Patrick Comerford
I returned to Milton Keynes University Hospital with Charlotte earlier this week on the second anniversary of my stroke on 18 March 2022. We sat for a while beneath the magnolia tree that offered fresh hope for health, renewal and new life in the week after that stroke, once again sipping coffee together hank each other for the life, health and love that we have enjoyed in the two years since then.
I was grateful too in my memories for the members of the hospital chaplaincy team who visited me and brought me Holy Communion during my stay, and so on Monday afternoon we also visited the Chapel and Quiet Room in the Blue Zone, on Level 2, near Ward 21.
The Chapel and Quiet Room and the Muslim Prayer Rooms in that part of the hospital are always available for quiet contemplation or prayer. But the area is for everybody, whether that person has a religion or not, and anyone can come there at any time to pray or reflect.
The chapel, quiet room and Muslim prayer rooms are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, although at night a member of staff needs to swipe someone in.
A weekly Christian service of Holy Communion is held in the Chapel and Quiet Room on Thursdays at 8:30 am and Holy Communion is taken to patients on the wards on Sunday mornings.
The Muslim Prayer rooms in the same area have separate areas for men and women to wash and pray. Friday prayer is held in the chapel and quiet room around 1:15 pm every week. Muslim Prayer Rooms.
The hospital’s chaplaincy team provides pastoral, spiritual and religious care and listening ears to the whole hospital community, including patients, relatives, members of staff and volunteers 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
The chaplains offer time and impartial support in a non-judgmental and caring space. They offer help and support in practising religious faith, and support in having cultural needs understood and met.
They offer their support to people of all worldviews, including those who belong to a particular religious faith and to none. The chaplaincy team says they support members of the hospital community in a way that is person-centred, starting with the person and their needs rather than sharing their own faith or beliefs.
In a discreet notice in the chapel, the chaplaincy team members also say they ‘are committed to providing support to staff, patients and their families, whatever your sexuality, gender identity or trans status and whatever beliefs, faith or worldviews you have.’
The departmental lead, the Revd Sarah Crane, is a Baptist minister. She studied theology at Spurgeon’s College and was ordained in July 2013. The other chaplains include Claire Reetz, who has worked at Saint Lawrence Church, Towcester, and has had a youth internship in Peterborough Cathedral, and the Revd Ali Facey, a Methodist minister.
Anne-Marie Newman is a Pastoral Support Worker, and two Roman Catholic priests, Father Francis Higgins of Christ the Cornerstone Church and Father Mark, are also available in the hospital.
I am back in Milton Keynes University Hospital next week for another check-up.
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