Fr. Leonard Ogbonna, manager of spiritual care with CHRISTUS Health anoints the hands of, from left, Debbie Perkins, Brooke Loupe and Gerard Parigi, all representatives of nonprofit partners of the system. Perkins is executive director of United Board of Missions, Loupe is community engagement coordinator with Samaritan Counseling, and Parigi is director of Market to H.O.P.E. The three Beaumont, Texas-area organizations were among participants in a recent blessing of hands at a CHRISTUS Health southeast Texas facility.
Addressing the health of communities in a holistic way requires taking a preventive approach, and ministry providers are increasingly doing this by focusing more attention on the social determinants of health. But Catholic health care facilities cannot do this work alone — they rely heavily on partnerships with community organizations.
To ensure that these agencies and the broader community know how much CHRISTUS Health values the partnerships, some CHRISTUS Health regions now hold blessing ceremonies to honor those agencies. For three years and counting, CHRISTUS Southeast Texas Health System in Beaumont, Texas, has hosted a blessing of hands for representatives of organizations receiving grants from CHRISTUS' Community Impact Fund. Now, other CHRISTUS regions are replicating the idea.
Dan Ford, CHRISTUS Southeast Texas Health System vice president of mission, says the events are a great way to enhance relationships with community organizations that play a vital role in keeping patients and other community members healthy. "When we set aside this time and invite them to this event, they really get the message: 'We're here to honor you because we couldn't do our mission without you.' The ceremony conveys our appreciation of them, and they often will respond in kind by inviting us to visit them."
An anointing
The most recent such blessing of hands was July 23 at CHRISTUS Southeast Texas' St. Elizabeth campus in Beaumont. Representatives of four organizations receiving grants from CHRISTUS' Community Impact Fund joined CHRISTUS staff, community members and members of the media in a large conference room at the hospital for the program. The four grantees were Catholic Charities of Southeast Texas, Family Services of Southeast Texas, Samaritan Counseling Center of Southeast Texas and the United Board of Missions. Altogether, they received grants of various amounts that totaled $295,000.
Ford says CHRISTUS takes the time to make these blessing events special, with balloons, decorated tables and hors d'oeuvres. The events usually begin with a welcome from a top executive, a reflection from Ford and a prayer from a priest chaplain. Then, the representatives of the organizations can each speak before attendees to explain what their organization does for the community. After that, any attendees who want to receive a blessing make their way to the priest chaplain, who blesses each of them and anoints their hands with oil. The oil is a sacred oil set aside for ceremonial purposes.
CHRISTUS Southeast Texas Health System in Beaumont has been holding its blessing of hands event for several years to honor nonprofits that partner with the health system to serve the community. Each event participant receives this statue calling to mind the gospel story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.
A representative from each honored organization receives a commemorative bronze statue, inspired by the 13th chapter of John. That passage describes an event during the evening meal of the Passover, when Jesus chose to take the role of a servant, washing the feet of the disciples. After doing so, Jesus said to the disciples, "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet."
Ford says that passage is the inspiration behind the blessing ceremony because it evokes the idea that people should serve and honor one another.
The blessing event ends with those assembled enjoying the appetizers and getting a chance to visit with one another.
'A higher level'
Ford says CHRISTUS decided several years ago to take its recognition of its grantees "to a higher level" because the system wanted to emphasize the essentiality of partnership in serving the community.
"We want to celebrate the agencies, and celebrate God and give Him the glory, thanking Him for these resources we have to share with the community," he says. "And, in the ceremony, we're asking for God's blessing on these agencies' work and the work we're doing together."
He says it is common for the hospital to refer patients who are in need to the various agencies that are grantees, and for those agencies to refer their clients to one another. And, so, the networking and "face time" that happens at the ceremony is invaluable for bolstering those relationships. Ford notes that a few years ago, CHRISTUS Southeast Texas started a Community Advisory Council, a group representing agencies that receive CHRISTUS grants as well as other organizations serving the community. That group meets bimonthly to coordinate its efforts. The blessing is one more touchpoint for some of those agencies.
He adds that he is on the board of some of the agencies and CHRISTUS employees volunteer at many of them as well. So there is a lot of "cross pollination" of relationships between CHRISTUS and the agencies.
Other CHRISTUS Health ministries also have started conducting the hand-blessing ceremonies for nonprofit partners. Here, attendees take part in the ceremony in September at a CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier Health System facility. That health system is in Louisiana.
Ford notes that chaplains at ministry locations long have had blessing ceremonies for nurses, other clinicians and new hires. When CHRISTUS Southeast Texas had the idea to hold the ceremony for grantees, CHRISTUS' headquarters took notice and notified other CHRISTUS facilities in case they wanted to replicate it. CHRISTUS has 43 hospitals in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico and 17 in Chile, Colombia and Mexico. CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier Health System in Louisiana is one subsystem that has adopted the idea. It held a blessing of the hands Sept. 17 to announce the distribution of $295,000 from the Community Impact Fund to five organizations.
CHRISTUS' Community Impact Fund launched in 2011 and has invested more than $22 million into local organizations across its footprint that are addressing the social determinants of health.
Back in Beaumont, Ford says the blessing ceremonies have generated much goodwill between CHRISTUS and its partners.
"Our community partners are very, very thankful," he says.
"The work they are doing in the community is not easy, and I think it's very touching for them to come to this event."