William Folprecht is a retired pastor who lives in East Northport, New York.
“I’ve been in three or four hospitals, but this is the first time a minister has visited me!”
That was the comment made by a woman recently to one of the thirty-four local ministers engaged in our community hospital chaplaincy program. It’s only one of many remarks we’ve received indicating the need for hospital visitation.
Some hospitals maintain a full-time chaplain on the premises. Ours has a Roman Catholic priest, assigned by a large congregation in our town, who gives all of his time to visiting the patients of his faith. But there was no provision on the part of the hospital for ministers to call on out-of-town or locally unchurched Protestants. I had been part of such a chaplaincy years before in Schenectady, New York, so another minister and I decided to challenge our local pastors to implement this needed visitation.
John Durokovich, secretary of the Huntington Clergy Association, and I discussed the matter. Then we talked with the administrator of the Huntington Hospital. At first he was hesitant, and John thought he might be afraid we would be “too evangelistic.” From John’s experience as head chaplain at a nearby hospital, he was aware also of the harm a good-intentioned but ill-advised person can do to a patient.
Although we could have gone ahead on our own and sent pastors in, we felt we should have the full acceptance of the administrator, and he finally gave his approval.
Letters were sent to forty-three ministers in the area describing the idea. A return card was enclosed on which the pastors were to indicate if they were interested in visiting one week every six months, making calls twice in that week. In this way we hoped to secure twenty-five ministers to cover the whole year. A total of thirty-four pastors responded and became involved in the program. The pastors were called and asked which weeks they preferred to serve, and a schedule was drawn up to cover three months at a time. Our system works in this way:
¥ A copy of the schedule is mailed to each pastor, and one week before he is to serve, we send him a copy of the suggestion sheet with a note: “Dear Pastor Jones: Just a reminder that you are scheduled to be the chaplain at Huntington Hospital the week of. … “
¥ Each Wednesday I phone the pastor for that week, asking how he has fared, whether there have been any problems, and how many he has visited. (At the end of our first year we had visited 661 patients.)
¥ The suggestion sheet asks him not to enter the psychiatric ward, since the hospital feels that might interfere with group or individual therapy. We have also advised against going to the maternity ward when the babies are with the mothers.
¥ We recommend that if they leave literature with the patients, it should be positive and about healing. Presently, we are giving out copies of Norman Vincent Peale’s Healing-for Loved Ones and You, along with a tract entitled In Times of Trouble.
¥ The pastors introduce themselves, explaining that they’re the Protestant chaplain for that week. After visiting a few minutes, if it’s appropriate, they offer to pray. Only on rare occasions has a patient asked not to have a prayer given.
Most people, however, are more than appreciative. I prayed once with a woman who was in her nineties. As I started to leave the room, the other patient, a much younger woman, thanked me for praying. She had appreciated my few words addressed to God, in which I had prayed for all who were hospitalized.
One of our chaplains told of an unusual experience. He found a patient’s door closed, so he inquired at the nurses’ station nearby to see if he could enter and pray. “No,” the nurse told him, “she’s in a coma and won’t be able to hear you.” He said gently, “But I’m not going to talk to her. I’m going to talk to God.”
The nurse then opened the door and he entered. He prayed silently, and was then led to pray aloud the Lord’s Prayer. He’d hardly begun when to his amazement, the patient began to pray it aloud with him. When he told the nurse she said, “Incredible! That woman’s been in a coma for four days!”
Lately, I’ve begun meeting with small groups of these pastors, having lunch with four or five of them at a local restaurant, and sharing our hospital experiences. One man told of a patient from Uruguay, embittered for some reason against the church. By the time the chaplain finished visiting with him and they prayed, the man had drastically begun to change his attitude toward God.
We’ve found that patients facing surgery are particularly grateful and appreciative of prayer. When I faced eye surgery years ago, I was thankful that a pastor visited me and prayed with and for me. Only God and the patient will ever know how much a prayer has given strength to someone who faced the unknown of the operating room.
On two occasions during this past year, it has been my privilege to introduce two young pastors to our chaplaincy program. I took each of them separately with me while making my own calls, giving each minister an idea of the routine of making the rounds.
A young pastor who served recently told me he felt it took a great deal of his time to visit patients, and in our ensuing conversation I discovered he felt he had to stay fifteen minutes with each person. I tried to explain it isn’t the length of the call that counts, but just the fact that he was there, showing someone cared; and in the name of Jesus Christ, he was reminding the person of God’s love and power.
Unfortunately, this is not an art that can be developed overnight. It takes prayer, experience, patience, and advice. I’ve been making hospital calls for four decades, and I’m still learning how to deal adequately with patients who are fearful of an operation soon to be performed, concerned about the results of tests currently being taken, discomforted and impatient during convalescence, or worried that perhaps God has deserted them.
On one occasion I called on a man who seemed to be making progress, but when I returned a third time, he’d taken a turn for the worse and was dying. The nurse led me to his bedside, where the curtains were drawn, and I prayed. When I left the room, I had the opportunity to counsel and pray with the rest of the family outside. In those instances, I always wish I could do much more.
How do physicians feel about our visiting? A survey taken in a large Chicago hospital some time ago revealed that almost 75 percent of the doctors in the institution felt that a pastoral visit was a definite help to the patient, and a source of healing strength. One doctor I know said to me, “We have a saying: The surgeon makes the incision, God does the healing.”
We once had a luncheon meeting in Schenectady with twenty-five doctors and as many ministers at the hospital. We sat at tables with each pastor between two doctors. The guest speaker was the head chaplain of Bellevue Hospital in New York City, who drove 160 miles to discuss the related efforts of ministers and doctors in the healing ministry. During a period of discussion after the address, we talked about our mutual responsibilities and opportunities. Several doctors told of virtual “miracles” they had witnessed in the hospital, indicating that God can and does perform beyond the explainable.
Right now we’re rejoicing as chaplains and ministers because we learned one of our pastors has been asked to sit as a member of the board of directors of our hospital. We feel this is a sign that the work of the clergyman is beginning to be more fully appreciated.
All of us, however, who make hospital calls, know full well that we must not interfere with the hospital’s modus operandi. If a therapist, aide, nurse, or doctor enters just as we begin visiting a patient, we tell the patient who we are and that we will return shortly. Then, after making other calls, we return, and usually find that the patient is alone.
Beyond the actual help we believe we’re offering patients in our chaplaincy program, there are other benefits. For one, we often alert other pastors that some of their parishioners are in the hospital. When we discover patients from local congregations we ask them if their minister knows they are there. If he does, then we don’t feel we should continue to see the patient. If the patient says the pastor probably is not aware he’s in the hospital, then we ask, “Would you like us to call and let him know?” One week I had three such calls to make, and each pastor was more than grateful for the information. One man said, “I don’t have a crystal ball, and I can’t visit the hospital daily, so I appreciate it when I’m told one of my parishioners is there.”
Perhaps the greatest aspect of our interchurch hospital-calling program is that it truly demonstrates Christian cooperation to the world. Regardless of the denominational label the visiting clergyman wears, when he comes to the hospital he is seen not through a denominational lens; he is a minister of Cod representing the body of Jesus Christ.
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