Many thanks indeed for your kindness and prayers regarding Dave’s operation.  As always, high-risk operations concentrate the mind on the future and what it may hold.  Such risks can bring deep reflection on life already spent, both blessings and tragedies, as well as on what the future beyond this earth holds.  Our lives come into sharp focus.

It was therefore with interest that whilst Dave was in the Cardio-thoracic Critical Care Unit in the John Radcliffe he overheard the following snippet of conversation between a patient and nurse: “What have you had for lunch?”.  “Fish and Chips.” came the reply.  And the nurse replies: “Ah…they serve fish in this holy place”.

I had not really thought of the Critical Care Unit as being a Holy Place until this comment reached my ears.

Hospital, and in particular the Critical Care Unit, do hold immense influence over people’s lives.  Patients and families hold their breath waiting for news that will affect the rest of their lives – news that brings joy, sadness, hope, despair – to name just a few emotions.  We stand on a tightrope between death and life with our loved ones, too frightened to think of the possible outcomes.

Add to this the vast number of religious encounters that people experience as they teeter on the edge between life and death.  It is indeed a holy place.  A holy place where people meet with their God.  People of all faiths, and none, come together; it is not a mosque, a church or a synagogue but a hospital ward where a shared encounter takes place.

In the silence of the waiting room families talk to other families.  They experience, as strangers, the trauma each is going through as they wait for news of their loved one to be off the critical list and back in their arms.  There is no sense of race, religion, age, class – all divisions are swept away in the common hope of a loved one being brought back from the brink of death and healed.  Someone will offer a stranger a bed for the night so that they can be near their loved one rather than leave them facing a 50 mile plus journey each way.

Yes, the Critical Care Unit in a hospital is a truly holy place as compassion and helplessness interact in hope for the healing of loved ones being treated. Strangers become as close as brothers and sisters for a short while in a world where life is held by a thread.  The human need for each other is laid bare. In our need we look to each other for comfort and hope in shared experience and, yes people occasionally suffer tragic loss.

Thank God, for technology, for science and healthcare professionals who work tirelessly and under such stress to give the patient and their family the result they pray so hard for.  Thank God for coming amongst all who wait, offering them sustenance for the journey, carrying them through the disappointments but also rejoicing in celebration with them when loved ones are restored.  Thank God for revealing his love for us through each other in both difficult and joyful times.  Thank God for unconditional love – agape.
Reverend Ann