness or other reasons.
The chaplain
for justice and peace should
take a leading role in planning work for pupils so that they can address issues
of justice and peace within their own communities and further afield;
forge and maintain links between the school and international organisations
which take a Christian approach to addressing world wide problems of justice
and peace, including Amnesty International.
The chaplain for charity should
manage the regular support of appropriate Christian charities within the
school;
manage the emergency support of charities as appropriate during the year;
publicise the work of charities supported by the school, so that all members
of the school community are informed and knowledgeable about the work which
the school is supporting;
contribute in some way to the planning of all charitable events in the school
to ensure that the means by which money is raised is always consistent with
the aims of the charity and the Christian ethos if the school;
take a leading role in long-term charitable projects within the community, such
as links with St Rose’s and with the HCPT.
The chaplain for communication should
convene regular meetings of the chaplaincy team, to discuss progress and
resolve any problems encountered in applying the policy;
ensure, by the publication of minutes and in other ways, perhaps through the
publication of a regular news-sheet, that the school community is aware of the
work of the chaplaincy;
ensure that each chaplaincy team leader has convened sufficient support for
the area, and is not under too much personal pressure to complete the tasks
designated to that area;
provide an annual report to the governors outlining the work of the Chaplaincy
team and making proposals for further development in the coming year.
In the first instance, as the workings of this policy are established and
revised, the chaplain for communication will be a member of the school’s
leadership team.
4. The execution of this policy shall be monitored by the headteacher on
behalf of the governing body of the school.