This book examines the services that chaplains provide to dying patients and the unique relationship that palliative care staff construct with people at the end of life. It explores the nature of hope when faced with the inevitable and develops a theory of spiritual care rooted in relationship that has implications for all healthcare professionals.

Written by a certified hospice chaplain who passionately serves in this unique ministry, this step-by-step guide is essential reading for chaplains, pastors, those preparing to be hospice chaplains, and anyone with an interest in this ministry. This book offers the tools you need as you contemplate pursuing hospice chaplaincy, seek direction and encouragement or faithfully serve as a chaplain.

Hospice chaplains have traditionally played a unique part in palliative care, providing human compassion and support to help ease life's final chapter. This book thoughtfully tackles the question at the heart of modern hospice chaplaincy: do chaplains have a distinctive role in an increasingly secular society? A comprehensive look at why and how this work needs to be done, each chapter will be a rich resource for hospice chaplains and anyone working within a hospice multi-disciplinary team. Taking the form of reflections by chaplains and other professionals, they examine the tension between sacred and secular space, explore how spiritual care works in a changing society, and look at what voice a chaplain has within the hospice team. Essential reading for chaplains, this insightful book reflects on the important work undertaken by hospice chaplaincies and explains why they continue to be a vital resource for end-of-life care.

The contributors include twelve staff chaplains of the Division of Pastoral Care, Luthernan General Hospital, Park Ridge, Illinois, in addition to a church historian, an ethicist, a research psychologists, and an expert on substance abuse. Book jacket.

Peaceful Journeyexamines the spiritual issues facing terminally ill patients and their families. Each chapter introduces the reader to a person with a spiritual issue that needs immediate attention.The book opens with the story of an 85-year-old African-American woman who wonders if God hears her prayers. Other chapters explore loneliness, isolation, the dignity and value of every human being, honesty and openness, patience and persistence, why pain and suffering exist, the actual death and the soul's journey, and the importance of dreams, visions, and other end-of-life phenomena.The author graduated from Christ the Savior Russian Orthodox Seminary with a B.Th. and from the Catholic University of America with a M.A. in theology. He began working with the terminally ill in 1991 as a theology student.After his ordination to the priesthood in 1994, he began to provide spiritual care for his parishoners as well as hospice patients. He is now the Pastoral Care Coordinator and Bereavement Coordinator at Hospice of the Finger Lakes in Auburn, NY.For additional information about the author go to: www.matthewpbinkewicz.com

The Complete Handbook of Christian Chaplain Ministry is the "go to" book for anyone called or curious about being a chaplain or even going into Christian ministry. Unlike other books on chaplaincy that focus on particular institutions (hospitals, prisons, military, etc.), this book focuses on equipping people for the Christian ministry aspect of chaplaincy: how to help others like Jesus would. In these pages, readers will be motivated and challenged to pray and read the Bible more while also increasing their faith in God. Yet, it will also equip them to do Christian counseling, win spiritual warfare, perform funerals & weddings, become knowledgeable about CPR and First aid, how to relate to other cultures, what to do in a crisis situation, and so much more.