The 2019 Annual Conference, at The Hayes, Swanwick, Derbyshire.

All the speaker profiles and workshop details are available below. You can still access the Conference Poster, the Conference Programme, and a link to the Hayes Conference Centre.
You can also access copies of the presentations, via the links at the end of each speaker profile.
As well as being very rewarding, both professionally and personally, the AHPCC Annual Conference is also a very effective way to gain most of the annual CPD points required by the UKBHC – this year we were awarded 12 CPD points. The conference always offers professionally relevant training – this year’s conference addressed many of the current issues that chaplaincy is facing.
Despite having to increase the price this year – for the first time since 2012 – we believe the conference offered excellent value considering the quality of the speakers and full board accommodation.

Speaker and Subject Information

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 which is a small hospice 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’ started the Conference with a discussion on this year’s conference themes.  She also held the ‘New Chaplains’ Workshop’ informally on Tuesday evening, after dinner.

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 from 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 Dedalus 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, on day two, 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
Revd Dr 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 Heathcare 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’ and ‘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’ (Extended version)

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 Childrens 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.”