Description

In May 2017, the Theology Program received a letter of inquiry from Vergel L. Lattimore, president of Hood Theological Seminary, requesting support for the Seminary’s recently established Center for Chaplaincy. Dr. Lattimore was the first African American chaplain to attain the rank of Brigadier General in the U.S. Air Force, and he has been a dedicated supporter of chaplaincy education at Hood Theological Seminary, a graduate and professional school sponsored by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (A.M.E. Zion).
 
The Center for Chaplaincy was established to foster awareness, information exchange, and collaboration about opportunities and practices in the field of professional chaplaincy. The Center seeks to partner with chaplain practitioners from representative professional organizations, to educate students about various types of chaplaincy, to provide opportunities for professional chaplains to participate in continuing education programs, to sponsor visitation opportunities for students to network with chaplain professionals, and to facilitate formal and informal student learning opportunities within select chaplain organizations.
 
The Center is directed by Ken Walden. In addition to serving as the Director of Supervised Ministry, and as Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at the Seminary, Walden is an ordained elder/clergy-member of the California Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, and a Chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserves. He was recently a participant in a Luce-funded workshop held at Chicago Theological Seminary, where I had the opportunity to meet him personally and to briefly discuss his work and the work of the Center.
 
Following that meeting, and some additional back and forth with Dr. Lattimore, Dr. Walden and their colleagues, we encouraged the Seminary to submit an inquiry through the Foundation’s new online portal, and subsequently invited a full proposal. The proposed grant would be supplemented by a recent grant of $50,000 from the Association of Theological Schools, and would support various dimensions of the Center’s work over a period of two years.
 
An estimated 20,000 chaplains now serve in the United States in multiple venues, including hospitals and hospices, college campuses, the military, prisons, fire departments, retirement homes, and other settings. M embership in professional associations for chaplains is growing nationwide. With the dynamic field of chaplaincy and chaplaincy education in view, the Theology Program has recently recommended a series of grants in this area.