Last Friday at the Pompallier Centre in Auckland, Sister Jane O’Carroll (Bishop Dunn’s pastoral assistant) hosted a ceremony to commission three new hospital chaplains and farewell two long-serving ones. Fr Talipope Vaifale, Elaine Harvey and Marcelles Amiatu were commissioned by Monsignor Bernard Kiely, vicar general of the Catholic diocese of Auckland. The event was well Read more
The New Zealand Faith Community Nurses Association will be looking at ways to keep the ministry sustainable at its annual conference in September this year. NZ Faith Community Nursing National Liaison Coordinator, Diane Webster, says the conference is a chance for nurses from different Christian backgrounds to come together in support of one another and Read more
She sat beside the bed, tears brimming. ‘Mum’s dying.’ ‘Yes.’ We sat in silence for a bit. ‘I’ve lost my faith.’ ‘Uh huh.’ ‘When my friend died.’ ‘Mm.’ We held hands and Mum’s too, wondering in our own ways, about God and faith and people dying and what the universe meant, if anything. As we Read more
Chaplains in hospitals are expected to talk of spiritual things but for clinical staff it is different. While a holistic approach to health care is much talked about, “spirituality remains a bit hazy; hard to find words for in a world dominated by scientific method”. “Making meaning is seen as one of the important elements Read more