St Helena Hospice has become a signatory of the Essex Faith Covenant, showing a commitment to the diverse spiritual care needs of patients and their families.
The Essex Faith Covenant is a shared set of principles that guide engagement between faith communities and public services.
Being signatories of the covenant means St Helena will pro-actively build relationships and trust between faith groups and public services; create opportunities to raise awareness and share learning and knowledge between different faith communities and within the public services; and seek opportunities to bring people together to serve the community, particularly the most disadvantaged.
Mark Jarman-Howe, chief executive of St Helena, said:
"St Helena provides individual care and holistic support for people in north east Essex who are facing incurable illness and bereavement. Our support is available to local people of all faiths and no faith.
“We welcome joining the Essex Faith Covenant as a sign of our commitment to cater for people's spiritual care needs as well as their social, emotional, and physical ones."
The Essex Faith Covenant principles are:
- Faith communities are free to practice their beliefs and religious observances, and to raise their voice in public debate and to be respected, within the framework of UK law
- Public services and faith-based social action should respect service users from all backgrounds, without discrimination
- The voice, participation and solutions that faith communities bring are important, and good engagement with the public services should enable them to be brought to bear for the benefit of the wider community
Tim Leeson, spiritual care lead at St Helena, said:
“We’re excited to be a part of the covenant and we’re looking forward to the new relationships and opportunities that will come from it.
“Being part of the covenant will help us raise awareness of the work we do and the way in which we can serve local communities. It offers us ways to meaningfully support our patients and their loved ones through local faith groups.
“Plans to put our commitment to the covenant into practice are already taking shape. We’ve made our multifaith chapel more accessible and inclusive to diverse beliefs, and we’re having regular meetings with local interfaith leaders.”
In welcoming St Helena to the membership, Ivor Moody, chair of the Essex Faith Covenant steering group, said:
“St Helena joins over forty different faith communities, councils, hospices and other public service organisations across Essex and East London in an alliance which seeks to deepen and enrich conversations and share resources and ideas between varied but equally valued partners in the task of serving the people of our great county.”
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