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(c) 2026 Marsh Institute for Chaplains. Chaplain Resource Network is an initiative of the Marsh Institute for Chaplains. All rights reserved.
Formation for the chaplain's own inner life. Part of our Ministry of Presence series.
The hardest calls are the ones you cannot solve. A parent sits in a hospital hallway after the worst news of their life. A firefighter stares at the floor after a call that went wrong. A neighbor loses the person ...
A chaplain rarely carries tools. You walk into a hospital room, a squad bay, or a shelter with almost nothing but your attention and your words. That can feel thin next to a clinician's protocols. The research says otherwise. The chaplain's instrument is listening, and listening is trainable. Studie...
Every chaplain supervisor watches the same reflex appear in new trainees. A patient starts to cry, a widow goes quiet, a young officer stares at the floor, and the chaplain in training reaches for words. The instinct is kind. It is also the first thing a supervisor has to slow down. Presence is not ...
Community chaplains work in the ordinary places where people already live: neighborhood centers, shelters, food banks, disaster sites, small businesses, and civic gatherings. They do not wait for people to walk into a hospital or a station house. They go to the corner where life happens and stay lon...
Most chaplains learn early that the work is quiet, and often lonely. You sit with a family in the worst hour of their lives. You stand in a hallway after a line-of-duty death. You carry stories no one else in the room can carry. Then you go home and hold it alone. The lone-chaplain model asks one pe...
Military chaplaincy does not happen in a single moment. It runs on a cycle. Long before the plane leaves and long after it returns, service members and their families move through a predictable arc: the buildup before deployment, the separation, the reunion, and the slow work of reintegration. A cha...
Chaplains spend their days holding other people's worst moments. You sit with the family in the emergency room. You stand at the fireground while the crew works. You carry the pager that pulls you out of bed at 3 a.m. and back into someone else's grief. The work is a gift. It is also a load, and the...
Every line-of-duty death tests a department, and it tests the chaplain who walks beside it. A fallen officer or firefighter leaves grief that spreads far past one family. It reaches the squad room, the station, the wider responder community, and the home where the porch light stays on. Public safety...
A groundbreaking initiative is changing the game for chaplaincy training and professional development. The Marsh Institute for Chaplains has partnered with three leading faith-based organizations to launch the Chaplain Resource Network (CRN), a collaborative training hub that's designed to expand ac...
