Nurses’ chapel oasis of calm at busy hospital

Press, 6 March 1984, Page 21

Nurses’ chapel oasis of calm at busy hospital

By

LYN HOLLAND

The Christchurch Hospital nurses’ memorial chapel is quietly calm, even while nurses and builders bustle about the hospital corridors.

In the small, cedar-beamed chapel, patients, staff and visitors have a place to "collect themselves together,” says one of the three hospital chaplains, the Rev. Roger Millichamp.

It was built in 1927, the first hospital chapel in New Zealand, and has some of the oldest stained glass windows in Canterbury. Recently the North Canterbury Hospital board decided that it will be demolished and rebuilt in six years, as part of the hospital’s redevelopment plans. The three chaplains work fulltime at the hospital during the day. At night, between 5 p.m. and

4 a.m., a roster system is ’used. 'J About 25 to 35 -people attend )• ’ Sunday services there. Three times - a month a combined Presbyterian and Anglican service is held, and . once a month there is a morning - Roman Catholic service. An after- . noon service for Roman Catholics

is also held weekly. Occasionally the chapel is used < for other functions such as baptisms for seriously ill children or funerals for those with relatives in hospital. More often it provides a break from the sterility of hospital for those who may be under stress and needing a place to think, says , _ Mr Millichamp. An incident in 1915, when an ; English hospital ship, the Mari quette was torpedoed, led to the suggestion of a memorial chapel. ; Ten New Zealand nurses were - killed, including three from Christchurch. Among the survivors were

Alexander Prentice, who was secretary of the hospital board for . 19 years until 1956, and Doctor (later Sir) Hugh Acland, a surgeon and board member from 1927-47. The chapel was planned as a memorial to the three Christchurch nurses killed, and to those staff who died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. Public subscriptions were raised to cover the cost of the small, chapel (£3486), and a surplus of £l4B was used by the Hospital Lady Visitors’ Association to provide furnishings. The Duke of York laid the foundation stone on March 15,1927, and on Christmas Day of that year the first service was held. It was the first such chapel in New Zealand and it was another 21 years before others were opened, at Jubilee Hospital and Palmerston North Hospital.

When Mr Prentice retired as board secretary he began a campaign to raise money for other Christchurch hospital chapels. Within six months in 1959 the target of £35,000 had been reached and by 1961 both Sunnyside and Burwood hospitals had chapels. This Christchurch campaign for hospital chapels was duplicated throughout the country and most public hospitals in New Zealand now have them.

The Christchurch Hospital chapel has historic importance and was recently included on the Christchurch City Council’s historic buildings list. The Historic Places Trust has given it a “C” classification. Two of the stained glass win- ' dows in the chapel were originally in St Mary’s Anglican Church at Merivale, built in 1865. When this wooden building was demolished in 1927 to make way for a new church some of the building’s furnishings were given to the hospital chapel then being built.

It is these windows, above the door and altar, that are thought to be among the earliest glass work in Canterbury, says the Rev. Peter Ritchie, the hospital’s Anglican chaplain.

Other stained windows record the hospital’s history. They recall former matrons—Mary Ewart (matron from 1899-1908), Mabel Thurston (1908-16), Rose Muir (1916-35) and Sybill Maude (1893-97). Other notable nurses remembered in the glass work are Annie Pattrick, the first director of Plunket nursing, and Sister Mary Christmas, the first tutor sister of the nurses’ training school and also a survivor of the Marquette incident. A tribute to pioneer nurses is one of the two windows in the chapel made by a noted English stained glass artist, Veronica Whall. They are among only a few pieces of her work found in New Zealand, and are thought to be some of her last works.

The hospital’s history is reflected in other features of the chapel: the altar candles were given by Sir Hugh Acland, the offertory box was carved by Canon Henry Williams, the first full-time chaplain (193054), and the lectern is a memorial to Doctor Walter Fox, the medical superintendant from 1896-99. This lectern, the altar, the sanctuary rails and the panels behind the altar were carved by Mr F. G. Gurnsey, who also did carvings for the Christchurch Cathedral. Near the altar a silver casket is set in the wall. This was given by Dr Fox when he retired in 1936 and contains historical records of the chapel.

The hospital board has yet to decide which of these features will be retained in the relocated chapel. However Mr Millichamp says the cedar rafters will definitely not be used in the new building, because the ceiling would not be high enough. He is hopeful that the carvings and stained glass windows will be kept. Although the proposed chapel will have only one exterior wall it is possible that the windows could be placed on interior walls, with back lighting. Mr Millichamp is glad that the chapel will be moved to a more accessible site. The planned site, on the ground floor of the proposed main hospital building, would be more accessible to patients than the existing isolated chapel.

The existing long, narrow chapel was suitable when it was built but the role of the chapel has changed, he says. While patients and staff once attended services every Sunday, staff are now encouraged to maintain links with their own parishes. Those patients who are able are sent home at week-ends, so those attending the Sunday services are often very sick and in beds or wheelchairs.

The narrowness of the chapel makes it difficult to accomodate the beds, and the hard pews are unsuitable for unfit patients. Some more comfortable chairs are now used as well as pews and a wider chapel will be more suitable for the beds and wheelchairs, the two chaplains believe.