Magyar Egyház, 1955 (34. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)

1955-06-01 / 6. szám

12

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

THE HOSPITAL CHAPLAINCY IN PERTH AMBOY

“Are you Roman Catholic? No? Well, God Bless you anyway!” This is what many of the Protestant patients in the Perth Amboy General Hospital used to hear as they lay in their hospital beds. They would see a Roman Catholic priest come into their rooms day after day but sometimes never see a Protestant minister during their entire stay in the hospital — and they would begin to wonder why.

We too might like to ask why. Why should this have been? Part of the answer lay in the Roman strength and the Protestant weakness. The Roman churches of the city had enough priests so that one or two could be given hospital visitation as their main duty; the priests could make the rounds of the rooms quickly — a blessing and the sign of the cross was usually all that was needed.

Each Protestant pastor, on the other hand, was bogged down with so many regular church duties that he could not possibly visit all of the Protestant patients in the hospital; usually he considered himself fortunate if he was able to find out when his members were in the hospital. His visits could not be short and they were often made longer by interruptions of nurses and doctors with their hospital routine. If a Protestant patient was critically ill or dying, the hospital staff did not consider it important enough to call the pastor.

The Protestant Ministers of Perth Amboy decided that something had to be done to supply the need of a Protestant Chaplaincy at the hospital. They began by organizing a visitation program in which each pastor was responsible for visiting the newly-admitted patients for a week at a time. This system was unsatisfactory, however; because of the many other duties, the ministers could not afford to devote a full week to the hospital work. The present system schedules each pastor for a two-day (48-hour) hospital assignment each month; during that time, he visits every Protestant patient in the hospital, praying and counselling with each one if need be. The records of the visitation program are administered by a part-time worker whose duty it is to interview the new patients, learn their church affiliations, notify their pastors, and inform the “Protestant Chaplain for the Day” of any individuals who have no church membership.

To have the best possible Chaplaincy program at Perth Amboy General Hospital, the full-time services of an ordained Protestant clergyman would be required. The hospital authorities will not finance such a project, however, and the Protestant Ministers’ Association only has sufficient funds to pay the part-time clerical assistant. In spite of this, the Protestant Chaplaincy program is meeting the great need for spiritual guidance at the hospital. The patients still see the Roman priests, but they also see Protestant pastors. More and more, the doctors and nureses are granting respect to the ministers of the Protestant Churches, because they know that the chaplains are the representatives of Christ in the ministry of His Love. In cases of emergency involving Protestant patients, the nurses are learning to notify the chaplain who is on call. In all these ways, progress is being made, and best of all, the Scriptural injunction is being fulfilled: “I was sick, and ye visited me. . . . Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” Matt. 25:36,40.

HERBERT F. A. HECHT.

DECALOG FOR PARENTS

1. Thou shalt honor no other gods but God, steadfastly refusing to make the child a minor deity in the household.

2. Thou shalt make no promises that are broken, whether these be promises of pleasure or promises of punishment; for unless the child learns to respect the word, he will not respect any person;

3. Thou shalt teach the child by example, and not by precept; for a parent who teaches a child religion and morality, and yet lives by greed, passion and hypocrisy must expect his conduct to be followed and his counsel ignored;

4. Thou shalt worship God with thy family, and not seek solitary pleasures, which plunge each member of the family into social and spiritual isolation when they should be most together;

5. Thou shalt instill no fears into thy child, but rather impress upon him that love casteth out fear;

6. Thou shalt help the child accept the variety of mankind with joy and wonder in God’s creative originality; and not breed in him that terrible false pride of superiority, which stunts and twists the personality of man;

7. Thou shalt not be too much a parent allowing the child freely to make his own mistakes, and not protecting him from the painful consequences of his errors;

8. Thou shalt not expect nor demand love from the child simply because thou art his parents; but thou shalt try to win his respect as a person by justice, humor and understanding;

9. Thou shalt not force the child to develop in thine own image, but assist him in becoming the best kind of person his own nature requires;

10. Thou shalt look daily into thine own heart and examine there the motives; for when the motives are unpure, love curls into possessiveness, and the child is no longer a creature of God but an instrument of man’s misguided passion.

—BY SYDNEY J. HARRIS

“DO NOTS” ON COURTSHIP

Do not begin your courtship days too young. Childhood years are the sweetest in life. You will grow old all too soon. — Do not go with too many persons or with one person too often. “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” — Do not be a flirt or heart breaker. Broken hearts mean broken lives and suicides many times. You at some time might be a victim caught in your own net.

— Do not go with a person for the sake of having a good time or to have money spent on you. You might fall in love with an undesirable person. — Do not go with a person because of good looks. A butterfly’s wings will soon drop off. Character means far more than looks. — Do not have “spats” in courtship days. If you quarrel before marriage, you may fight afterwards. -— Do not become too familiar before marriage. “Familiarity breeds contempt.” — Do not court too long, for long courtships seldom end in marriages. — Do not go with a person unless you are willing to get married. You may fall in love and cannot break away.

— Do not expect the person you are courting to be better than yourself.