Painting of Jesus is moved, not removed
MIKE STAUGAITIS/Staff Photo The portrait of Jesus that previously hung in the lobby at the Geisinger Shamokin Area Community Hospital has been moved to the spiritual center.
COAL TOWNSHIP - A painting of Jesus has been removed from the lobby at Geisinger-Shamokin Area Community Hospital (G-SACH), but it has not left the building.
The painting is now in the hospital's Emily A. Rosini Spiritual Center, about 20 steps from its former location near Elevator A in the main lobby.
Patients and the public had noticed the absence of the familiar and "comforting" face, and there has been some public criticism. Some assumed it was removed altogether with the SACH merger into Geisinger, which became official at the start of 2012.
That's not the case, but it was a matter of not overstating one religion over another.
"With Shamokin Area Community Hospital coming into the Geisinger family, we wanted to adopt their philosophy to be nondenominational and have everyone, of all faiths, who come here for care feel at peace," Thomas Harlow, G-SACH chief administrative officer, said Monday.
The painting was moved earlier this month, and a rededication ceremony held at its new home.
The hospital's intercessory prayer group meets each week day at noon in the center, which is designed for prayer and meditation. The purpose of the intercessory prayer program, according to the hospital website, is to ask people of religious faiths to spend a few moments each day praying for patients being treated at G-SACH that they may experience healing, and for the "professional staff to be instruments of healing."
Harlow noted Geisinger offers a spiritual care program on its Danville campus, and operates the Rea Interfaith Chapel in the main Geisinger Medical Center building.
The Rev. Adrian Gallagher, pastor of Our Lady of Hope Church, Coal Township, and St. Patrick Church, Trevorton, was aware of the painting being move when contacted Monday for comment. He has no problem with the decision.
"It's one thing to remove it from the property altogether, and it's another to just move it to the chapel," he said. "I think it's most appropriate."
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