Goodbye Hospital Chapels, Hello 'Meditation Rooms'

For some hospitals, gone are the days of "chapels" with pews and crosses. Three Sacramento facilities are building "meditation rooms," spaces that officials hope will cater to all faiths and offer others a quiet place to think.

"People of all faiths -- and people of non-faith -- need a place where they can sit down and reflect, many as they are trying to make a decision," Samuel Brown-Dawson, of the clinical pastoral services at UC Davis Medical Center, told the Sacramento Bee. UC's meditation room opens this fall. The one at Kaiser Medical Center makes its debut in two weeks, while Sutter Medical Center's space will be unveiled in 2013.

The designs for these places of respite will reflect the push for inclusiveness. At Kaiser, for example, crosses and altars will be replaced with stained glass depicting a bridge and a bowl for written prayers. The Sutter space will feature prayer rugs and Jewish prayer shawls, said one official there.

An interesting side note: According to Brandeis University associate professor of sociology Wendy Cadge, meditation rooms are a West Coast thing. "In the Midwest and the East Coast, they're still called chapels," said Cadge.

Source: The Sacramento Bee