“I remember with great clarity the first moment when the vitality of hospital chaplaincy struck me. After shadowing more experienced chaplains, I stood outside the room of the first patient I would see on my own. All I knew was her name and her desire to see a chaplain. I realized I had no idea of what I would experience as I stepped around the curtain. Would she be well healed and heading home? Would she be intubated, in pain and unable to speak? Was she full of faith, or of little faith? At that moment I realized I was about to step into a mystery.” (Rev. Scott Railsback, ChI 2006)
“Blessings to the knarled hands
who come to us for hope.
Blessings to the broken hearted
who come to us to mend.
Blessings to the families
who ache in fear and doubt.
Blessings to the dying
who come to us … to leave.
Blessings to the healers’ hands
as Spirit guides their way."
(Rev. Mary Tarbell-Green,
ChI 2008)
“As a wife, mother, a grandmother, and a chaplain, I exercise my gifts in being a companion and guide. My hope throughout my life has been to do my best to bring the goodness and mercy of God into the experience of this world by my life and service. … What I do in life is part of the eternal.” (Rev. Vicki Joy McClure, ChI 2007)
