Previous Annual Conferences, 2010-2022

2022 – Redrawing the Maps of Palliative Care Chaplaincy in a Covid-Changed World

Conference Videos

We recorded all the main presentations again this year, and the videos are now available on our YouTube site, ‘AHPCC UK’. As you’ll know if you were at The Hayes, the videos are simple, but worth watching.
– 1. Keith Morrison: ‘Setting the scene’.
– 2. Laurence McGonnell: ‘Reconnecting with our sense of identity and mission’.
– 3. Conor Carville: ‘Samuel Becket and Forms of Life and Death’.
– 4. Neil Greenberg: ‘Mental health, moral injury, and healthcare staff’.
– 5. Pádraig Ó Tuama: ‘Collect writing as pastoral and poetic work’.
– 6. Karen Murphy: ‘Standing our ground and proving our worth’.
– 7. Steve Nolan: ‘We’re already researchers – we just don’t realise it’
If you missed last year’s conference, why not catch up with those presentations, too – always available on YouTube at ‘AHPCC UK’.

In addition, we have three other items available to download:
– ‘Untitled’, the collective poem that we produced in Conor’s workshop;
– ‘Reconnecting with our sense of identity and mission’, the transcript of Laurence McGonnell’s presentation; and
– ‘Love’, the poem that David Buck read at the end of the conference.

All the 2022 Conference information remains available below

2022 Poster

2022 Conference Booking Form

2022 Conference Invitation

2022 Conference Programme

2022 AGM Notification

2022 AGM Agenda

Minutes from the 2021 AGM

2022 Speaker Profiles

Professor Neil Greenberg, Defence Mental Health, Kings College London

‘Mental health, moral injury, and healthcare staff’
Professor Neil Greenberg is a consultant academic, occupational and forensic psychiatrist based at King’s College London. Neil served in the UK Armed Forces for over twenty-three years and has deployed, as a psychiatrist and researcher, to a number of hostile environments including Afghanistan and Iraq. At King’s Neil leads on a number of military mental health projects and is a principal investigator within a nationally funded Health Protection Research unit. He also chairs the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) Special Interest Group in Occupational Psychiatry and is leading the World Psychiatric Association position statement on mental health in the workplace. Neil has published more than 300 scientific papers and book chapters and has been the Secretary of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the President of the UK Psychological Trauma Society and Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee. During the COVID19 pandemic, Neil has worked closely with NHSEI, PHE and has published widely on psychological support for healthcare, and other key workers.

Revd Dr Steve Nolan – Hospice Chaplain, Research Fellow, and Author

‘We’re already researchers – we just don’t realise it!’
Steve Nolan has been chaplain at Princess Alice Hospice, Esher, since 2004. As well as his clinical work, he has published peer-reviewed articles on spiritual care theory and practice. His areas of interest include chaplaincy case studies; non-religious spiritual care; spiritual care in a secular environment; and the relationship between spiritual care and psychotherapy – a BACP accredited counsellor/therapist, he is dual qualified. Steve’s doctoral research (The University of Manchester, 2003) was an interdisciplinary application of theory to practice, drawing on psychoanalytic and semiotic theory to examine the construction of religious identity. His books include Spiritual Care at the End of Life: The Chaplain as a ‘Hopeful Presence’, (Jessica Kingsley, 2012); A to Z of Spirituality (with Prof Margaret Holloway, Palgrave, 2013); Spiritual Care in Practice: Case Studies in Healthcare Chaplaincy and Case Studies in Spiritual Care: Healthcare Chaplaincy Assessments, Interventions and Outcomes (both with George Fitchett, Jessica Kingsley, 2015 and 2018) and Transforming Chaplaincy: The George Fitchett Reader (co-edited with Annelieke Damen, Wipf & Stock, 2021). He holds a Visiting Research Fellowship at The University of Winchester, and has taught in the Cardiff Centre for Chaplaincy Studies, St Michael’s College, Llandaff, part of Cardiff University.

Pádraig Ó Tuama – Theologian and Poet [Photo courtesy of Trevor Brady]

Title of Presentation – Collect writing as pastoral and poetic work
Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet and a theologian. With publications in poetry, prose, theology and conflict resolution, he brings an interest in language, conflict, violence and religion to all of his work.
He presents Poetry Unbound from On Being Studios, a book from which is forthcoming from Canongate in October 2022. Pádraig is a member — and former leader — of Corrymeela Community, Ireland’s oldest reconciliation organisation.

