Article Added On: March 23, 2008 - about 1 month ago
Title: Spirituality makes office call
Original URL: http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/OttawaAndRegion/2008/03/23/pf-5080126.html
Author: DONNA CASEY
Publication: Ottawa Sun
Publication Date: March 23, 2008 - about 1 month ago
Faith Groups: Evangelical Christian
Themes: religious attitudes in Canada

Abstract: Christian organization Outreach Canada is launching a program to bring chaplains to offices and work sites in Ottawa. The concept comes from Marketplace Chaplains in Dallas, Tex., which oversees 2,000 chaplains in 300 companies.

The man strolls down the hallway of an office building and pops his head around a grey partition.

"Hi, Linda. How's it going?" he asks a young woman sitting at a computer. "How did your son do at his tournament last weekend?"

The middle-aged man is wearing a casual shirt, khaki pants and a friendly, easygoing smile. He leans against the cubicle wall and takes a sip from his Styrofoam coffee cup and chats with the woman for a few minutes.

"Okay, great. Take care, see you next week," the man says as he heads down the hall toward another work station.

A few minutes later, a woman finishes up her call to a client and moves into the hallway to talk to the man. They arrange to meet the next day at a nearby coffee shop.

"It's about my son," she whispers. "He's started smoking weed with his buddies and I tried talking to him but my husband is freaking out..."

The man isn't her supervisor or a co-worker. He's a corporate chaplain who's hired to be on call 24/7 to deal with all the messy stuff employees are supposed to leave at home -- depression, grief, marriage breakdown and other personal crises.

But to mangle Pierre Trudeau's famous line, religion has no place in the workplaces of the nation, right?

Not according to a Christian organization that's launching a program to bring chaplains to offices and work sites in Ottawa.

"When people come to work, they bring their problems with them," said Alison Johnson, the Ottawa director for corporate chaplaincy for Outreach Canada, the evangelical group that's looking to bring spiritual care on the job.

The idea originated in Canada about four years ago when the owners of some Calgary-based companies banded together to hire a visiting Christian chaplain.

TRUSTING RELATIONSHIP

The business owners, who operated small and mid-sized manufacturing companies, wanted what Outreach Canada calls "face-to-face care" -- a chaplain who drops by the work site every week for direct contact with each employee.

The concept comes from Marketplace Chaplains in Dallas, Tex., which oversees 2,000 chaplains in 300 companies, says Bruce Mitchell, national director of chaplains at Outreach Canada.

Most employers and managers feel out of their depth when a worker comes to them with a personal problem, says Mitchell.

They want to help but studies show that few employees use traditional employee assistance programs (EAPs), says Mitchell.

According to Outreach Canada surveys of companies with chaplains, 70% of employees will call up a chaplain they know from work, compared to only 5% who will use a toll-free number with a company's EAP.

A few years ago, Esther De Wolde scoured the country for a chaplain program for her employees at Phanthom Screens, a retractable screen manufacturer based in Abbotsford, B.C.

HOLISTIC CARE

She wanted to take care of her employees but as her company grew, her managers were spending more time dealing with employees' personal problems.

De Wolde, a lifelong Christian, learned about corporate chaplains at a conference at the Billy Graham Training Center in North Carolina. She was sold on the stories of how chaplains had helped reconcile families, rebuild marriages and counsel suicidal staff and family members.

Two months ago, a chaplain started making weekly visits to the 100 employees at her company headquarters.

"I knew my staff is being cared for holistically, over and above what I could do as a paycheque," said De Wolde, adding that "a 1-800 number cannot create trust."

De Wolde says bringing in a chaplain for her staff's spiritual needs makes good business sense, noting that it cuts down on absenteeism, burnout and turnover.

Mitchell calls corporate chaplains "more spiritual than religious."

"If you had a need for a chaplain, it's probably something to do with your spouse, or your kids or an addiction problem or your finances. Whether you're a Jew, a Muslim, atheist or New Ager, it really wouldn't make any difference," says Mitchell, calling the workplace "the best point into a person's life to provide support."

FEAR OF RELIGION

But one expert on workplace spirituality says Canadian society is "deeply confused" about the place of religion in the public sphere.

Most Canadians realize that a society of neutral values doesn't make sense but they still distrust religious values, says Paul Williams, professor of marketplace theology and spirituality at Regent College, a Christian studies graduate school affiliated with the University of British Columbia.

Corporate chaplains face what Williams calls "this incipient fear of Christianity in particular and religion in general" in Western society.

"We assume it must be a fundamental threat to our civilization or something. It's an emotional reaction and it's usually not based in knowledge or rationality," said Williams.

Mitchell says all contact with a chaplain is voluntary and acknowledges some employees wonder if the chaplain is "going to talk me into going into church."

"We make it very clear at our start-up meetings that we're not here to try to force anyone into anything -- we're here to provide care," says Mitchell.