CHAPLAINCY
Chaplain
Didymus provides that presence by being a crisis chaplain, disaster chaplain, fire chaplain, police chaplain, hospital chaplain, and community chaplain, and was a hospice chaplain.
One story that resonates with him of an example of what chaplaincy is is in the Book of Job, where Job’s friends came and sat silently by him for seven days and did not say a word. They blew it though once they started to speak.
Emergency Services Chaplaincy
Didymus is a chaplain with different organizations. He is glad to be apart of the Federation of Fire Chaplains, The International Conference of Police Chaplains and the Police Chaplain Program.
He is a charter member of the Police Chaplain Program, a Basic Level chaplain with the International Police Chaplain Conference and an Advanced Level chaplain with the Federation of Fire Chaplains.
Didymus is a Certified Crisis Chaplain with the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, as well as a Certificate of Specialized Training in the field of Spiritual Care in Crisis Intervention with the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation.
Hospital Chaplaincy
Didymus presently works as a chaplain in a local hospital. He works with clients in Intensive Care, Critical Care, Acute Care, Behavioral Health, and Substance Abuse (including Detox).
Experience
Didymus has recruited, vetted, trained, deployed, and supervised chaplains, for the time of disasters. He spends time mentoring chaplains and also debriefs the people that he works with.
Speaking Engagements
Didymus has had the opportunity to present to different audiences topics of different types of chaplaincy. He is willing to talk with different groups at times so that people can understand and/or perform the work of a chaplain.
In 2019, he was asked to be on a panel, at a police chaplains conference, to discuss the many aspects of chaplaincy in times of disaster.
To find out more, please contact us.
Help Our Cause
Your support and contribution can assist Didymus to continue the work that he does. He has supported himself in his training and his outreach to people in shelters and people in crisis. This will enable him to meet further his education and help and improve other people’s living conditions. Your generous donation will fund his mission. Thank you
Introduction To Fire Chaplaincy
Does your fire department have a chaplain? Do you even know what one is? Chaplain not Captain. Do you know what they do?
Hopefully this will start to explain it. The fire chaplain traditionally has been the spiritual leader of the fire department. The chaplain was usually a local pastor that showed up for a wake or ceremony and the firefighters did not see him until the next service that he was called to. Then there are those chaplains that already served in the position of chief, who read scripted services. But the chaplaincy itself has evolved. The fire chaplain is now interested in the spiritual, emotional and physical will-being of every member in the fire department, past and present.
Chaplains are now ordained (like a pastor of a church) or lay chaplains (not ordained). But if they are ordained or not should not have much relevance on the work that they do. It certainly does not change how much they care for people. Many chaplains are now firefighters, EMTs or whatever else you may be. They are trained also in critical incident stress management, grief counseling, and caring more for those in his area. When Chaplains perform wakes, they are not as likely to use a script that does not extend comfort.
The ministry of a chaplain is a ministry of presence. To be there whether the firefighters need you or not. It is at times investigating alarms, operation a hoseline, extricating an individual out of a car or just being there when someone needs to talk. It is sitting in a firehouse and talking to people about a challenge or a loss. It may be even talking to a firefighter who is thinking about suicide. He/she is there to lend an ear. It is being there at a funeral and willing to help a firefighter through his grief, after you have just tried to console a family, after the loss of a loved one.
We are there for the victims of a fire BUT our main job is that we are there for the fire service first and foremost. We may have to talk with firefighters who need to be checked out by BLS at a scene or there to convince the injured firefighter that he truly should go to the hospital. It is caring enough to try to send out birthday cards, congratulations on major events, or visit people in the hospital, when they are sick of injured.
A chaplain has his own work to do. Many times chaplains do not consider all the time that he spends talking with people, or making sure that he comforts families. The chief may follow the procedures by the book but the chaplain serves by the heart. The firefighters handle the physical emergencies, the chaplain is there to help you deal with your challenges that goes from the probie all the way up to the chief. That is because the chaplain is there to serve out of his heart and it is a calling, not an elected position.