Laurence McGonnell – Hospice Chaplain and Psychotherapist

‘The Hospice Chaplain: Reconnecting with our sense of Identity and Mission’
Laurence comes from North East England, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. As part of his training for ministry in the Roman Catholic Church, Laurence spent two years in Kenya, near the Ugandan border. Ordained in 1989, he spent seven years in parish ministry in the Philippines, largely as Parish Priest to nine remote islands where three languages were spoken. After two years studying Pastoral Psychology at University in Chicago, Laurence became Director of Studies of St Joseph’s College, North London, teaching and preparing students for ministry. Alongside this, Laurence trained as a counsellor and psychotherapist at Regent’s College, London. In 2008 Laurence married, and took up the post of Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Lead at North London Hospice where he spent over twelve years building on the Hospice’s multi-faith identity, to lead, support and work alongside a committed and eclectic Chaplaincy team. Laurence continues to provide counselling, psychotherapy and supervision as part of his ministry, and is now the Spiritual Care Lead at St Gemma’s Hospice, Leeds. A keen reader, writer, photographer and traveller, Laurence enjoys exploring rural Yorkshire.

Conor Carville – Professor of English, and Poet

Conor Carville is Professor of English at Reading University.
‘Samuel Beckett and the Visual’ was published from Cambridge University Press in March 2018.
His book of poems, ’Harm’s Way’ was published by Dedalus Press in 2011, and a second collection, ‘English Martyrs’ came out in 2019.
Conor is currently working on a novel.

Awen Clement – Conference Chaplain

Awen is an independent priest and spiritual care practitioner rooted in the Pagan faith tradition.
She has worked in end of life care and funerals for the last five years offering interfaith and inclusive support to people and their families on their journeys with death, dying and grief.
In 2021 she was named Minister of the Year (Any Religion) in the Green Funeral Awards.
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2021 – Reframing Spiritual Care in a Palliative Setting: Responding to Changing Times

Pre-Conference material
Poster
Programme

Keynote Speakers

Karen Murphy – ERICH Covid Research Project – Slides and Video
Heather Richardson – Changing Times: Challenge or Opportunity? – Slides and Video
Max Watson – Spiritual Care in Covid: a Doctor’s Perspective’ – Slides and Video

Soul Nourishment
Bob Whorton – Poems and Video
David Buck – Poems and Video
Tom Gordon – Video

Reflections on Lockdown – video snapshots
Video 1
Video 2

2020 – cancelled because of the Covid-19 lockdown

The 2020 Conference was cancelled soon after the first Covid Lockdown was imposed. We were at least able to hold the AGM, at relatively short notice, via Zoom.

2019 – The Emerging Shape of Palliative Care Chaplaincy - Embracing the Challenges

Pre-Conference material
Poster
Programme

Keynote Speakers

Revd Karen Murphy, AHPCC President
Presentation: Setting the Scene
Workshop: New Chaplains’ Workshop
“I am a Methodist Minister, ordained in 1989, and have been involved in hospice chaplaincy for sixteen years. My current role is full-time chaplain at Weston Hospicecare in Somerset. I am frequently involved with training and supervision as well as developing a team of volunteers to be companions to patients and families, encouraging people to look at their networks of support and care. Outside of work my interests include working an allotment, running and creating woolly things from crochet.”
Karen’s introductory presentation, ‘Setting the Scene’ opened the Conference with a discussion of the conference theme. She also led the ‘New Chaplains’ Workshop’.

Dr Conor Carville, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Reading
Presentation: ‘Samuel Beckett: Writing and the history of care’
Workshop: Care and Creativity – engaging with care and death in writing
Conor Carville is Associate Professor of English at Reading University. His book on Irish cultural theory The Ends of Ireland: Criticism, History, Subjectivity, appeared in 2012.   Samuel Beckett and the Visual was published by Cambridge University Press in March 2018. Other recent publications include essays on Beckett’s early poetry, and on his novels Watt and Murphy. His book of poems Harm’s Way was published by Daedalus Press in 2011, a new collection, English Martyrs is forthcoming in September.
Conor’s presentation was based on his work on Beckett, and his workshop explored further how writers have engaged with the question of care and the experience of death, with a view to enabling workshop participants to produce their own short creative pieces.
Dying Well: Becket, writing, and the history of care

Fr. Simon Evers, Chair of the European Network of Healthcare Chaplaincy (ENHCC)
Presentation: Euthanasia and the challenges for a chaplain in Europe
Workshop: The role of a chaplain when a person asks for euthanasia
Simon Evers was elected as ENHCC Co-ordinator at the Network’s 14th Consultation in Debrecen in 2016. He has also chaired the European Research Institute for Chaplains in HealthCare (ERICH) since 2017, and was President of the Dutch Association of Professional Spiritual Caregivers from 2010 to 2016. Simon was born in 1959. From 1979 until 2001 he was a Benedictine of St Andrew’s Abbey in Bruges, where he was ordained priest in 1988. Simon studied philosophy and theology in both Bruges and Rome, specialising in monastic theology, ethics and palliative care. He became a Roman Catholic healthcare chaplain in 1992, and has worked since 1996 in Amsterdam’s OLVG general hospital. He is now also a priest in the Haarlem-Amsterdam Diocese.
Simon’s presentation was ‘Euthanasia and the challenges for a chaplain in Europe’, and he also led a related workshop, ‘The role of a chaplain when a person asks for euthanasia’.
Euthanasia and the challenges for a chaplain in Europe

