Miami, Florida, United States….[Libna Stevens/IAD]
Union officials recently met for Inter-America’s first Chaplaincy Council. The late February meetings and seminars were held in Miami, Florida, at the territory’s division headquarters.
The Chaplaincy department was officially approved during IAD’s 2003 annual meeting in October. This new council was formed to organize the department, establish policies, provide seminars pertinent to the chaplaincy ministry and set goals through a three-year strategic plan, says Bernardo Rodriguez, Chaplaincy director for the church in Inter-America.
Although chaplains being active in hospitals, colleges, prisons and military forces is nothing new in the IAD territory, there has never been an official department at the Division level and in each union region in Inter-America, explains Rodriguez.
“This gave union chaplaincy department directors an opportunity to get together, get some training and really focus on giving adequate assistance to the four areas in our territory that chaplains are involved in,” says Rodriguez, “and to give importance so this ministry can fulfill the mission at an international level through compassion and service with the love of God.”
Among the goals established at the meeting were to outline the profile of a chaplain, organize an association of chaplains in each union territory, training for pastoral ordination, provide continuing education, and establish a network of volunteer chaplains that can assist in the prisons and hospitals.
Seminars were held during the meetings, which included such topics as Adventist Chaplaincy: A Ministry of Healing, A Theological Foundation for Adventist Chaplaincy, Basics of Crisis Ministry, Developing a Chaplaincy Program, Policies and Practices to Support your Chaplains, Chaplaincy and the Needs in the Educational Institutions.
Seminar speakers included Pastor Martin W. Feldbush, Chaplaincy Ministries director for the Seventh-day Adventist World Church Headquarters in Maryland, United States; Pastor Jay Perez, Florida Hospital’s Head Chaplain, and Dr. Carlos Archbold, education director for the church in Inter-America.
For more information on Chaplaincy Ministries department go to www.interamerica.org or call the IAD Headquarter office at (305) 403-4700.
