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H/T to Corrections Connection
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Imam Salih Yucel is a Muslim chaplain at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, one of a small but growing group:
Yucel is the only Muslim chaplain in the Boston area with clinical pastoral education, an interfaith training program that teaches spiritual leaders how to care for people in crisis, says Mary Robinson, director of Children's Hospital's Chaplaincy program. Because of this training, Robinson says, "if he were doing a preoperative visit, he's skilled in caring for a Roman Catholic or a Jew or a Protestant who would like to have prayer before their surgery."
The training is one of the qualifications employers seek when they hire chaplains, but it's a rarity among imams, Robinson says. In fact, Robinson remembers that when the hospital hired its first Muslim chaplain 13 years ago, it couldn't find an applicant with the certification.
That situation is changing with the help of Connecticut's Hartford Seminary, which seven years ago established what remains the only degree program in the nation for Muslim chaplains — religious leaders who do their work in institutions such as prisons, colleges and universities, corporations, the military or, as in Yucel's case, hospitals. Hartford Seminary offers a 48-credit master of arts degree in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, which takes two years to complete. There's also a one-year, 24-credit graduate certificate. Together, the two degrees equal a master's of divinity, the basic requirement for many chaplaincy jobs.
The program began with three participants. This year, 34 students are enrolled. Graduates most often work in higher education or in the military, but the seminary fields job requests from a variety of places.
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An guest editorial by James Patrick McDonald in the Boston Globe cites the potential of sentencing circles:
When used in alternative sentencing, a peacemaking circle includes the victim of a crime, the defendant, and families or supporters of both. Also present are police, court authorities, and other agencies -- such as child welfare agencies -- with an interest in the life of either the victim or the perpetrator. All may be heard.
Still, the circle honors the victim especially, who can participate in a more comprehensive way than in a criminal court proceeding. In an alternative sentencing circle, all participants must come to a consensus on the punishment of the offender, within the law. "That doesn't mean that jail time is off the table," Phoung adds. The group, including the defendant, might still decide there is no remedy other than prison.
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