Volunteer chaplains at Allen County Regional Hospital gathered Thursday morning for a Blessing of the Hands, an annual tradition across Saint Luke’s Health System. The multi-faith tradition provides a blessing for those whose hands provide care, comfort, and healing to others.
The Rev. Dan Davis, Pastor Art Black, Jim Tholen, and the Rev. Phil Honeycutt are all volunteer chaplains at the Iola hospital. After a brief prayer in the hospital lobby, each chaplain visited different parts of the hospital to offer their blessings and support.
Saint Luke’s is a faith-based not-for-profit health system. St. Luke is known as the patron saint of physicians, surgeons, and medicine; Saint Luke’s Health System’s founders had this in mind when they named the hospital more than a century ago.
The blessing is offered to physicians, nurses, technicians, and all other clinical and non-clinical staff — uniting healthcare workers who have chosen the profession of caring for patients either directly or indirectly. It seeks to recognize the sacredness of healing, bring together science and faith, and provide encouragement and renewal to all caregivers.
This is the second year ACRH volunteer chaplains have offered a blessing of hands to caregivers at the hospital in Iola. Chaplains at Anderson County Hospital in Garnett have offered a blessing of hands during Saint Luke’s Week for many years; a blessing was coordinated in Garnett at the same time on Thursday.
