Spiritual Care
- Spiritual first aid
- Spiritual cover (sacred altar protection duty)
- Spiritual oversight
- Spiritual intelligence and mapping
- Spiritual intervention and counselling
- Spiritual warfare
- Spiritual diplomacy
- Ministry of presence
What Chaplains Do — Core Duties
Framework published in The Drill Magazine, Vol. 2.
Chaplaincy has grown into a ministry, a profession, an academic discipline, and a corps — and at RCI, that work is organized around five categories of core duty, plus ceremonial functions and corporate social responsibility activities.
Religious Care
- Altar duties for ordained ministers
- Evangelism and missions
- Religious rites and rituals — anointing, baptism, naming, dedication, funeral rites, confession, and other sacred sacraments
- Organization and coordination of religious worship services and centres
- Prayers and deliverance
- Religious counselling
- Ministry of presence
Pastoral Care
- Preaching and discipleship
- Evangelism and follow-up
- Pastoral welfare and shepherding
- Pastoral visits
- Pastoral counselling and oversight
- Church management
- Biblical counselling
- Pastor to other pastors
- Ministry of presence
Emotional Care
- General and specialized counselling
- Psychotherapy and psychological first aid
- Psychospiritual counselling
- Emotional oversight functions
- Death notification
- Relationship and marriage counselling
- Pre- and post-surgical counselling
- Resilience and coping capacity counselling
- Psychosocial care
- Ministry of presence
Ethical Care
- Counselling on decision-making and values
- Issues of right and wrong
- Moral courage building
- Issues of life counselling
- End-of-life counselling
- Ministry of presence
Ceremonial Activities
Activities and programmes chaplaincy outfits engage in for espirit de corps and to add colour and glamour to chaplaincy:
- Commissioning parades and drill rehearsals
- Physical training and exercises
- Weddings, burial ceremonies, and birthdays
- National days and world days celebrations
- RCCG and RCI events and celebrations
- Special anniversaries, convocations, and inductions
- Dedications, naming ceremonies, and ordination ceremonies
- Workshops, conferences, and graduation ceremonies
Corporate Social Responsibility (CCSR) Activities
Activities done by chaplaincy outfits to build a good image and establish a favourable reputation with the public:
- Traffic control and altar protection duties
- Medical outreaches
- Environmental sanitation
- Visits and donations to orphanage homes
- Visits and donations to hospitalised patients
- Filling of potholes and extra-moral classes
- Organization of skills classes
- Crowd control during public programmes
- Visits and donations to old people's homes
All the aforementioned chaplaincy core duties, ceremonial functions, and corporate social responsibility activities are relevant to God and humanity. Chaplaincy is unlimited and inexhaustible. Underneath all five core categories is one constant: a ministry of presence — calm, prepared, and trustworthy when it counts most.
See also: Ceremonial functions and CCSR are also covered on the Ceremonial & Community Service page.