Spiritual Support

Chaplains provide respectful spiritual and emotional care to people of all faiths and spiritualities, including those who identify themselves as non-religious or non-spiritual. They lead worship services, meditation sessions, and educational classes, and can assist in locating religious and spiritual resources and communities.

Spiritual and Religious Care

"As chaplains, we make ourselves available to walk beside people on their journey, both in times of struggle and in times of joy. We seek to sustain, guide, and nurture spiritual and emotional well-being through relationships, conversations, rituals, and symbols." -- SCCA Chaplain

Introduction to Pastoral Care

Illness can be a painful, frightening, and isolating experience full of uncertainties and loss. Sometimes illness can push one to the point of experiencing spiritual and emotional chaos, pain, and distress. But it can also be an opportunity to celebrate, change, and experience expressions of being cared for in new ways.

Pastoral care focuses on religious and/or spiritual issues, which may include emotional support. SCCA chaplains listen attentively to people who seek them out to understand and to participate with them as much as possible within the person's spiritual, cultural, and personal frame of reference. Chaplains converse in a supportive and inquiring manner, rather than impose perspective upon another person. They seek to assist each person in recognizing, clarifying, and integrating his or her spirituality. For those who are not affiliated with a specific religion or spiritual practice, pastoral care may be supportive companionship. For all, chaplains seek to empower people to creatively encounter their situations with possibilities for healing and renewal.

Pastoral services are available to patients at any stage of their treatment process at the SCCA, UW Medical Center, and Seattle Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center. For pastoral care at Seattle Children's Hospital, contact the manager of Pastoral Care at (206) 987-4363. The chaplains are always available to be called for an urgent need, and also lead worship, meditative, and educational services; help people know about and get connected to local faith and/or spiritual communities; and provide resources such as sacred texts, inspirational and self-help literature, meditation and relaxation tapes, and other spiritual resources.

Click Places of Worship to see a list of religious institutions in the Seattle area.

For the King-5 video special about the work of one of our chaplains, Rev. Debra Jarvis, click here.

For more information, or to speak with a chaplain, please call (206) 288-1099 or email us at pastoral@seattlecca.org.