To be a chaplain, one needs tools, training, patience, strength and love, and a lot of each. And possessing all of the above, the Rev. Margaret Ann Muncie has cared for the sick, hospitalized and elderly with compassion and grace for more than 20 years.

Muncie, who currently is a full-time chaplain at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan, actually began working as a juvenile probation officer. She soon found her calling, however, in chaplaincy. She worked for nearly 10 years with Greenwich Chaplain Services in Greenwich, CT. Then, after moving to Cincinnati, Muncie served as Director of Spiritual Services for two Episcopal retirement homes in the area, also for 10 years.

Muncie and her husband, the Rev. Stephen Bolle, then found themselves drawn again to the New York area, and Bolle accepted a position as Associate at St. Michael’s, Manhattan. Muncie, meanwhile, had never taken a break from chaplaincy in two decades, only taking time off to have two children and to recover from a brain tumor. As such, she decided it might be a good idea to take a respite — but it only lasted two weeks.

Positions were offered to her, and she couldn’t quite keep away. She began part-time at St. Mary’s Nursing Home in Harlem, and then added a part-time position in the outpatient cancer center at Beth Israel Medical Center, followed by another part-time position at Lenox Hill Hospital. And it all brought her to where she is today — back as a full-time chaplain, now at St. Luke’s, for the Health Care Chaplaincy group.

St. Luke’s has been a perfect fit for Muncie because of its history with the Episcopal Church. The hospital was founded by the Episcopal Church in 1854 and started in a convent in Midtown Manhattan. Today, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt is independent, but Muncie explained, “It is important to have an Episcopal representative that holds the historical roots in place and makes sure the theological and spiritual history get carried over.”

Muncie is deeply committed to the profession of chaplaincy. Not only does her work experience prove that but also her active role with the Association of Professional Chaplains. For 20 years she has served on committees and in various functions, including as secretary for five years. And chaplaincy is not simply an extension of pastoral care in parish or other settings. Chaplains are required to complete a minimum of 400 hours of training, and they must have 1,600 hours for board certification.

“I hope chaplaincy is seen as a trained, skilled, specific ministry,” Muncie stressed. “You become a part of the health care team,” which includes access to patients’ medical charts and information. “We’re all peers,” Muncie said of the doctors, nurses, social workers and chaplains.
At St. Luke’s, Muncie has carried out her role in a number of ways. When a staff member died, she met with fellow staff members and held a memorial service. She held a blessing of the hands, visiting the different departments of the hospital to bring the ministry directly to the staff. On that day, she blessed more than 350 sets of hands.

The role of the chaplain — apart from the important functions of providing patients with care, support and access to religious programs and contacts — is also to offer a calm, trained perspective to patients, family members and doctors who need direction when dealing with difficult issues.

“A chaplain becomes an interpreter,” Muncie explained, and this includes working with the local clergy person if he or she is not trained in chaplaincy. But also, “A chaplain understands the ethos of the facility, and interprets it to the lay person, either the patient or family, and listens to concerns and interprets these back to the doctors. We get called in to do ethics consulting,” she continued, “to meet with doctors and family members and help them with spiritual/religious issues.” Muncie sits on the ethics committee at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt, which deals a lot with end-of-life issues.

As such, chaplains often work with the same family or patient for an extended time, during which a bond is formed. “Sometimes you celebrate great victories,” she explained, but no matter what, the chaplain is there for “sustaining, laughing, crying.

“What you do is help those people bring up their own spiritual reserve to help cope with the crisis,” she said. “That means listening, it means assessing, it means being very present to them.” All of which is not easy in such situations, including for the chaplain, so “it means being stronger than we’d like to be,” Muncie added.

And a chaplain’s work goes much farther than the denomination, religion or spiritual beliefs of the patient. “Our ministry is greater than that.” Chaplains serve as interfaith ministers, and their role is “facilitating,” as Muncie described. They are not representing their faith but rather the presence of God. “In Christian terms,” Muncie said, “I am the vessel through which the spirit of God is working.”

In her years as chaplain, Muncie has seen that patients are extremely receptive to her ministry, no matter what their beliefs.

“People are lonely. A lot are anxious. These are universal feelings,” she said. “We help the patients access these feelings and talk about them. And we bring them comfort and strength.”

 

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