I recently returned from the annual conference on sports chaplaincy, held by Sports Chaplaincy - United Kingdom (or SCUK). The two day conference centered on the growing issue of Mental Well-being in Sport and there was a tremendous amount of attention on the players and coaches with a view to how the pressure of sport is impacting to the social, spiritual, mental, and other aspects of life. Aside from the main conference, though, was an undercurrent, a subtext. Even from the beginning of the conference, the issue of chaplaincy standards and accountability was an issue that was brought to the table. In all other types of positions and places, there are standards of excellence that usually accompany and accredit one

When David Beckham first stepped foot on American soil to play for Major League Soccer, there was a division of opinion. Some said Beckham was merely the latest in a long line of world-renown footballers, past their prime, looking to make a last stab at financial gain before retirement. There were other pundits who claimed that soccer had officially made it in America and that the Beckham brand would forever change the American landscape and attitude toward a sport with a sketchy history of attraction in the U.S.A. Now, five years later, the jury may still be out on many points of the argument but there is at least one thing (there are more) from this chaplains perspective that Beckham's