Worcestershire Acute Hospital’s NHS Trust
Dept. of Spiritual and Pastoral Care
Multi-faith Covenant
Our role is to provide spiritual, emotional and pastoral care which is sensitive and appropriate to the spiritual, religious, emotional and cultural needs of patients, relatives and staff. We offer this so that people can begin to find strength, support and meaning within their varied experiences of life, death, illness or injury – whatever their beliefs may be.
While acknowledging that our shared ministry is limited by matters of doctrine and patterns of worship we celebrate our diversity and pledge ourselves to deeper understanding and tolerance. Therefore we commit ourselves to a deepening of our partnership and understanding.
We believe that:
• Spiritual wellbeing & pastoral care are essential elements in promoting health and healing
• Respect & sensitivity should be shown to peoples spiritual, religious and cultural needs
• Peoples privacy, dignity & confidentiality should be respected & maintained at all times
We seek to be:
• A team where people celebrate their particular faith & religious tradition
• A team where people can explore their differences & acknowledge their boundaries
• A team which encourages & supports multi-faith dialogue
• A team that meets the religious, spiritual & pastoral needs of the hospitals communities
We seek to offer:
• A place underpinned by prayer, reflection & contemplation
• A place where difficult questions are explored with honesty & respect
• A place where patients, staff & visitors – regardless of belief – can find comfort & acceptance
• A place where health & healinf is celebrated in all its diversity
We commit ourselves
• To work in collaboration with each other & with other hospital staff
• To retain an openness to discerning how this relationship will develop
• To trust in each other to share in general spiritual oversight
• To explore practical ways of being present together at times of prayer
• To meet together regularly for information sharing, planning, learning & growth in friendship
• To learn from our faith traditions about the experience of suffering, dying & healing
• To offer both our difficulties & our achievements as models for inter-faith partnership
• To offer support & encouragement to each other
We commend this document to our Trust, our religious authorities & wider communities
07/02/2017
Worcestershire Interfaith Forum 