Spiritual Care

What spiritual care offers

Our spiritual care providers offer any of the following services:

• One-to-one spiritual care that may include:
  • Safe and supportive conversations to help you express your thoughts and feelings in times of illness, suffering and life transitions
  • Helping you discover your spiritual needs and working with you to create a care plan
  • Helping you grapple with the unrelieved suffering of spiritual distress when your sense of identity, purpose, value or connection to the world around you is challenged
• Grief support for patients and families
• Memorial services
• Sacred space for individual and group observances
• Celebrations for secular and religious holidays
• Connecting you with faith-based organizations in the community
• Helping you meet religious obligations you might have

When to request Spiritual Care

You can ask to meet with a spiritual care provider for any reason, including the following:

• Spiritual or emotional distress that includes isolation, regret, loss of purpose or loss of self-worth
• Ethical concerns
• Looking for support, insight or information
• Feeling anxious about religious obligations while you are in the hospital
• A new diagnosis or declining condition
• Struggling as an individual or family 
• For success and celebration
• Concerns about dying, death or infant loss
• To arrange for clergy or religious rites such as Communion or sacrament of the sick
• For kosher meals or other religious dietary accommodations for caregivers
• To support smudging or drumming
• For religious items like prayer rugs, rosaries, Shabbat candles, sacred texts, music or others

Spiritual spaces and services

Our Spiritual Care team arranges for religious services and rituals and has spaces you can visit for religious reasons or for reflection.

Mount Sinai Hospital 

We are committed to providing care that honours the Jewish history of Mount Sinai while meeting the needs of our diverse community. 

Synagogue

Our synagogue is located on the main floor near the Murray elevators and is always open. Should you find it closed, you can ask a security guard to open it for you.

Spiritual Oasis

Our chapel is now called the Spiritual Oasis and is always open to people of any faith for quiet prayer or reflection. It is located in room 432, on the fourth floor next to the University elevator.

Worship services 

Please ask a member of your care team for the current schedule.

• Jewish High Holiday services 
• Roman Catholic mass 

You or your caregiver can ask the staff on your hospital unit for any of the following:

Rabbinical ministry services

• A visit with a rabbi or a Jewish volunteer
• Details about High Holiday services
• Kosher snacks provided by the social service agency Bikur Cholim
• Arranging to have Bikur Cholim provide kosher meals for family members
• Shabbat candles 

Sacramental ministry services

• Bedside Holy Communion 
• The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick 

Indigenous rituals and services

• Smudging
• Sacred medicines available
• Drum, shaker and cup available
• Traditional healers welcome

Spiritual care providers can help connect you with traditional healers and elders

Indigenous patients receiving cancer care can also ask to meet with an Indigenous Patient Navigator for additional support.

Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital

Spiritual spaces

• Sacred Space on the fifth floor for prayer and reflection
• Outdoor labyrinth on the ground level

Worship services

Please ask a member of your care team for the current schedule.

• Jewish High Holiday services 
• Roman Catholic mass
• Christian holiday services
• Eid celebrations

You or your caregiver can ask the staff on your hospital unit for any of the following:

• Rabbinical ministry services
• A visit with a rabbi or a Jewish volunteer
• Shabbat candles

Sacramental ministry services

• Bedside Holy Communion 
• The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick

Indigenous rituals

• Smudging
• A drum circle

You can also ask about our mindfulness group that teaches you to ground your thoughts in the present. 

How to access religious services

When you are admitted to the Hospital you will be asked if you are a member of a religion. Based on this information, we will let you know about any religious services that might be of interest to you.

You will also be asked if you would like a visit from a member of the clergy from your religion if there is one in the Hospital.

If you are not asked about your religion but would like this information recorded, please contact Spiritual Care.