Handbook for Chaplains: Comfort My People

Resource Description

Full Review:

As a chaplain, I must minister to people from a variety of backgrounds. To be effective, I have to get into their worldview. I must meet them where they are. The best ministry takes place when I start with what is familiar to people and take them to the next step, just as the apostle Paul did in Athens (Acts 17).

Today I am reviewing a short book (65 pages). Though not written from an evangelical perspective, it can be helpful to those of us who minister to diverse people in times of illness and death. The author is a chaplain certified by the National Association of Catholic Chaplains.

The back cover provides a good summary:

HANDBOOK FOR CHAPLAINS outlines eight different faith traditions and offers the principle beliefs of each one, as well as pertinent information about each one’s views on birth, diet regulations, sickness, and dying and death. Included are appropriate prayers that could be said with patients and their families, along with facts about cremation, autopsies, and organ donations as they apply to the respective faith traditions.

The chapters in alphabetical order deal with the follow religions or traditions within religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Judaism, Orthodox Christianity (eastern orthodoxy), and Roman Catholicism.

HG