More on Health Care: Convention 2006

I have been reading further in The Blue Book, the compilation of reports and resolutions from the commissions, committees, agencies, and boards (CCAB's) of the General Convention. I have found some further items of interest to those of us concerned with issues of health.

Those I noted today are in the Report of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. This is one of the larger reports, and much of it, while of general interest, does not relate to specific interests we face in health care ministries.

However, there are some portions of the report that may well be useful to us. I note first a detailed report from the Committee on Rites of Passage. It includes a theological discussion and guidelines for structuring such rites. Potentially even more valuable are specific prayers and rites for a wide variety of life transitions. These are divided according to stages of life: transitions of Childhood, Young Adulthood, Midlife, Elders, and Remembering the Departed. There has been a clear effort to recognized the sanctity of all of life. Here, for example, is the prayer for Moving from a Crib to a Bed, with rubrics for use:

The new bed may be made up with the child’s help. Members of the household, including the child, may move in procession from the crib to the bed with pillows, blankets, stuffed animals or other objects regularly part of the nighttime ritual.

Good and loving God, your watchful care never slumbers, and you give gifts to your children even as they sleep. Thank you for bringing us all to this day into which N. has grown in your protection. Give her blessed rest wherever she lays her head. Keep her well and fill her dreams with hope. Awaken her every morning to the sureness of your love with joy and courage for the day at hand; through Jesus, our Savior and Friend. Amen.

For young adults there is a Rite of Passage for a Significant Birthday, and a Rite for Celebrating an Engagement (The Blessing of a Betrothal), with recommended lessons and hymns. There is also a separate Rite for elders for a Significant Birthday, as well as a rite for Farewell to a Home.

The prayers for Remembering the Departed will, I think, be of particular use in health care, although they are not specifically written to that end. There are prayers to remember the departed person at one week, one month, and one year. There are prayers for Coming Home Without a Departed Loved One, and for Giving Away Belongings. This is the prayer On Grieving a Violent Death:

Lord of Life, you trampled death under your feet so we might come alive in your eternal light. We remember before you our beloved N. In our anger and confusion, we need your help to find our way. When your own child, Jesus, suffered violent death, you acted through it to redeem the world. Help us live into that knowledge as we remember that N. now lives because of that great gift of your love. Help us release him to you. Show us that your hand has dried his tears and let us glimpse his joy in your face. Grant us strength and the spirit of healing and peace so that we may labor for your just and peaceable kingdom where all your children live in safety and fulfillment, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

There are three prayers offered for the Violent Death of a Child.

With these reports are resolutions to add these materials to the next revision of The Book of Occasional Services. In addition, there are resolutions to develop editions of the Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer in the inclusive mode of the Enriching Our Worship series.

One disappointment in the Report is the review of Committee on Reproductive Loss. There is an extensive list by title of the prayers and rites that have been in development. This includes reference, among others, to prayers Before and After a Difficult Decision; for Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and a Child who Died in the Womb; and Following Termination of a Pregnancy. There are Litanies of Lament and Hope, a Rite for Pregnancy Loss, and Prayers Surrounding Adoption. Other Prayers include those for Hysterectomy, Mastectomy, a Difficult Pregnancy, an Unwanted Pregnancy, and a Child with Special Needs. However, this is only a list by title. The work itself was not ready for publication in The Blue Book. We can hope that it will be available in draft at Convention.

As Episcopalians we believe we are shaped by how we worship and how we pray: lex orendi lex credendi (the rule of prayer is the rule of faith). I think these new prayers and rites, if passed, can be useful to us as Episcopalians in expressing our faith and feelings in these passages of life. I think they can be particularly useful to us in health care ministries, offering us new options, new tools, in helping people express faith and feeling in the midst of transition and crisis. I certainly hope they pass. And whether they pass or not, we may well want to review this report, to make use of those prayers that can help us care for those we serve.