Rural chaplains support communities facing hate groups, isolation and labor shortages
'It’s not everybody’s cup of tea. We get our wellies muddy ... We don’t wait for them to come to us, we go to them,' said a rural chaplain in Suffolk, England. Read the article from Religion News Service.
A Rural Chaplains Association focus event at a Vermont farm in Oct. 2017. Photo by Bob Klingler
On any given day, the Rev. Bob Klingler, a rural chaplain in Northwestern Pennsylvania, might be cleaning a flooded basement, facilitating an anti-racist workshop or leading worship from the bay of a livestock auction barn. Meanwhile, in Suffolk, England, rural chaplain Graham Miles could be answering a midnight phone call or helping a ewe give birth. To Miles and Klingler, it’s all ministry.
“It’s not everybody’s cup of tea,” said Miles. “We get our wellies muddy, and we’ll cross a field to talk to a farmer. We don’t wait for them to come to us, we go to them.”
According to Klingler, rural chaplaincy offers a different approach than other forms of chaplaincy. “We tend to work on a more practical level,” said Klingler. “We’re helping people to find new ways to make money, we’re educating people, we’re trying to advocate for things like rural health care or transportation in rural areas.”
An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, Klingler pastors a six-church cooperative ministry south of Erie, Pennsylvania, in addition to his chaplaincy work. “On committees, I tend to be the voice that speaks up and says, ‘yes, but what about the folks outside the cities? What are you doing in the rural areas?’” said Klingler.
Such advocacy is vital. Today, rural communities are facing an onslaught of pandemic-era challenges caused by labor shortages, ecological crises and changes in supply and demand.