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Clinical pastoral care Serving as a hospital chaplain in Germany is one of hundreds of ways in which Medical Mission Sisters around the world try to be a healing presence to others today. “My ministry as a hospital chaplain has been nurtured from various sources. First there was my encounter with the people of Kenya and their comprehensive understanding of sickness, health and healing,” explains German Sister Gertrud Dederichs. When she completed her mission in Africa in late 1990, Sister Gertrud took classes at the Institute for Spiritual Leadership in Chicago to prepare for ministry in clinical pastoral care. Sister Gertrud has companioned patients, their relatives, and staff members in four different hospitals. She currently lives in Bottrop, Germany. She shares, “Journeying with people who experience frailty and dependence, people who are faced with death and dying, has been a great privilege. I have been richly blessed by people’s trust, courage and faith…especially the terminally ill have gifted and taught me with a contemplative attitude of unique depth.”
Reflecting on the limits of modern medical progress, Sister Gertrud says, “Illness and aging invite us to come to terms with the finiteness of our existence and to learn to trust and surrender to God’s loving hand, not only in times of success and strength, but also in diminishment.” Every day, Sister Gertrud assists people whose lives have been turned upside down by serious diagnoses. “To rediscover, to remember, and to piece their lives together again is something very meaningful. And it’s something very different according to the needs of each person.” She also enjoys helping staff learn to respond in appropriate ways to patients.
In addition to her work with patients and their families, Sister Gertrud is active on ethics committees. She explains, “There are increasingly ethical questions in hospitals. ‘Should this treatment be given to a patient? Should this test be done? Should we terminate this treatment?’” Time and again, Sister Gertrud has found that, “Along the joint path through the desert, both patients and their companions will stumble upon surprising wellsprings of life or be gifted with a sense of God’s sustaining presence and healing love.”
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