The Role of International Chaplaincies

I ISSUE 2 2020

A Koinonia interview with The Rev’d Fr Salvador Telen

Fr Salvador Telen

our relationship with USPG has been crucial

Alongside his role as Vicar of St Saviour’s Church Walthamstow, the Rev’d Fr Salvador Telen is Vicar and Senior Chaplain for the Iglesia Filipina Indipendiente (IFI) in the UK and Europe. In this role, Fr Salvador is tasked with caring for one of the communities that has been hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. There are 142,000 Filipinos currently living in the UK and about 60 percent of them work in healthcare and essential services. Filipinos make up a disproportionately high percentage of all the tt workers who have died from Covid-19. ‘We’ve had 100 people die from amongst those of our community who are essential workers,’ Fr Salvador says. ‘We are now trying to care for all those bereaved families. As the leader of the group coordinating our response to Covid-19, I’ve found this experience to be both emotional and challenging. Our people came here to cure people; now they’re sacrificing their lives for it. Covid-19 has been devastating to us as a community.’ The role of international chaplaincies such as the one Salvador leads is multi-faceted, offering both spiritual and practical assistance. ‘Our chaplaincy faces a lot of challenges,’ he says. ‘Domestic workers face a lot of abuse: some people may have been trafficked and others will have left family back in the Philippines to find work in Europe. They make a huge sacrifice. ‘We are a link between Filipinos here and their loved ones back home. We have 30,000 undocumented people here who cannot go home. When the pandemic began, we called the IFI’s main office in Manila and asked them to look after the families of those people; to reassure them that their folks in the UK are safe. Where necessary, we arranged with IFI to give them help with food.’ The IFI Chaplaincy team started planning its Covid-19 strategy in March. When the lockdown began, the chaplaincy already had volunteers in place, checking-up on elderly and vulnerable people and delivering food and medicines. It also offered support to frontline workers. ‘Many of them were working long shifts and coming home to empty cupboards, so we arranged food deliveries for them,’ Fr Salvador says. ‘Many Anglican bishops have called and given us their support - both financially and spiritually. The financial help is important because many of our members have lost their jobs since the pandemic began. ‘In all this, our relationship with USPG has been crucial. The link between our chaplaincy and USPG is more than just a financial one; there’s emotional support there too. USPG is a very strong ally to the Filipino Chaplaincy.