In praise of hospital chaplains - Lexington Herald-Leader

The Rev. Donna Barr is an Episcopal deacon; her daughter, the Rev. Emily Richards, an Episcopal priest....For both women, the path to the clergy began more than 30 years ago, when Richards was a 6-month-old lying in the University of Kentucky Children's Hospital, her body ravaged by what had been diagnosed as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
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As her daughter began to prepare for college, Barr, who had been a stay-at-home mom caring for Emily and her two brothers, began to see hospital chaplaincy as a possibility for her future.
+Along the way, she'd done what she'd told her husband, Garland Barr, that she would never do: Become an Episcopalian. When Richards was 8 or 9 years old, Barr converted after being drawn into a prayer group at Christ Church Cathedral that had been praying for them.
+And so, on the recommendation of Bishop Don Wimberly, who preceded current Bishop Stacy Sauls, Barr was ordained a deacon in 1994 and began working as hospital chaplain for the diocese.She sees the altar in the tray tables sitting next to hospital beds.
+"That is where I feel most at ease," she said.

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