U.S. State Department Profiles
HealthCare Chaplaincy’s Imam Yusuf Hasan

The U.S. State Department website America.gov recently profiled HealthCare Chaplaincy’s Imam Yusuf Hasan, a Muslim staff chaplain assigned to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in its story “American Muslims Join Long Tradition of Multifaith Chaplaincy.”

Imam Hasan became over a decade ago the first Muslim board certified chaplain in the United States.

The story explains that board certified chaplains serve people regardless of religion or beliefs: “Although America’s first chaplains were Christian and served the military, the institution grew and diversified along with the country’s population. Today, chaplaincy includes Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and people of other faiths — or no faith. A chaplain is a man or woman well versed in religion who offers spiritual, personal or professional guidance to people within an institution, such as a prison, a hospital or a university or the military.”

Imam Hasan says, “It’s not about religion. It’s about how you treat that person, that human being in that body that is in pain or is torn. How will you treat that person inside.”

Read the entire story here.

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New Mission Statement Summarizes Commitment
To Help Transform American Health Care

In keeping with its vision to change how American health care is understood and delivered through the growth of palliative care, HealthCare Chaplaincy’s Board of Trustees has approved a new mission statement after considerable dialogue among the trustees and staff:

To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare through the innovative ways chaplains promote and advance palliative care research, education and practice.

Palliative care reduces suffering and helps people with life-altering illness to live well and to live fully. It is care for the whole person where patients and loved ones make informed decisions about treatment options that are consistent with their values, goals and choices.

Trustee Susan L. Jurevics, senior vice president of global retail CRM and brand marketing at Sony Corporation of America, describes the components of the mission statement:

“HealthCare Chaplaincy’s overarching goal is ‘to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of health care.’

“Strategically we are pursuing this goal through ‘palliative care research, education, and practice.’

“As HealthCare Chaplaincy works with other palliative care organizations, professional associations, and policymakers, chaplains will promote and advance the pursuit consistent with the innovation that consistently characterizes HealthCare Chaplaincy’s work.”

Staff and Guests Make Sukkot Celebration Memorable

by Rabbi Dr. Bonita Taylor
Acting Director, Department of Studies in Jewish Pastoral Care

I am proud of my association with HealthCare Chaplaincy for many reasons. Never am I more proud than during the days before and during Sukkot.

For the past decade, on these days, I witness HealthCare Chaplaincy “walking its talk” as staffers of many faith denominations and professional levels set aside their workloads and come together to ensure that one of its minority groups, its Jewish colleagues, can engage the festival of Sukkot.

On Sukkot, Jews all over the world heed G-d’s commandment to dwell in booths (sukkot) for 7 days. One of the primary messages of Sukkot involves the importance of inclusiveness. The Exodus occurred approximately 1200 BCE (Before the Common Era) which is approximately 1200 years before the birth of Jesus. On this basis, whether we are Jewish or Christian, we are all spiritual descendants of those who stood at Sinai, we are all inheritors of the Sukkah/Sukkot legacy. It certainly feels that way on these days.

A second primary message is about being joyful. Joy in the form of laughter and chatter were abundant on September 22nd when HealthCare Chaplaincy staffers gathered to raise and decorate our Sukkah on the terrace of our headquarters at 315 East 62nd Street. In the morning, the tall and strong gathered to construct the exterior steel and canvas and in the afternoon, the artistic and imaginative gathered to decorate its interior. Others, including the Rev. Dr. Walter J. Smith, S.J, came by to encourage the group in its work.

It was originally Father Smith’s idea to host Sukkot in this way as a gift to Jewish staffers, board members, donors and local business persons who might want to engage Sukkot in a convenient mid-town location. All-in-all, it was just like I imagine an old fashioned barn raising is like and as much fun as trimming a Christmas tree!

Dr. Mary T. O’Neill of the Eastern Region Accreditation Committee of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education joins staff, trustees, and other guests in the “shaking the lulav” ritual

A few days later, at noon on the 2nd day of Sukkot, Rabbi Michael Cohen, our Jewish student in supervisory education, and I led a brief Sukkot Service, including the ritual generally known as “shaking the lulav” (a bouquet of willow and myrtle branches tucked in a palm frond with a citron held alongside). This ritual allows us to offer thanksgiving and rejoicing for the harvest just past and also hope for a future abundant harvest.

Several staffers, board member Diana Goldin and donor-guest Harriet Abramson personally engaged this ancient ritual. Joining us in prayer were members of the Eastern Region Accreditation Committee of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (our Clinical Pastoral Education accreditors), who were meeting that day at our offices.

As we all “broke bread” together, I noticed that the seams of our Sukkah were bursting with participants much like an overflowing harvest cornucopia. And, I felt proud.

Follow us on for the latest news about HealthCare Chaplaincy and the growing fields of palliative care and professional multifaith chaplaincy care.