Companions on the Way: Chaplaincy in Interfaith Contexts

Cate Beaulieu-Desjardins, MDiv, MPH, BCC, of Philadephia, Pennsylvania, is Executive Director of Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship; Assistant Professor for Religion, Health and Human Values at Rush University College of Health Sciences in Chicago, Illinois; and Assistant Director for Research Development at Transforming Chaplaincy through Rush University. She spends much of her time on spiritual care research, primarily in pediatric medicine, and on teaching evidence-based chaplaincy skills to practitioners. She is Co-editor of Case Studies in Pediatric Chaplaincy (forthcoming).

Christine Farah, MA, LLB, is Spiritual Care Practitioner and Counsellor at The Nazareth Hospital EMMS in Israel and Director of the SERVE Nazareth Volunteer Program. She is an experienced pastoral care professional with a strong foundation in law, counselling and chaplaincy. She has unique skills for providing emotional and spiritual support across diverse cultural settings, particularly within Arabic contexts. She is highly committed to whole-person care and ministry in interfaith and multilingual contexts.

Sunghyun Lee, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology and Psychology at AMBS. An ordained minister of the Korean Methodist Church, she identifies herself as a Christian care ethicist and a scholar of pastoral care and counseling whose core value is grounded in empathy. She endeavors to integrate theory and practice in her overarching research interests and through the organization she founded to support immigrants and international students, Sojourner Coaching, LLC.

Luis Rodriguez, DMin, ACPE, BCC, is Clinical Pastoral Education Director for Houston (Texas) Methodist. Originally from Puerto Rico, he is an ordained minister in Mennonite Church USA, a Certified Educator with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education and a Board Certified Chaplain through the Association of Professional Chaplains in the U.S. He has extensive experience in teaching, spiritual care leadership and educational consultation in different countries. He’s currently writing Bridges to the Beyond: Pathways for Spiritual Care.

Leah R. Thomas, PhD, is Associate Professor of Pastoral Care at AMBS. She blends an academic focus on pastoral care and Christian social ethics with professional experience in hospital chaplaincy, pastoring and nonprofit management. Her ministry and theological commitments inform her teaching and research, which carefully attend to and incorporate voices excluded by the dominant culture. Her research interests include antiracist and intercultural pastoral care, trauma, culture, and the role of embodiment in caregiving and Christian spiritual practices.