Revd Dr Jonathan Pye, Hon Research Fellow in Medical Ethics, Bristol University
Presentation: Alice and the caterpillar: mining the meaning of empathy in hospice and palliative care chaplaincy
Workshop: Empathy – Learning to walk in another’s shoes
Jonathan Pye is the Chair of the Bristol District of the Methodist Church and Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Ethics in Medicine / Research Associate in the School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol. He was formerly lead Tutor on the Healthcare route in the Centre for Chaplaincy Studies, University of Cardiff, having co-written the first MA in Healthcare Chaplaincy in the University of Leeds in the 1990s, where he also taught in the Medical School. Jonathan is an experienced former Healthcare Chaplain and has written and lectured widely both in the UK and abroad.
Jonathan’s presentation, on day one of the conference, was entitled, ‘Alice and the caterpillar: mining the meaning of empathy in hospice and palliative care chaplaincy.’ He also provided a workshop: ‘Empathy – Learning to walk in another’s shoes.’ As part of his presentation, Jonathan also had two video clips, one Brené Brown cartoon on sympathy and empathy, and ‘The Heart of Compassion’. Links to both are also posted below.
‘Alice and the caterpillar: mining the meaning of empathy in hospice and palliative care chaplaincy’
Brené Brown on Empathy
The Heart of Compassion

Revd Dr Chris Swift, Director, Methodist Homes Association and former President of the CHCC
Presentation: Practical Issues for Chaplaincy moving forward
Workshop: On practical issues for Chaplaincy moving forward
Chris is a director at Methodist Homes (MHA), providing leadership for the organisation’s 140 chaplains and developing the work of spiritual care for those in later life. As an Anglican Priest for over 25 years Chris spent twenty years working in the NHS, most recently as Head of Chaplaincy in the Leeds Teaching Hospitals. In 2005 Chris completed a PhD in contemporary health care chaplaincy and continues to teach on MA courses; conduct research; advise on PhD projects and write for publication. Chris served two terms as president of the College of Health Care Chaplain (2004-7) and was seconded to lead a project developing new national chaplaincy guidelines for NHS England in 2015. He is author of Hospital Chaplaincy in the Twenty-first Century (2014) published by Routledge. In 2019 Chris was awarded a Visiting Professorship at Staffordshire University in pastoral, religious and spiritual care.
Practical issues for chaplaincy moving forward

Professor Austyn Snowden, Chair in Mental Health, Edinburgh Napier University
Presentation: Measuring the impact of chaplaincy in healthcare: ‘Year of the PROM’ update
Workshop: Measuring the impact of chaplaincy in Hospice day care: how to take part
“I am chair in mental health at Edinburgh Napier University. I lead the mental health undergraduate programme and also teach on the non-medical prescribing course as well as supervising six PhD students. My research interests are varied, but share a theme of studying the impact and effect of really listening to people. I have obtained over £500,000 research income, written/edited three books on medication management and nursing theory, and am lead or sole author of over 60 peer reviewed publications on a range of topics from emotional intelligence to the impact of implementing electronic health records. I try to have weekends off.”
Austyn gave the AGM Presentation, ‘Measuring the impact of chaplaincy in healthcare: ‘Year of the PROM’ update’, and a workshop, ‘Measuring the impact of chaplaincy in Hospice day care: how to take part’.
Year of the PROM – update

Keith Munnings, Conference Chaplain
Workshop: Supporting patients with meditation
Keith Munnings started as a Chaplaincy Volunteer in 2005 working as an Honorary Buddhist Chaplain for an Acute Trust in the Midlands. He now works in a paid role for a similar Trust in the North West with a specific role of developing a Mindfulness Meditation Service Provision, providing wellbeing support for both staff and patients. Keith has represented Buddhism on the national multi-faith council, chairing the group for three years, and he has also been very involved with introductory chaplaincy educational courses funded by NHSE, such as ‘Starting Out in Healthcare Chaplaincy’.

Jo Sims, Head of Family Support at Rainbows Children’s Hospice, Loughborough
Workshop: A model for paediatric Spiritual Care
Jo Sims RGN, RSCN, MA, is Head of Family Support and Outreach at Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People.
“I am a Registered Adult Nurse and a Registered Sick Children’s Nurse. I have worked in Paediatric Palliative Care for in excess of twenty years. I am currently a Senior Nurse at Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People in Leicestershire. I lead a Multi-disciplinary team offering holistic support and outreach to families that include a child with a life-limited condition I have a Masters in Hospice Leadership.”

2018 – Resilience and Reflection in Chaplaincy and Spiritual