Chaplaincy

Hi, my name is Donald McEwan.

I'm Chaplain to the University and let me take this opportunity
to welcome you to St Andrews University.

You might be a new student or watching this video for any other reason.

And what I'm going to do now is introduce myself and some of the other people and things that we do here through the chaplaincy in this University, this beautiful University of St Andrews.

As I said, my name is Donald.

I've been chaplain for 13 years.

I can't believe how fast that time has gone.

I'm a Scot.

I'm from Glasgow.

I've lived in Ireland.

I've lived in Japan, but I've lived here in this part of Scotland in Fife for over 20 years.

And I absolutely love being chaplain here.

It's so much fun spending time with students, with staff.

Every day there is something new and different about this role.

Anyway, I'm not the only chaplain here in the University.

There are three assistant chaplains, Sam and Giles.

They're both also Christian ministers as I am, and they also
help with pastoral care, listening to students and staff, supporting them, and also help with worship.

Speaking of pastoral care, every student and every member of staff is welcome to come and talk about any issue at all.

You don't have to be a person of faith.

We support people of every faith and culture and tradition and philosophy of life.

We do not impose solutions or religious narratives upon you.

We listen and we try to help you through whatever you're facing.

Alongside these chaplains, there's also Bill.

Bill Schachman is our interfaith chaplain, and he really supports all the faith societies from a huge range of religions and traditions.

He organises interfaith encounters where we can gather and talk about scriptures and other traditions.

Alongside Bill, there are honorary chaplains.

These are volunteers from across the spectrum of faiths and philosophies of life to support students in your journey.

I mentioned worship.

We are blessed with two beautiful medieval chapels, St. Salvator's, St. Leonard's in the University, and there are four choral services every week.

Three in St. Salvator's Chapel, that's even sung twice, and the Sunday morning service, and once a week in St. Leonard's Chapel Complain.

And at every one of these services, student choirs sing the most gorgeous music from across the centuries of spiritual song.

Everyone is welcome at these services regardless of your own faith, your own philosophy of life, and it would be lovely to see you at them.

Now you may want to discuss things, not just one-to-one, but with other students or other members of staff.

That's fine.

We have a number of discussion groups, most of which meet in this building where I am now.

This is called Mansefield, also the chaplaincy.

It's across the road from the Students' Union.

We have groups that discuss issues of faith and society,
interfaith things.

We have a group that explores a call to ministry.

We have grief groups exploring bereavement, if that's been a factor in your life, and we have other discussion groups too.

We also have particular honorary chaplains that support international students for whom English is not their first language.

That's called Local Link, and we have an honorary sports chaplain that spends as much time as she can over at the Sports Centre supporting student staff involved in
sport and exercise.

So as you can see, and I've actually just touched on some of the things, we in the chaplaincy are absolutely here for you and will help you in your journey, whatever that is.

Just get in touch.

You're totally welcome to.

The webpage that has got this video will have ways to email the chaplaincy, email me and my colleagues in the team.

You can call up.

You're probably going to bump into me.

I am six foot six, that's one metre ninety eight. My hair is pretty red and I tend to wear this clerical collar, this uniform.

There's no one else. You're going to bump into looking quite like this in St Andrews, so come say hi, say hello, say you saw the video, and it'll be great to get to know you.

If you are en route to St Andrews or have just arrived, congratulations on coming here.

I hope you have a fantastic time and if there's any way we can help, please just let us know.

All right, bye for now.