Chaplaincy and other Ministries

Parish

Activities

Educational

Music

Bookroom

General

St Peter's is the base for several other ministries, in the parish and beyond. These include:

Tertiary Chaplaincy
Hospital Chaplaincy
Breakfast Program
Pastoral Care

Tertiary Chaplain's Report

When parishioners around St Peter's ask about what we're doing in the chaplaincy at RMIT, I tell them that the heart of our ministry is not unlike the work of those unknown friends of Jesus towards the end of Matthew's Gospel: visiting the too busy and too lonely, sharing nourishment with those with such deep hunger and thirst, naked, sick, caught in their various captivities, saying things like, "I don't look like what I see at the mall or the web, and I am not sure what's wrong with me." We work with a lot of questions.

So we strive to make the RMIT chaplaincy a safe place where students and staff can connect with their deepest hopes and aspirations, where their needs, their histories and their hopes can be honoured, where they can come to know how much they matter!

As a part of the student services group, the RMIT Chaplaincy serves as a an on-campus site for spiritual and religious inquiry and growth, with Bible Study, Eucharist and Laughter Yoga, shared silence in contemplation as well as very busy and very noisy times. In the coming year we plan to link with Habitat for Humanity to build homes for people who need shelter as well as sponsor guest speakers, serve food to students who might need a meal, as well as open a conversation on the relationship between religious vision, ecology and economics. With all this we continue to strive (with a growing crew of Anglican, Buddhist, Carmelite, Jewish, Muslim, and Presbyterian Chaplains and Visiting Religious Leaders) to model a deep and courteous multi-faith conversation on vision and values firmly grounded in the daily transactions of a large urban university.

There's a quote from Finley Peter Dunne that fits the work of chaplaincy. He writes that we must "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable!" And in many ways that is exactly what we try to do. Please keep this ministry of our parish and diocese in your prayers.

I am grateful to St Peter's for being the home base for this exciting ministry.
For more information about me, and about the work that is being done,
visit my blogspot...

Robert Whalley,
Chaplain

Hospital Chaplaincy

The chaplaincy service offered by St Peter's to the local hospitals continues to be much appreciated — particularly by families and clergy from country and interstate parishes. Their referrals, in fact all referrals, to patients are most helpful in allowing me to carry out my work as chaplain efficiently. For example, whenever I turn up at St Vincent's Hospital, I receive a list of all the Anglicans/Church of England patients, and the list could be up to four or five pages long. Obviously it would be impossible for me to visit them all. And in my experience, not all of them wish to be visited anyway. So the referrals are essential in allowing me to prioritize, and use my limited time more profitably.

The restructuring of the Pastoral Care Department at St Vincent's Hospital has been completed. Roger Prowd, an Anglican priest, has been appointed as the new manager. Roger will head all three streams of pastoral care needs of the Sisters of Charity's institutions: acute care (St Vncent's), palliative care (Caritas) and aged/residential care (St George's).

As of last year, my ministry has expanded to include the Freemason Hospital. This has been a useful move since quite a number of regular parishioners who are Anglicans choose the Freemason for their medical/surgical needs.

Fr Tat Hean Lie,
Hospital Chaplain

Pastoral Care

St Peter's is known for the beauty of its Liturgy and music, but it also has a long tradition as a caring church community.

With a strong belief in inclusiveness, where each person is important and valued, the current Ministry team places an emphasis on the pastoral care and support of a parishioners. The sick are provided with sacramental ministry in hospital or at home and, whenever possible, those who, because of age or infirmity are no longer able to come to church, are visited and encouraged to still feel part of the parish community that, in many cases, has sustained them through much of their active life, and to which they may have contributed in many practical ways.

If someone is uncharacteristically absent from Sunday worship for a week or so, a phone call is always appreciated.

Parishioners, too, support and care for each other in many ways. The sick are prayed for daily, and all parishioners who have died since the church opened its doors in 1847 are remembered and prayed for on the anniversary of their death, and so pastoral care is provided through all stages of life and beyond.

Sr Valmai, CHN,
Pastoral Assistant

Top | St Peter's Home