On October 6, an international online conference “Spiritual Assistance of Hospital Priests (Chaplains) in Medical Institutions: Law, Psychology, Organization” will take place. Hospital chaplains, scientists, doctors, clergymen, government officials from Russia, USA, Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain will make reports at the conference. The conference will discuss the international experience of serving as hospital chaplains. Special attention will be paid to issues of spiritual and psychological support for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia and other countries. The conference participants will discuss the legal status of hospital priests (chaplains), their interaction with medical institutions, the implementation of patients’ rights to freedom of conscience and ensuring the access of priests to hospitals, Diakonia.ru reports.
“We are holding such a representative international conference for the first time,” said Bishop Panteleimon, head of the Synodal Department for Charity, Vicar of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. – In many Western countries, the tradition of the hospital ministry of Christian churches has not been interrupted, and over the years, a rich experience has been accumulated in the interaction of medicine and religious confessions in helping sick people. I am sure that this experience will be very useful in Russia. We hope that the conference will become an important step towards the organization of the institute of hospital chaplains in Russia ”.
The conference is expected to be attended by Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Tatyana Golikova, Minister of Health of Russia Mikhail Murashko, Director of the European Bureau of the World Health Organization Hans Kluge, representatives of the Federation Council, Rospotrebnadzor, Russian Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church.
The chairman of the Synodal Charity Department, Bishop Panteleimon, Deputy Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Oleg Salagay, Representative of the World Health Organization in Russia Melita Vuinovich will speak at the conference.
“According to the law, every person who is in the hospital has the right to admit a priest to him. But the implementation of this right is not always so declaratively simple. It is important to find a balance between, on the one hand, the requirements for the organization of the treatment process in the medical organization, sanitary legislation, the rights and interests of other persons working or undergoing treatment in the hospital, on the other hand – with an absolutely understandable need of a person to meet with a priest at that moment in his life, when he, perhaps, needs it most of all, – emphasized the Deputy Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Oleg Salagai. “I am sure that the discussion at the conference of the positive Russian and foreign experience of organizing the work of the hospital priesthood will be an important positive step in finding such a balance and, consequently, in realizing this human right.”
Dariusz Gers, a representative of the Department of Service for the Integral Development of Man of the Roman Catholic Church, an official representative of the Vatican, will tell about the interaction of the Roman Catholic Church with public authorities on hospital ministry issues.
The experience of serving in their countries will be shared by the Chief Chaplain of the French Healthcare Institutions of the Chaplains Service of the Roman Catholic Church Constantino Fiore, Director of the Camillian Training Center (Italy) Priest Danio Mozzi, Professor of the University of Heidelberg, Scientific Director of the Center for Counseling in Heidelberg, Head of Pastoral Education for Vicars of the Evangelical Church in Baden Annette Hausmann (Germany), Head of the Office of Institutional Chaplaincy of the Orthodox Church in America, Orthodox Chaplain at Yale University Archpriest Stephen Voitovich, Head of the Chaplains Service of the Guy and St. Thomas Foundation for the National Health System Great Britain, Chief Chaplain Mia Kite Hillborn.
Svetlana Braun, Head of the Public Relations Department of the Moscow Healthcare Department, and Maryana Lysenko, Chief Physician of the City Clinical Hospital No. 52 in Moscow, will talk about the Russian experience of interacting with hospital priests. The legal basis for interaction between the canonical divisions of the Russian Orthodox Church and medical organizations in Russia will be presented by Alexander Bobkov, a specialist of the Legal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The conference will also be attended by doctors, hospital priests, nurses and volunteers, teachers and students of medical universities from Russia and other countries.
The organizers of the conference are the Synodal Department for Philanthropy of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Ministry of Health of Russia and the Council under the Government of Russia on issues of guardianship in the social sphere.
The conference will begin at 11:00 on October 6 Moscow time.
Registration of participants, program – on the conference website https://conf.diaconia.ru/
Live broadcast in Russian and English will be organized on the conference website and on the Youtube channel of the Synodal Charity Department.
Media accreditation – until 13:00 on October 5 at the email address [email protected]. In the application for accreditation, it is necessary to indicate the name of the media and the full name of the employees, as well as the contact telephone number of the correspondent.
The hospital ministry of the Church in Russia was actively developing before the revolution; practically every hospital had its own church. During the Soviet era, the hospital ministry of priests was significantly limited. Today, spiritual assistance to patients in medical institutions is one of the leading areas of social service of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Church publishes manuals, conducts training seminars for priests, and organizes pastoral assistance during the coronavirus period.
On the basis of data from foreign studies, the Synodal Department of Charity has published a textbook “Why does a hospital need a priest?”. It tells about the positive impact of the activities of clergy (chaplains) in medical institutions, presents data on the ministry of hospital chaplains in the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy.
During the pandemic, special groups of priests appeared in the Russian Orthodox Church to visit and provide pastoral support to patients with COVID-19. In 123 dioceses, the Synodal Charity Department sent standard sets of PPE for priests to visit the sick.
In Moscow, requests to call a priest to a patient with coronavirus are accepted around the clock by calling + 7-903-660-30-40. From April 2, 2020 to September 30, 2021, in the Moscow region alone, priests from the special group made 3,707 trips and visited 57 hospitals.
In addition, hundreds of Orthodox volunteers have completed special courses and are involved in caring for patients in Moscow’s COVID hospitals.
