Ruth Radley, Britain
Providing spiritual care and support to children and families as part of the multi-faith chaplaincy team at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
I am working in a multi-faith chaplaincy team at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH), serving the enormous needs of a well-renowned hospital with many seriously sick children arriving each day. Activities are used with children to help them think through their spirituality in the face of such sickness, and general spiritual care and support is offered for them and their families.
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Ruth’s story
The multi-faith chaplaincy team is pioneering in nature, working on the broad remit of a child’s spirituality during sickness, constantly developing new ways of supporting children and their families. Initially with my role, there is much learning to be done as I shadow different members of the team and get to know the hospital and other staff. It is envisaged that my role will shortly take on community work, especially in supporting families who are either marginalised or who have no real support networks, including refugees and asylum seekers. I would also like to develop relationships between local churches and families to ensure that ongoing care and support can be given.
For a long time now, I have known that my passion and calling is within the area of children’s ministry, working directly with children while also advocating for them. I initially trained as a children’s nurse and worked on a ward where the majority of children had cancer; it was a privilege to walk with families through this. After a short-term year in Tanzania, I returned to the UK and worked as a children’s worker in a church. Five and a half years later I began discussions with CMS and went to live in South Sudan, where I was for eight years, working with an amazing team training churches and communities in the area of children’s needs.
I have a desire to see children living out their God-given potential and I believe that if we could come to understand more of this, and release children into their rightful roles, we would see a very different Church, and indeed a very different world.
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