大象传媒

Chaplains are everywhere these days - in hospitals and universities, in prisons and supermarkets. Even professional rugby clubs welcome them. In the company of four people with a range of different experience of this service, Roy Jenkins asks what are chaplains for?听 Do they do any good? And in a society that is described as increasingly secular, what role can religious professionals still have outside religious organisations?

听

For some, the cost of chaplaincy, within the NHS for example, is seen as an inappropriate use of state resources in increasingly cash-strapped times. Roy discusses what the real value of chaplaincy is, and how this work affects the people who use this service. For others the idea of religious figures in such non-religious environments smacks of evangelism. How far is there room for people of all faiths or none to seek this help and to what extent do chaplains respect the variety of spiritual beliefs they come across?

听

In conversation with Rev John Hall, chaplain to the Newport Gwent Dragons, Rev Carol Taplin, NHS chaplain at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, Maqsood Ahmed OBE, the first Muslim advisor to HM Prison service and Rev Marcus Wyn Robinson, former Royal Navy and Industrial chaplain, Roy discusses the role of chaplains today.