Higher Education Chaplaincy in the Birmingham District

Universities can form communities the size of small towns. Christian ministry is therefore vital, especially where there is a high percentage of students from overseas, and living away from home. At one time Methodist chaplains primarily provided worship and pastoral care for Methodist students, but this has changed. Most chaplains now work in ecumenical teams, ministering to all staff and students in a multi-faith context, and also to the institution as a whole, getting involved with questions of policy and curriculum, and encouraging engagement with contemporary issues.

Birmingham District has six Higher Education institutions, and has recently conducted a review of the chaplaincy provision. Staffing varies considerably. Birmingham University has five full-time chaplains (one Jewish and four Christian, including a full-time Methodist chaplain), and a dozen part-time chaplains (Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist), together with a chaplaincy assistant. By contrast, the ‘ecumenical team’ at Aston University currently comprises a Free Church Chaplain (who is a URC minister) and part-time Anglican and Roman Catholic posts.

The District review group considered that in the future greater use could be made of lay people in chaplaincy posts, and this is a development that is occurring at Coventry University. Faced with a need this summer to replace the Methodist Deacon who had been the quarter-time Free Church chaplain, the Free Churches and the University together hit upon an imaginative proposal of appointing a chaplaincy assistant, to work part-time while studying for a post-graduate degree, sponsored by the University.

Almost invariably, Higher Education chaplains are paid by the churches, but the institutions themselves provide and maintain the premises. Across Birmingham District, the premises vary. Warwick University, for instance, has an extensive chaplaincy building in the centre of campus, where well-attended worship services are held on a Sunday for students.

Birmingham’s University of Central England (UCE), on the other hand, has a number of campuses, spread across the city, and does not have a residential population of students in the same way as Warwick. There is a chaplaincy lounge and a Catholic Chaplaincy House on one campus, and a chaplain is available at a fixed time each week on each of the other campuses, where prayer meetings are regularly held. UCE is another University sponsoring a chaplain to study: the Anglican chaplain has just returned from a three-month trip to Canada where he has been researching for his PhD on “The Spirituality of Snowboarding”!

The chaplaincy at University College, Worcester is a focus for Christian thought, action and fellowship within the college and seeks to be open and welcoming to all.
As well as running its own acts of worship, it can help students to make contacts with local Christian churches, and the two mosques in the city centre which serve the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities. Like most of the institutions, it also has a permanently available Muslim Prayer Room.

Most of the chaplaincies are now inter-faith. This is in the sense that their premises are used by different faith groups, and the chaplains, though mostly Christian, are available to offer a listening ear to students of all faiths and none, and to support, by advocacy with the University, the worship, dietary etc. needs of students of all faiths. Birmingham University has an extensive list of associate chaplains of different faiths who can be contacted. Warwick chaplaincy is involved in the newly-established Warwick Inter-Religious Roundtable for Dialogue, involving Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist and Bahá’í students.

Within this inter-faith environment, chaplains are also practising Christian ministry to the institution’s student and staff Christian community. For many Christian students, the chaplaincy is a place that offers not only worship and pastoral support, but a venue in which Christian societies meet, and a drop-in centre/common room in which to spend their time, eating, “working”, setting the world to rights with other Christians and forming life-long friendships. For many who pass through higher education, the chaplaincy plays a vital and creative part in the development of their Christian faith and discipleship.

At this time of year, it is very helpful if churches can let chaplains know of any young people coming to University. There is a list of chaplains in the Minutes of Conference, which every minister has, or details can be found on the university’s website. A referral before term starts, with the student’s home address, is most helpful, because the student can be contacted before they arrive. Time is of the essence, because if students do not get involved in the first few weeks of term, they are unlikely to do so thereafter. If term has already started, remember to provide some way of contacting the young person (term address, mobile phone number or e-mail address). Not all institutions will give out students’ addresses to chaplains, so a referral that says, “John Smith is coming to your university - please make him welcome,” may not be enough.