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Scottish hospital visit prepares Palestinian chaplain for new role

A Palestinian chaplain has been preparing for his new job in Israel during a visit to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.

Fareed Shehadeh has spent two weeks in the Highland capital observing the work of NHS Highland's chaplains.

He is to take up the post of chaplain at the main hospital in Nazareth and had been invited by Raigmore chaplain the Rev Iain MacRitchie, who visited the Israeli hospital last November.

While in Nazareth, Mr MacRitchie ran training sessions for staff, teaching them to provide spiritual care alongside medical treatment.

The sessions were attended by a range of hospital employees, from the hospital's chief executive to porters and administration staff.

During his visit to the Highlands, Mr Shehadeh has shadowed Mr MacRitchie, whose work includes funeral and bereavement services and conducting marriages at the Royal Northern Hospital Chapel.

Mr Shehadeh said: "The hospital in Nazareth was built and established by the Edinburgh Medical Mission Society in 1883, so it has strong Scottish connections.

"Since that date it has served the community in Israel, whether they are Moslems, Jews or Christians and despite the tensions between the three groups in the wider community.

"The priority at the hospital is the health and spiritual care of patients, whatever their faith. I am only one of the 16million Arab Christians living in the Middle East."

Full story at the Aberdeen Press & Journal.