Clergyman in White

An Episcopal chaplain last week gave 75 doctors and ministers in Newark a lesson on how they could be of more use on the borderline of life and death. Said Chaplain Otis Radcliffe Rice of Manhattan's big, Episcopal-founded St. Luke's Hospital: "Ministers must be intelligent laymen in the medical field and learn how to cooperate effectively with doctors. Physicians must remember that there are almost always intangible factors in an illness which are up the parson's alley rather than theirs, and that a trained clergyman can be a tower of strength to them."

Thoughtful, smooth-voiced Otis Rice planned to go to medical school after he graduated from Harvard in 1925. A doctor friend persuaded him to go to a seminary instead. After ordination, he studied psychology in England and Germany, served as curate of two famed Episcopal churches (Trinity Boston; St. Thomas, Manhattan) and as a parish rector before he felt ripe to take his present post three years ago.

Until Rice took the office, St. Luke's chaplain was also its superintendent--with so many administrative tasks that he had little time for religious work. The job was split up at Rice's suggestion. An M.D. now takes care of the hospital administration, leaving Rice spiritual responsibility.

Much of Chaplain Rice's work is with visitors, doctors, nurses and hospital employes (who are all as much a part of his parish as the patients). But the crucial part is with the sick themselves. He has found that a minister can be of help in:

> Borderline cases where the will to live is the deciding factor in life or death.

>Pre-Operation Nerves. When patients cannot relax before an operation, religion often gives them confidence.

> Pain. Patients in pain can sometimes be led to concentrate their thoughts on religious matters and prayer so that they forget their physical condition.

> Excessive Religious Zeal. When a patient thinks that if he believes fervently enough his faith will cure him, a chaplain "can suggest that while God's power is limitless, His healing powers work through the channels of intelligent medical and surgical technique as well as through prayer and the ministry of the church."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.