HOSPITAL CHAPEL.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18480, 7 September 1925, Page 3

HOSPITAL CHAPEL.

..—-♦ , MEMORIAL TO BRAVE NURSES. "When the Marquette disaster occurred, says the September issue of "Church News," a memorial' service was held at St. Michael's, and the offerings on that occasion were ap-, propriated to a future memorial .in Christchurch Hospital to the brave nurses who laid down their lives for the ijrapire on that tragic day. For long no suitable action could be taken, but it has now been decided with the approval of the Hospital Board and the Department that an' effort be made, to build a chapel within the Hospital grounds as a memorial to the Marquette nurses and to all' nurses who died on military service during the war. The proposed chapel is to be built in brick and lined with timber, and placed on the Riccarton road frontage just beyond the present operating theatre. The committee aims at raising £3OOO to cover the cost of the building and furnishing it. We believe it will be the first chapel in .a public .hospital in New Zealand and we are glad that Christchurch , is going to liaye the privilege of establishing a most, important precedent. It is a most encouraging symptom of a changing' attitude towards religion. Appeal for Funds. An appeal for the necessary funds is now being launched, and it should be assured of a very enthusiastic reception from all who were moved bv the magnificent work done by the nurses during the war —in peaceful hospitals, far from the noise of battle, in the war:sione within reach or range of the. bursting shells, upon the. high seas .in hospital ships, on special war duty, where women never before in history have been allowed to go. The heroic women who paid the price of their service with their lives are the nurses in whose honour the chapel is to bi' built, but there are few who themselves have been or had relatives go through the war hospitals who -will not feel that such a memorial will go beyond even that high intention by reminding us of all the blessed ministry of the nurses to our sick and wounded during the war. The conditions of a hospital make it not an easy matter for a nurse, esIHJcially to keep the rule of he r religion with regularity. There are at all times many patients able to walk about the hospital, but not to leave it. Services at present have to be held in some room temporarily free from use. a bare bleak room usually, oppressively .secular.