@article{5bb47b7e3c214d329053bb0804ae861c,
title = "Hospital Sunday and the new National Health Service: An End to 'The Voluntary Spirit' in England?",
abstract = "The advent of the welfare state has been seen by some historians as a decisive blow for British traditions of voluntarism, echoing some of the concerns raised in the lead up to the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS). This article examines the practice of Hospital Sunday in England in the post-war period. In doing so it evidences the effect of the nationalization of the voluntary hospitals in 1948 on the relationships between clergy, their congregations and health care. It argues that much greater attention needs to be paid to the continuities evident in Christian-inspired social action in the NHS in the long 1950s and after. Attending to the role of such Christian social action allows historians both to extend our knowledge of the importance of Christianity to social life in the period and to deepen our understanding of the operation of the welfare state.",
keywords = "National Health Service (NHS), Hospital Sunday, Welfare state",
author = "Robert Piggott",
note = "Funding Information: As a corollary of their long-standing proximity to medical care, both the clergy and the churches sought to influence practices within the new health service. A primary vehicle for this was the Churches{\textquoteright} Council of Healing, an ecumenical initiative set up by Archbishop Temple in 1944, the year of the NHS White Paper. One of its aims was to promote divine healing as opposed to faith healing or miraculous healing, complementary to medical science rather than a substitute for it. The council advocated for the benefits of patients maintaining faith and hope as part of their treatment, and Root has connected the movement with the development of psychotherapy. Its work was supported by the British Medical Association (BMA) and the council offered a continued link between the English churches and medical care. In accordance with these principles, F. S. Sinker, a member of the clergy in Lichfield diocese, took a medical degree with the stated aim of developing {\textquoteleft}friendly association between clergymen and doctors{\textquoteright}. To this end, the council also held meetings as part of the BMA's annual conferences. Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Ecclesiastical History Society.",
year = "2022",
month = jun,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1017/stc.2022.18",
language = "English",
volume = "58",
pages = "372--393",
journal = "Studies in Church History",
issn = "0424-2084",
publisher = "Cambridge University Press",
}
