austraLasia #2283
School Ethos and Chaplaincy - David O'Malley SDB
BOLTON UK: 6th November 2008 -- It's not often you find a book prefaced by two prelates, but School Ethos and Chaplaincy is one such. Not that one measures the quality of a work by the number of episcopal endorsements it has! But in the case of this packed little publication on chaplaincy, the endorsement of the current ecclesiastical assistant for the World Union of Catholic Teachers counts for something, as do the pithy comments of the Bishop of Shrewsbury (+ Luc.Van Looy and + Brian Noble respectively).
After reading the whole book through, my advice to the reader would be to read (other than the aforesaid forewords) David O'Malley's introduction and then his personal postscript. Between them one gets a sense of the complex relationship between the role played by a minister of the Gospel, who may or may not be ordained, and the formal educational structure we know as school, with a strong emphasis on the person in both. David wears his heart on his sleeve, especially on his 'postscript', and this is the strength of the book at one level.
At another level, it is quite a little gem for any number of reasons. Maybe you are not sure at the end if it is a handbook for the chaplain, the school principal and other school leaders or even a ground-breaking exploration into the role of something that is approaching a profession in today's world and not only in education. But it doesn't matter if the reader can't quite work out which it is, the reality being that it is all of them, presented in the style that readers of Fr David O'Malley SDB have now become accustomed to as he has moved from 'Prayers to Start the Day' to 'Trust the Road' and 'Via Lucis'. Prayer: 'For the chaplain this area of human experience is a core concern', he says. If he was tempted to choose a subtitle for this most recent effort it might have been 'Via Crucis', not that he is saying that school chaplaincy is necessarily a difficult or crucifying task, but that it may well be a call to embrace failure. It is another way of putting the fact that the chaplain's task involves absolute dependence on God, or it becomes something quite other than chaplaincy.
There is so much of practical value in the book that one can dip in anywhere and come up with something, be it the intriguing 'history' of chaplaincy which David claims goes back to St Martin of Tours - he leads the reader through a fascinating etymology of 'chaplain' - or the oft-repeated notion that a school chaplain is not just about the tough, rough or downtrodden, but about being chaplain for the whole school.
Although there are any number of references to UK situations, this in no way limits the application of the book. Having myself been a principal in a school that sees itself as very much a part of a collection of parishes, I could say that David's distilling of personal experience is applicable anywhere where the Catholic school is endeavouring to be Church and to fit in with churches, with the sometimes lively tensions that result.
School Ethos & Chaplaincy, David O'Malley SDB, 120 pp.
Don Bosco Publications 2008 (www.don-bosco-publications.co.uk ) - and DBP always tries to help with discounts for Salesian buyers!
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2008 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
Title: australasia 2283
Subject and key words: SDB General, School Ethos and Chaplaincy
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2283
School Ethos and Chaplaincy - David O'Malley SDB
BOLTON UK: 6th November 2008 -- It's not often you find a book prefaced by two prelates, but School Ethos and Chaplaincy is one such. Not that one measures the quality of a work by the number of episcopal endorsements it has! But in the case of this packed little publication on chaplaincy, the endorsement of the current ecclesiastical assistant for the World Union of Catholic Teachers counts for something, as do the pithy comments of the Bishop of Shrewsbury (+ Luc.Van Looy and + Brian Noble respectively).
After reading the whole book through, my advice to the reader would be to read (other than the aforesaid forewords) David O'Malley's introduction and then his personal postscript. Between them one gets a sense of the complex relationship between the role played by a minister of the Gospel, who may or may not be ordained, and the formal educational structure we know as school, with a strong emphasis on the person in both. David wears his heart on his sleeve, especially on his 'postscript', and this is the strength of the book at one level.
At another level, it is quite a little gem for any number of reasons. Maybe you are not sure at the end if it is a handbook for the chaplain, the school principal and other school leaders or even a ground-breaking exploration into the role of something that is approaching a profession in today's world and not only in education. But it doesn't matter if the reader can't quite work out which it is, the reality being that it is all of them, presented in the style that readers of Fr David O'Malley SDB have now become accustomed to as he has moved from 'Prayers to Start the Day' to 'Trust the Road' and 'Via Lucis'. Prayer: 'For the chaplain this area of human experience is a core concern', he says. If he was tempted to choose a subtitle for this most recent effort it might have been 'Via Crucis', not that he is saying that school chaplaincy is necessarily a difficult or crucifying task, but that it may well be a call to embrace failure. It is another way of putting the fact that the chaplain's task involves absolute dependence on God, or it becomes something quite other than chaplaincy.
There is so much of practical value in the book that one can dip in anywhere and come up with something, be it the intriguing 'history' of chaplaincy which David claims goes back to St Martin of Tours - he leads the reader through a fascinating etymology of 'chaplain' - or the oft-repeated notion that a school chaplain is not just about the tough, rough or downtrodden, but about being chaplain for the whole school.
Although there are any number of references to UK situations, this in no way limits the application of the book. Having myself been a principal in a school that sees itself as very much a part of a collection of parishes, I could say that David's distilling of personal experience is applicable anywhere where the Catholic school is endeavouring to be Church and to fit in with churches, with the sometimes lively tensions that result.
School Ethos & Chaplaincy, David O'Malley SDB, 120 pp.
Don Bosco Publications 2008 (www.don-bosco-publications.co.uk ) - and DBP always tries to help with discounts for Salesian buyers!
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2008 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
Title: australasia 2283
Subject and key words: SDB General, School Ethos and Chaplaincy
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2283
