Care & Services
Family services

Spiritual Care

The Spiritual Care program at Children’s Minnesota supports the special spiritual and religious needs of patients and families. A family’s faith and spiritual practices can be a source of hope, healing and comfort during a hospital stay. Chaplains, who specialize in pediatric hospital spiritual care, visit persons of all faith traditions. They can facilitate connections with home clergy and faith community or with religious resources locally that match an individual’s own faith and spiritual practice. Amidst the emotionally charged atmosphere around pediatric illnesses and traumas, Chaplains offer a non-anxious, reflective and supportive presence to patients, families and staff.

Services our Chaplains provide

Our Chaplains provide:

  • Spiritual care visits
  • Emotional and spiritual support in times of illness, crisis or loss
  • Worship and prayer services for families
  • Consultation with staff or families on issues of religious or ethical significance
  • Religious services and rituals, such as baptism, naming ceremonies, blessing services, Holy Communion and prayer & anointing services.
  • Search for meanings amidst innocent suffering
  • Written religious resources (sacred texts and prayers)
  • Support at times of death and mourning
  • Faith education and formation
  • Spiritual support during conferences and ethical reflection and decision making
  • Bereavement follow up after the death of a child

How to contact a Chaplain

Chaplains routinely visit in all patient care areas and can be contacted directly through hospital staff. Chaplains are in the hospital 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday – Friday. To reach us directly or to leave a message to be returned during regular business hours, call:

Children’s Minnesota – Minneapolis campus: 612-813-6253
Children’s Minnesota – St. Paul campus: 651-220-6369

On-call Chaplains are available evenings, nights and weekends. To contact an on-call Chaplain, ask a member of your care team to contact Chaplaincy Services, or call the hospital operator and request the on-call Chaplain.

Other faith and spiritual resources

The following resources are also available upon request:

  • Trained hospital volunteers from “The Twin Cities Jewish Healing Program” and the “Muslims meeting Muslims” who will visit with patients and families.
  • Electric candles, electric Sabbath candles, electric incense burners, rosaries, prayer rugs, Muslim prayer beads and anointing oil are available for use in the hospital.
  • We have interfaith chapels on each hospital campus. In Minneapolis, the chapel is located on the first floor. In St. Paul campus, the chapel is located on the third floor of the River Tower building.

Worship services

  • Private rituals can be arranged by contacting your unit chaplain or by contacting Spiritual Care.
  • In Minneapolis, there are no regularly scheduled services.
  • In St. Paul, Catholic Mass is celebrated Sundays at 2 p.m. in the chapel.