Mamie Long has become the newest full-time member of Sydney Anglicare's team of chaplains.
Mamie's appointment to the care of patients and families at St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst is the culmination of years working as a volunteer visiting prisoners and hospital patients.
No-one is more surprised than Mamie at the turn her career has taken as she moves from managing Moore Books to the front-line caring ministry of chaplaincy.
"I first learnt about the work of chaplaincy by becoming involved in the Kairos prison ministry as a volunteer," Mamie says.
"The people you meet in prisons may not have any link with church and yet in their time of crisis they have questions such as "What does it all mean?' and "Does God care?'"
Although Mamie enjoyed being a volunteer in prisons, she never planned to make it her career.
Mamie graduated from Moore College with a Bachelor of Theology in 1992 which led to a job with the Anglican Education Commission before becoming Manager of Moore Books in 2001.
After helping to run programs at Mulawa Women's Prison in Silverwater and completing the Clinical Pastoral Education course at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Camperdown, Mamie was offered a locum as chaplain at Juniperina, a correctional facility for young women at Lidcombe.
"There it struck me how effective one can be as an instrument in reminding people that God is near, that he wants to hear from us and answers prayer," she says.
"As a Christian you are offering the reminder that Jesus walks with us and there is never a moment when God is not around."
Mamie began work as the full-time chaplain at St Vincent's Hospital last month.
"I was welcomed very warmly into the multi-denominational pastoral care department led by Sue Jiugni," she says.
Until Mamie's appointment, the position had been vacant for some time.
In the absence of a full-time chaplain, ministry to patients was conducted by two Anglican ministers: rector of St George's, Paddington, the Rev Clive Watkins, and rector of Christ Church, St Lawrence, the Rev Adrian Stephens.
"I have a particular ward that I look after as well as being there for any patient that identifies as Anglican," Mamie says.
"My job is to sit with people, trying to hear what is going on for them, and sharing with them what they will often remember as one of the worst [times] of their lives."
