A centre of hope and peace

MY mind immediately turns to the church where I grew up, John Bunyan Baptist Church, Cowley, Oxford, the many formative friendships which have meant so much to me over the years. I give thanks for good friends and deep roots which that church and its minister, Sydney Crowe, helped to forge.

I also think of the Baptist churches where I served as minister, King’s Sutton, Holmer Green and Botley, again each church became a treasured holy place, praying, talking, laughing, weeping, sharing, singing and playing, and God was there. My treasured holy place at this time is All Saints Chapel at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, where I am the Free Church Chaplain.

Situated along the main and busy thoroughfare, just past the excellent League of Friends tea and coffee area! Yes, you pass the chapel to arrive at almost any place in the hospital,but one step aside from the bustling corridor is the place of peace and quiet which brings refreshment and hope to so many people. The chapel is open day and night and, at all hours, patients and visitors will sit quietly offering their many different thoughts and concerns to God.

There is a book in the chapel in which friends are invited to write their special concerns, anxieties or causes for thanksgiving and these are read by the chaplains and brought before God in devotions. ‘Please God make my mummy better’. ‘Why does my son have to suffer in this way, it is so hard to bear’. Other such comments convince the chaplains of the need to minister in the name of Christ to the pains and illnesses of the patients and also listen to members of staff who also share their fears, doubts and joys with us.

The chapel in the John Radcliffe Hospital has above the altar ‘Cross and Hands’ mosaic by Hildegart Nicholas. This work reminds us of the heart of our faith and also our ministry. In this chapel people find renewed peace and purpose when they are understandably frightened, staff and chaplains come to seek and discover the refreshing love of God when they are tired or perplexed. Services of worship are held on Sunday and other days of the week, and it is often very moving to realise how people make a great effort to come to worship God because they feel a real sense of need which nothing else can satisfy. The chaplains also meet in this chapel to pray together, to read, to listen to one another, to share needs and news of their ministry.

It does seem most appropriate that the chapel is part of the often noisy hospital because surely we can picture Jesus healing and praying and being with people in solitary places and in the main corridor of life.

I sit in the chapel and often think of the words of Mother Teresa, ‘God is everywhere and in everything, and we are all His children.

‘When we gather in His Name, this gives us strength.’