Saturday, April 30, 2005

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.
...
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.
Read the whole thing.

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