EAST HARDWICK – Arriving at the back door of Chaplain Alexandra (Alex) Jump’s home, I noticed several carts of freshly sheared wool. I was there to get to know her and gain insight into her work as a chaplain. Unknowingly, I was also about to learn what chaplains and shepherds have in common.
Inside the house, I observed tools for sorting, combing and spinning wool. Chaplain Alex demonstrated the combing process using a nifty device on her kitchen counter. Once a shepherd, she now cares for a different kind of flock: people who are sick, suffering and at the end of their life journey.
We sat amidst books, papers, computers and to-be-finished exams, all part of a chaplain’s unending academic journey. Being a chaplain means not only tending to a flock but teaching and evaluating chaplains-in-training. These could be hospice chaplains, healthcare chaplains, military chaplains, first-responder chaplains: those you are likely to find at life’s critical incidents. While Chaplain Alex has performed several of these roles, her chosen path was medical chaplaincy and hospice care.
I asked her what is meant by a critical incident and how it differs from what people may be calling a state of crisis in our country. She remarked jokingly (and she often uses humor to lighten a dark moment) that a crisis is when she doesn’t have her cup of tea in the morning. A crisis is a personal experience, often passing with time. A critical incident happens when life changes 100% for those involved, she said. It’s when a town burns down, an accident causes imprisonment, a life-threatening illness brings death. In these and other hard times, a chaplain steps in to support those involved and aid the transition to whatever is next. Chaplains are also called upon to “marry, bury and bless” stated Chaplain Alex.
Given the range of life situations that a chaplain attends, I wanted to learn what it takes to become a chaplain in the first place. Listening to Chaplain Alex tell her stories, I concluded that the path to chaplaincy is rugged. It’s not tied to any specific religious group, although chaplains must be knowledgeable in a variety of faith practices to comfort people on their spiritual journey. Regardless of their chosen area of practice, chaplains must also be experts in health care, psychology and ethics. They must pass excruciating tests of evidence-based competencies that cover everything from the first encounter to the moment of death. This comprehensive training is necessary because critical incidents happen everywhere, to all types of people.
Although raised in an academic family and exposed to the medical field early in her childhood, Chaplain Alex’s career path was not preordained. After obtaining her degree in education, she became a teacher, a mental health practitioner, a shepherd and a fiber artist. She married and had children. She survived cancer. She eventually received her Master of Divinity and completed her Clinical Pastoral Education requirements of field study and hospital residency, often in urban settings.
She decided, after years of studies and work assignments in the city, to move to this area, where her family had summered for four generations.
Describing her choice to move from city to country life, she used the expression, “the treasure vs. the coin,” implying that opportunities for achievement and wealth (coin) may be more plentiful in the city, but she was seeking opportunities for working closely with people in ways that were meaningful to her (treasure). I interpreted that as a way of approaching life with gratitude and recognition that money cannot buy happiness. It values what is essential and considers it an honor to guide others through the most critical times in their lives.
Given the private and sacred nature of her work, Chaplain Alex’s stories are not rightfully told outside of her community of spiritual care providers. You may have had or will have your own critical life experiences when nothing is the same going forward. You may feel that now, as I do, when the loss of democracy seems possible and our country doesn’t feel the same as it has in the past. It is a type of grieving that Chaplain Alex calls “ambiguous grief, when you are not sure what will happen next.
When I asked her if our current events constitute a critical incident or at least a crisis, her answer surprised me. I expected her to say that death is much bigger or more significant than the woes we are carrying during these social and political times. Instead, she said “There is nothing new in humanity, ever. Empires rise and fall. Wars carry on. Elite groups misuse their power. Cultures die out. New ones come in to replace them. What is different about today is the speed at which it is happening, especially given giant leaps in technology. We are also on the receiving end of what other countries have suffered for years. We have elevated non-essentials such as football players’ salaries and devalued how we pay our teachers and farmers. We have based our economy on what we are consuming, not what we are making. We continue to view money as the treasure rather than the treasures of community, family, and respect for our shared humanity.”
Chaplain Alex explained that in her experience, how people are affected by social and political upheavals depends on their resiliency and personal history of surviving other issues. For example, those who have experienced war or economic depression may have some extra resiliency.
To meet these troubling times, Chaplain Alex suggests finding how to use your gifts to make change and help others. You might run for office, speak up for the sick and disenfranchised, become something you’ve always dreamed of or help other people fulfill their dreams.
As we left through the back door, we passed by the drying wool. She touched it gently and remarked at the beauty of the wool as it dries and brings out new colors; a treasure that emerges with the passage of time.
Eleanor Guare resides in Greensboro and curates the Voices of Spirit column. Chaplain Alexandra Jump holds a Master of Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School, is an Advanced Practice Board Certified Chaplain, and is First Responder Board Certified. She is the Associate Director for Credentialing and Certification for the Spiritual Care Association and is the Hospice Chaplain for Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice. She lives in East Hardwick.
Editor’s note: Alex Jump lives in East Hardwick. Her children were grown when she moved to Greensboro.
