This month marks the one year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, a virus which has killed more than half a million people in the U.S. The fear, uncertainty, and isolation experienced during this time left many feeling helpless. For those responsible for accompanying the sick in their spiritual needs, hospital chaplains, their ministry called them to face this novel virus with new forms of prayer and solidarity.
The Department of Pastoral Care at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center responded to this call by creating “Prayers for those Affected by COVID-19,” a booklet of more than a dozen prayers, which could be used across hospital settings — with sick children, with sick adults, or with healthcare staff. Ten staff members, two of them Rabbi’s, contributed to this booklet.
This project began at the beginning of the pandemic, when a former palliative fellow at CCHMC, now working at the Children’s Hospital of Montefiore in New York, reached out to their friend, Rev. Karen Geiger-Behm, staff chaplain at CCHMC. According to Rev. Geiger-Behm, “They had moved many of the children out to make space for COVID positive adults. As the director of the palliative program, [my friend] was supporting all end of life care, which was overwhelming. She didn’t have a chaplain on staff, and so she asked me to provide prayers for all the situations they found themselves in. I called upon the team at CCHMC, and within a weekend we put the prayer booklet together.”
These prayers, it seems, met a real and urgent need, because, since it was written last spring, this booklet has been shared across the country and even translated into Spanish. This act of compassion and solidarity, “was our small way,” said Rev. Geiger-Behm, “of offering care to the areas that were much harder hit from the pandemic.”
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We are grateful to the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab for making us aware of this ministry of the Department of Pastoral Care of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.