Episcopal Hospital Chaplaincy Provides Spiritual Care at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
By Elizabeth M. Lowell
The Episcopal Hospital Chaplaincy (EHC) at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, New Hampshire is a partnership ministry of the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire and the Episcopal Church in Vermont. The mission of the Chaplaincy is to “provide the services of an Episcopal Chaplain to hospitalized patients and their families, to provide the presence of the Episcopal Church, and to increase public awareness of the importance and usefulness of chaplaincy work.”
If you become a patient at DHMC, please register as an Episcopalian at admission.
The current Chaplain, the Rev. James C. Ransom, visits approximately 400 patients a year, making more than 600 visits to patients who identify themselves as Episcopalians. Because patients at DHMC are usually sicker than those in community hospitals, their hospital stays also tend to be longer. Father Ransom’s regular thrice-weekly visits provide a warm and pastoral presence. Patients come from over 60 towns in New Hampshire and 50 in Vermont. If you become a patient at DHMC, please register as an Episcopalian at admission. You may contact the Chaplain directly by telephone at (603) 526-4869 or by email at ransom.james.c@gmail.com. The Chaplain ministers as a colleague with the clergy in congregations in Vermont, New Hampshire, and beyond, enhancing the pastoral care of the bishops and clergy as signs and instruments of God’s healing compassion and grace.
Recognizing the need for this specialized ministry, parishioners from both dioceses incorporated the Episcopal Hospital Chaplaincy as a nonprofit organization in 1995. Active laity from New Hampshire and Vermont comprise the current seven-member Board and meet on a regular monthly basis at the Medical Center. These meetings commence with prayer in the Chapel and then proceed elsewhere for the business portion of the gathering.
Our fiscal year is the calendar year, commencing on January the first, and by raising approximately $25,000 in the prior months, we seek to secure a full year’s annual funding in advance. The generous gifts from bishops, clergy, congregations, and individuals who value this ministry are the sole support of this Chaplaincy. Should you wish to unite your contribution with those of others, you may make your check payable to “Episcopal Hospital Chaplaincy” and send it our Treasurer, James Bays, at 460 Walker Road, Grantham, New Hampshire 03753. All gifts are tax-deductible and immediately and gratefully acknowledged.