Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 19 May 2024 at 03:24
To mark Volunteers’ Week and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, one of EEAST’s Chaplains, Lynda Logan, has put together a special message for our staff.
A Chaplain’s role is a varied one, no two days are the same. With a brief on pastoral, emotional and spiritual needs, we offer a complementary role to that of trained counsellors, occupational health and other supporting networks. We affirm the worth of every ambulance service employee, responding to the needs of all ranks and grades whilst proactively seeking out staff in the high-pressure areas. Our key responsibility is to work with others in support roles helping to keep staff fit and healthy.
It is a role, which may be described as “healing and binding up those within the ambulance service who constantly have to deal with the damaging effects of our human nature.” We provide a confidential and independent service of pastoral and emotional support and spiritual guidance to all levels of staff, volunteers and their families - operational or administrative - regardless of a person’s faith or none, culture or sexual orientation.
Currently, the Chaplaincy Team consists of three chaplains and one associate chaplain. We are a mixture of lay and ordained ministers; two of us are retired, two are in salaried work. Chaplaincy is sometimes referred to as the Church’s face in the world outside of church: its gift to the host organization. This is why we are equally accountable to both EEAST, as our host organization and to the Church.
As people of faith, we are concerned about healing and reconciliation. We promote, enable and serve towards the restoration of health and wellbeing for both the individual and the organisation: we care for the wholeness of staff – body, mind and spirit. We provide a listening and confidential ear in times of need, helping with personal or family problems, such as illness, bereavement or relationships, as well as work related problems.
A lot of our work is hidden, unseen by most staff. We quietly walk alongside, accompanying and supporting staff through difficult times of transition in their lives. And what huge changes and suffering we have all seen in society and are still personally experiencing because of the Coronavirus pandemic!
We volunteer and are appointed for this role because we feel called by God to do so. We care deeply for our fellow human beings and are sustained in our work by our faith. When each of us was commissioned, we promised to serve both EEAST, its staff and God. At her coronation, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II promised to serve both State, her people and God.
This year Volunteers’ Week coincides with the Queen’s record-breaking Platinum Jubilee. It is a celebration of her 70 years on the throne: the first ever Platinum Jubilee in England and the UK. The Queen is the longest reigning monarch in British history.
On her 21st birthday she promised the nation “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service…” As ‘Defender of the Faith’ – a title conferred on Henry VIII by Pope Leo X in 1521 and borne by all subsequent sovereigns – and as ‘Supreme Governor of the Church of England’ – the Established Church in England – she has not faltered in keeping her birthday or coronation promises.
Her example of courage, commitment and selfless dedication to duty have been demonstrated in every Commonwealth nation and territory: her long service towards her people, whatever their faith or none, has been underpinned and sustained by her own steadfast Christian faith and love for God’s Word.
In her Christmas speech in 2011, she said “Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God’s love.” These words, eleven years ago, are even more appropriate in today’s increasingly changing and hostile society. As Chaplains, we are privileged to serve Her Majesty in her role as Monarch, Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Congratulations Ma’am on your Platinum Jubilee.
Lynda Logan, Trust Chaplain
Published 5th June 2022