"Survivor Network": "Like No Other Resource Available"

Chaplain Steve Rekedal - one of the many unique voices you will hear on the “Survivor Network”

In the three years since we first started the “Survivor Network”, I have spent many hours in the presence of chaplains — both in person as part of our ongoing video productions and then listening to their recorded words during the many hours of post-production editing.

LeConte on set with Project Director Chaplain Dave FairTogether with Master Chaplain Dave Fair, we have conducted nearly one hundred hours of interviews all across the country.

My time spent with chaplains has not only enriched my life, it has informed and bolstered my confidence in the program. It is, after all, the stated purpose of “The Survivor Network” to recreate, as best we can via the Internet, the experience of visiting with a chaplain. 

While the Internet is never a substitute for a caregiver sitting across from the grieving  — I am convinced that it can be an effective tool for filling the silence that surrounds grief — particularly during those late hours when personal care is impractical. That is what makes the “Survivor Network” unique — it is a place of healing like no other resource now available.

The project requires a kind of role reversal of a chaplain’s customary “ministry of presence” (here chaplains do the talking; the grieving listen). Still, just hearing a chaplain speak creates a Chaplain Larry Todd with Phillip LeConte and Chaplain Scott Johnsonkind of sacred space where healing begins.

Chaplains speak soulfully from the heart in a manner that is measured, thoughtful, soothing. 

In today’s America that is unique. Chaplains invest language with a kind of grace that is immediately distinguishable from 90 percent of what we hear and see through the media.

I encourage those in despair to spend time with the “Survivor Network”, not because it will distract you from your grief, rather because it will help you experience it in a way that promotes healing.

Speaking from my own experience, I recommend the “Survivor Network” to anyone who occasionally seeks out a sacred space. Spend a few minutes with our chaplains and you are right back there on grandma’s porch swing — when gentle words punctuated long, sweet stretches of silence.

That I may speak with soothing power

a word in season, as from thee,

to weary ones in needful hour.

Frances Ridley Havergal, 1872

At the very least, listening to the “Survivor Network” will make you better prepared for the role that life ultimately hands each of us — that of caregiver to those who grieve.

Phillip  LeConte