Chaplaincy in a New Scottish University: The Issue of Worship

Abstract

This paper sets out to examine the expectations of the office of Chaplain in a new university, particularly with respect to the function of leading public worship. Based on the author's personal experience, it explores tensions between the university administration, who principally sought broadly secular input such as student counselling, and religious stakeholders who were looking for someone to undertake a role more akin to that of a Minister of Word and Sacrament. A research project enabled the author to formulate a number of questions for the church to address around the area of defining what it expected from chaplains and in developing a model for ministry within non-church institutions.