Most people have heard of prison chaplains and hospital chaplains, and some might have met airport chaplains, but there are very few people who are aware that there are chaplains in over 30 courts and tribunals in the UK.
A work that started in September 2002 in Leeds Combined Court, in response to the needs of the families, victims and witnesses of the Selby rail crash, has continued to grow organically since that time.
The courts have been described by His Honour Judge Clifford Bellamy, the Designated Family Judge at Coventry County Court, as ‘a sea of misery’. He recognised that all who enter our buildings, whether it be for civil, family or criminal proceedings, are under enormous stress. There is no one who is immune from it — the defendants, the litigants, the witnesses, the jurors, the lawyers, the staff and the judges themselves.
