This world belongs to God! 9/8/14

9/8/14

1Pe 2:15  For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

In England suffering was caused when King Henry VIII suppressed the monasteries. The Reformation deprived many suffering and disabled people of their only means of support. Patients of hospitals like St Thomas' and St Bartholomew's, founded and run by monastic orders, were thrown onto the streets. The onus for health care was placed firmly on the City Fathers and municipalities were forced to pay more attention to the health problems of the community.

It was not until the eighteenth century that the Christian hospital movement re-emerged. The religious revival sparked in England by the preaching of John Wesley and George Whitefield was part of an enormous unleashing of Christian energy throughout 'Enlightenment' Western Europe. It reminded Christians to remember the poor and needy in their midst. They came to understand afresh that bodies needed tending as much as souls.

A new 'Age of Hospitals' began, with new institutions built by devout Christians for the 'sick poor', supported mainly by voluntary contributions. The influence of this new age was felt overseas as well as in England. Health care by Christians in continental Europe received a new impetus. The first hospitals in the New World were founded by Christian pioneers. Christians were at the forefront of the dispensary movement (the prototype of general practice), providing medical care for the urban poor in the congested areas of large cities.

The altruism of these initiatives was severely tested when cholera and fever epidemics appeared. Larger hospitals often closed their doors for fear of infection. While wealthy physicians left the cities for their own safety, doctors and the staff of these small dispensaries, driven by Christian compassion, remained to care for the sick and dying. Christian philanthropists inspired setting up the London Fever Hospital to meet the desperate needs of those living without sanitation in overcrowded tenements. Christian inspiration continued to identify specific needs, leading to opening of specialist units: maternity and gynecology hospitals, and institutions for sick and deserted children. When the National Health Service took over most voluntary hospitals, it became clear just how indebted the community was to these hospitals and the Christian zeal and money that supported them over centuries.