Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Nov/91

Contributor - Will Kroon

Title - Bible Study In An Institutional Setting

Topic - Ministries

Once a week it is very crowded in our Meditation Room at West Park Hospital. The halls are congested with wheelchairs of various shapes and sizes. Some of these wheelchairs are self propelled; others are pushed by volunteers. All of them make their way to the room where we meet for our weekly Bible Study group.

Our Bible study group has been one of the longest continuous group activities at our institution. This group has been meeting regularly for the past eight years. Only in recent years did we decide to take a brief summer recess to give some reprieve to the lay pastoral volunteers who are actively involved in this group activity.

The Setting

West Park Hospital is a 457-bed facility in northwest Toronto. More than 70 percent of the Hospital's beds are devoted to long term care. The remaining 30 percent of the beds are occupied by patients who need some type of rehabilitation.

Many of our residents, especially the long-term ones, regularly attend our Sunday worship services. Some of those also meet each Thursday for one hour in our beautiful Meditation Room. This facility accommodates between 15-20 residents in wheelchairs. More than 25 of our residents are enrolled in this program but there are always those who are unable to attend for a variety of reasons. All participants, including volunteers and visitors, are seated in a circle for better group interaction.

What We Do

Getting the residents to our Meditation Room requires a fair bit of cooperation from both staff and volunteers. It takes about 30 minutes to porter the residents to our place of meeting. During that time a great deal of spontaneous interaction takes place among the early arrivals. When the last resident arrives we begin our meeting with a time of intercession. First we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and special events and then ask for prayer requests for needs and concerns. It is indeed heart warming to see how these residents care for each other and for the world at large. There are always prayer requests for victims of earthquakes, famines and other calamities. All this is so heart warming when one sees that most of those present are severely crippled and have experienced multiple losses in their lives.

When I first assumed responsibility for this Bible study program I had some doubts about using the Bible as text for our study. However, I no longer see this as a problem in our group. Through the reading of the biblical story, the wrestling with the questions (posed by the leader) and through listening to each other's responses, things begin to happen. Dormant faith is rekindled, faith experiences are shared, closed minds are opened and feelings of pain and hurt become more bearable. Even some of the elderly residents, who give the impression that they are not with it, respond appropriately at most unexpected moments. They sing along when we sing hymns and join in when we pray the Lord's Prayer in unison.

Generally speaking, we follow the liturgical year and study the stories related to the birth of Christ during the Advent and the stories of Good Friday and Easter during Lent. We discovered again and again how much the Bible speaks to our situation and how God's story, as recorded in the Bible, interacts with our story. It is most refreshing to see how various people are touched by what takes place in our group and how forgotten faith stories begin to resurface. For instance, one day when we were discussing the struggle which Joseph had in accepting the miraculous conception of Mary, a former medical missionary in our group got all excited and said, "When I was a child in Britain at the turn of the century, we sang a Christmas Carol called 'The Cherry Tree'. Through that carol I became aware of Joseph's feelings. On a certain hot day Joseph and Mary were walking through a cherry orchard. When Mary got tired she asked, 'Joseph, pick me some cherries, for the child is heavy and I am thirsty'. Joseph, in return, responded by saying, 'Let the man who gave you the child pick the cherries for you.'At that moment the unborn child spoke, commanding the cherry tree to bend over to where Mary was walking-"

Toward the end of our study hour we sing a few well known hymns and pray together the Lord's Prayer. Since we experience such a sense of belonging and spiritual unity we find it meaningful to hold hands while praying this prayer in unison.

Conclusion

Our Bible Study group has been a source of inspiration to the residents, the volunteers and to us in chaplaincy. It also has been a uniting force in the cooperation between Catholics and Protestants in our institution. Last of all it has helped many to overcome some spiritual hurdles they were experiencing on their journey through life.

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