Canterbury-Bankstown Council has unanimously recommended that the New South Wales Government provide a Christian chapel in the new $2 billion Bankstown Hospital. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
Deputy Mayor Rachelle Harika, who drafted the proposal, said her motion had “incredible support” on October 27.
“All I am asking is for the existing facilities at Bankstown Hospital, a Christian chapel and two separate prayer rooms, to be replicated at the new hospital,” she said in a social media post.
Two petitions on Change.org for a chapel have gathered almost 10,000 signatures. One of them explains why the multicultural, multireligious community needs a chapel.
“The lack of a Christian space for the new hospital’s Christian visitors is a logistical nightmare for its multifaith community. It will entail people of all different creeds and religions frequenting limited multifaith spaces,” wrote one petitioner.
“To deal with this logistical problem, the Christian people of Canterbury-Bankstown, as a significant proportion of the LGA’s [local government area’s] population, must be able to have their own chapel of solace, prayer and worship.”
The Canterbury-Bankstown council, which will be served by the hospital, is one of Australia’s most religious and most diverse.
Like other western Sydney LGAs, about 75 per cent of the population professes some religion – compared to only about 45 per cent in the inner west and North Shore. About 42 per cent are Christian and 24 per cent Muslim, with the rest mainly secular, Buddhist, or Hindu.
Construction is scheduled to begin on the 14-storey teaching hospital next year.
But within the facilities, there apparently is not enough space available for a dedicated chapel and Muslim prayer rooms.
The state government’s website on the project explains that hospitals are mainly meant for healthcare, not spiritual care. “Faith spaces are therefore designed as shared facilities that can respond flexibly to the needs of patients, visitors and staff,” it states.
In her motion to the council, Ms Harika argued that hospitals have a spiritual dimension.
The senior Muslim chaplain with NSW Health, Mohamed Elshafei, said most hospitals in the state have only multifaith facilities and that people need to be realistic about the availability of prayer spaces in cramped hospitals. “Sharing is caring,” he commented.
However, he said that ideally Muslims would prefer separate prayer rooms.
FULL STORY
Exclusive: Council backs calls for a chapel in new $2 billion Bankstown Hospital (By Michael Cook, The Catholic Weekly)
