David Fleenor is a New York-based chaplain. He spoke with us about the role the ecumenical and interreligious movement has played in his ministry.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.
My name is the Rev. David Fleenor, and I serve as the manager of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Stony Brook University Hospital, where I founded a new ACPE-accredited CPE program in 2022. Prior to this role, I spent nearly seven years as the director of education at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, overseeing CPE programs and teaching spirituality and health in the Icahn School of Medicine, where I also served as an assistant professor in the Department of Medical Education. I am a clinical instructor at the Renaissance School of Medicine, where I continue to teach on the intersection of spirituality and health. In addition to my work in chaplaincy education, I serve as president of the Association of Episcopal Chaplains. This May, I will complete a Ph.D. in health sciences from Rush University. My dissertation, “Transforming Healthcare Chaplaincy Education,” focuses on developing curriculum standards that, I hope, will shape the future of healthcare chaplaincy education.
What role has the ecumenical and interreligious movement played in your ministry?
The ecumenical and interreligious movement has played a pivotal role in my ministry, shaping both my personal faith journey and my professional work as a chaplain and educator. My first encounter with ecumenism came in 1998 during my first unit of CPE, when I was a student at Pentecostal Theological Seminary. Until that point, I had been deeply insulated in a religious bubble. CPE changed that. My fellow students came from a variety of traditions—Methodist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal, among others—introducing me to perspectives I had never encountered. It was through CPE that I first met an Episcopalian, a moment that would profoundly alter the course of my life. During an ecumenical Ash Wednesday service in a hospital chapel, he leaned over and said, “If you really want to see how this is done, come to church with me tonight.” I did—and it changed everything. At the time, I was in a season of profound wondering and wandering in my faith, and that Ash Wednesday service opened my heart and mind to a different way of being Christian—the Episcopalian way. Fast forward to 2004, when I enrolled at General Theological Seminary in New York City to become an Episcopal priest. There, I became part of a monthly interreligious dialogue group with seminary students from different traditions—Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish (spanning modern Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements). These conversations expanded my understanding of faith, ministry, and community. My big takeaway was that I sometimes had more in common with people from other religions than I did with people in my own. The commonality tended to center on how we viewed the world (and truth) rather than religious and theological commitments. In 2006, when I entered supervisory education to become a CPE supervisor, I began providing healthcare chaplaincy in New York City hospitals, some of the most religiously diverse settings in the world. As a CPE educator, I worked with students who were not only Christian, but also Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, and even non-religious. This experience challenged me to dig deeply into my own theology to develop a framework for ministry that was faithful to my tradition while also truly hospitable to others. What I arrived at was the supremacy of love. My Episcopal faith calls me, above all, to love others—even those with whom I may profoundly disagree. I’ve learned that love is not about articulating my own beliefs or defending a theological stance; rather, it is often about creating space for people to process their experiences and emotions. That act of love—holding space with humility and compassion—is at the heart of my interfaith and ecumenical ministry.
Are there unique challenges you’ve faced where experience in ecumenical- and interreligious-sensitive chaplaincy has helped?
My experience in ecumenical and interreligious-sensitive chaplaincy has been invaluable, especially in my role as a CPE supervisor working with students from a variety of faith backgrounds. One particularly powerful example is a Jewish-humanist CPE student I supervised, who found herself in an unexpected situation: being asked to perform an emergency baptism for a Catholic family. Understandably, she had serious reservations. It was a request that stood outside her theological and religious framework, and she wrestled with whether she could, in good conscience, participate. In our conversations, I shared with her something I had discovered in my own faith journey: the supremacy of love. Sometimes, love calls us outside of our comfort zone, pushing us to take risks or to act in ways that challenge our usual boundaries. She embraced this idea with great care and ended up conducting a beautiful and deeply meaningful baptism, offering comfort and pastoral presence to a grieving family in crisis (read an article about this here). Beyond specific situations like this, my ecumenical and interreligious training has also helped me navigate difficult political and cultural divides, both with patients and CPE students. In today’s climate, it is easy to become reactive, defensive, or disengaged when encountering views we find troubling. But I have learned that staying connected—even in disagreement—is crucial. One of my favorite ways to describe spiritual care is simply: “I see you, I hear you, and I love you.” It is, of course, a tall order, but when we can embody this—whether with those we agree or disagree with—God’s love shines through. In these moments, healing becomes possible, and true pastoral presence is realized.
Where is this work going in the future?
As religious demographics shift and political polarization deepens, the need for genuine, transformative dialogue has never been greater. If we are to engage meaningfully with people who hold different beliefs and values, we must be grounded and centered in our spiritual practices. These practices not only sustain us but also cultivate the openness required to truly see, hear, and love others. One of the greatest challenges in our time is reactivity—our tendency to retreat into defensiveness or judgment when confronted with difference. Chaplains, however, are called to something deeper. We must lean into our spiritual practices that help us stay present and vulnerable, allowing real connection to occur. In my experience, transformation happens when people feel seen and heard for who they truly are, rather than being prematurely judged or categorized. Once we experience that kind of authentic presence (the kind that I believe Jesus offered to others), we become more open to examining our own limitations, recognizing where our beliefs may need to evolve. This is the heart of chaplaincy across all contexts—creating spaces where people are seen, heard, and loved, so that transformation can happen not only for those we serve but for ourselves as well.