the meeting on hospital chaplaincy was a little less exotic than the visit to croizet, but an interesting meeting.

the gist of it is that the uk government have instructed health authorities to establish multi- faith chaplaincy services in hospitals. and they want a way of assessing the competence of the chaplains from each faith group.

this raises a very interesting issue. is it possible for british buddhist groups to find a way to train and assess chaplains, a way that all buddhist groups can consent to, and that the government would recognise? this seems to be quite a significant step: we’ve never tried to set up the kind of ‘authorisation’ in the uk (with the possible exception of angulimala, the prison chaplaincy organisation, which has relied much more on the judgement of ajahn khemadhammo than the more consensual structure that we’re trying to design). it’s a potentially tricky area.

my interest in this has been less to do with  hands-on patient care, than with the ‘political’ implications. prasada brazier, from amida trust, and i have been keen to learn from the structure of the network of buddhist organisations, where the executive of the nbo is open to any member group which chooses to be involved, avoiding any sense of exclusive authority, and it has managed to make this open structure work effectively and co-operatively for some years.

the chaplaincy group has been trying to design a provisional structure, as well as setting the criteria for the different levels of competence a buddhist chaplain will need.

at the meeting in manchester in november a couple of order members with more pertinent healthcare experience – taravandana and dayasara – will begin to get involved, and maitrisara, who is clearly well-respected as a facilitator in engaged buddhist circles, has been invited to help present a discussion of the group’s thinking to a wider buddhist audience in march 07.