'Do you hear what I hear?'
By
NANCY FRAZIER O'BRIEN
Ministry staff members are singing out in hospital atriums and community
theaters. Hospital-sponsored glee clubs with highly polished pipes and loosely
organized groups of performers are entertaining colleagues and patients with
instrumentals, gospel medleys, Christmas carols, oldies and pop tunes.
"Music is healing, empowering, comforting," said Sr. Paula Terese Pilon, CSJ,
coordinator of workplace spirituality, hospital chaplain and member of the
Resounding Spirit Choir at Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo, Mich., a member
of Ascension Health. "There are so many ways that music can touch people's
lives."
The Borgess Resounding Spirit Choir performs in downtown Kalamazoo, Mich., as part of the Michigan Festival of Sacred Music.
A universal chord
The Borgess choir is led by music director Jeffrey Spenner, a graduate
student in orchestral conducting at Western Michigan University and assistant
conductor of the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra.
"Inspirational music is the core of our repertoire," said Spenner. "Our
mission statement is to be part of holistic health care that nourishes the body,
mind and soul, so we choose pieces that represent that mission statement."
The Resounding Spirit Choir began last year with just a handful of members
and now has nearly three dozen members and continues to grow, Spenner said.
Dr. Robert Hill, an emergency and trauma center physician who is vice
president of medical affairs at Borgess, helped organize the choir and is a
member.
"We've had some extraordinary experiences," Hill said, such as singing to
stroke patients in the hospital's neurorehabilitation unit. Patients who
normally would not have been very responsive to stimulation responded to the
music, he said. "It brought several individuals to tears."
This year, those on Borgess' Christmas card list will receive a card
picturing the choir along with a mini audio-CD with several of their songs.
Linda Root, vice president, mission integration at Borgess Health and
executive sponsor for the Resounding Spirit Choir, said the choir fits in well
with Ascension's goal of "building a model community of inspired
associates."
"It's a great community builder, a great healing tool, and a unique avenue
for change in the health care system," she said. "So often we get caught up in
the technical aspects (of health care) that we lose sight of something so
simple."
Staying power The Borgess choir is still in its infancy, but the Mercy Philadelphia Gospel
Choir has been around for at least 30 years, with some of its nine members being
a part of the choir for two decades or more.
"I feel we are blessed to work in a place where we can sing," said Jan
Jackson, who works in the critical care unit at Mercy Philadelphia Hospital and
has been a member of the choir since 2005. After a performance, she said,
"colleagues will come up and grab me and hug me and say they were at the program
and were going through some things. We're ministering to them through song. That
is what it is all about. We love it."
Sr. Suzanne Gallagher, RSM, is vice president, mission integration at Mercy
Philadelphia Hospital, part of CHE Trinity Health. She said the gospel choir
performs at prayer services for holidays such as Martin Luther King Day,
Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mercy Heritage Day and "any other time we feel people
need to come together." The concerts usually take place in the hospital lobby
but are broadcast to patients' rooms and throughout the hospital.
"It enhances our prayer so much because the music that the gospel choir takes
up is so beautiful," Sr. Gallagher said. "They provide a richness to these
special prayer services that we would not have. I can't imagine having these
prayer services without our gospel choir."
Mixing it up Because the choirs draw from various departments of the hospital, they also
serve a community-building function,
bringing together people who might
never encounter one another in their day-to-day work.
The SSM Mission Glee Choir, in existence since 2011, brings together staff
members from seven different hospitals in the SSM Health Care – St. Louis
system. "People who would never have met each other have now become great
friends," said Kristen Johnson, an SSM – St. Louis spokeswoman and a glee choir
member.
The SSM choir features full production numbers, including choreography, for
contemporary songs like Katy Perry's "Firework" and "Good Time" by Owl City and
Carly Rae Jepsen or oldies like Tina Turner's "Proud Mary" or "We Are Family" by
Sister Sledge. Sometimes the words of the song are adapted to the situation or
toned down if they are deemed too racy or violent.
The choir performs for corporate mission days and other celebrations such as
retirements or promotions, as well as holiday concerts open to all. Johnson, a
dancer, describes herself as "tone-deaf" and said she helps with the
choreography.
For the last number of a mission days show, the health system leaders came
onstage in a big flashy finale — singing "We Are Family"— and went up aisles
dancing and out into the lobby area, where they greeted people leaving the
auditorium. "It was a little silly and fun," Johnson said.
Sound of
music The choir at Springfield Regional Medical Center in Springfield, Ohio, is
much more loosely organized, but there has been plenty of interest from staff.
More than 50 hospital staff members have sung with the choir in its first year.
The hospital is part of Catholic Health Partners.
Bill Everingham, a member of the maintenance staff at Springfield Regional,
put the group together. He said he would "always hear people singing when I was
walking up and down the halls" and "thought it would be neat to get something
together." With the approval of the health system's mission council, the choir
began to perform at Easter and Thanksgiving.
"I've always loved to sing," he said. "I come from a background where the
family sings when we have family get-togethers and I'm in the choir at church.
Singing is just a way for us to praise the Lord, and I love to do it."
Everingham is looking for someone with more organizational skills to take
over leadership of the choir. Most hospital choirs schedule a concert during the
Christmas season, but Everingham said this is a "hectic time" for him because
his long, white beard makes him a popular Santa.
Roving
minstrels At Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh, Wis., a member of Ascension Health, an ad
hoc group has been Christmas caroling throughout the hospital for at least 15
years, accompanied by guitar, flute and sometimes other instruments.
The Rev. Phil Dewitt, an Evangelical Free Church minister who is a chaplain
at the hospital, has been doing it for 10 years and finds the experience a way
to "live the healing ministry of Jesus."
Each year, whoever wants to sing gathers in the hospital chapel for a warm-up
session — televised throughout the hospital — of two Christmas readings from
Scripture and three carols. The group then carols through the hallways of the
hospital and meets for punch and cookies at the end.
"I think of Jesus walking the halls of the hospital, and I get the sense of
that when we are doing this," Rev. Dewitt said.
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