Our mission is to offer competent, professional and compassionate spiritual care to patients, residents, family, visitors and associates. Thompson Health’s Spiritual Care Department understands that healing and wholeness are matters of the mind, body and spirit working together. In our commitment to serve the needs of the whole person, we define spirituality in the broadest and most universal terms possible: that which gives meaning or purpose and belonging or connection to each person. In this light, we seek to support each person in a way that is meaningful and helpful. We believe that spirituality can be valuable at times of crisis, thanksgiving and celebration as well as during transition. At Thompson we know that each person is different and we seek to honor those differences.
Spiritual Care at Thompson Hospital includes:
- Professionally trained chaplains available for spiritual support, including conversations surrounding goals of care, processing transitions and impact of next steps related to one’s journey
- An interfaith chapel
- Grief support
- Chapel services throughout the year
- Prayer before surgery if desired
- Administration of sacraments as well as facilitation of practices for celebration, mourning or healing
- Contacting the patient’s faith community or clergy upon request
Meet our Team
Rev. Janice Lum, M.Div, RN, Manager of Spiritual Care
Janice provides spiritual care to those throughout Thompson Health and oversees staff chaplains who meet with hospital patients and families. She completed her Masters in Theological Arts in 2002 from Northeastern Seminary, only to return to finish receiving her Masters of Divinity in 2022. She is ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene and endorsed to work as a chaplain. She began her Clinical Pastoral Education in the Washington DC area but it continued to completion in the Upstate NY area. Prior to her work as a chaplain she served as a pastor and her vocational began as a Registered Nurse. Janice considers herself a lifelong learner pursuing studies in spiritual direction.
She can be reached at Janice_Lum@URMC.Rochester.edu, or by calling the Spiritual Care office at (585) 396-6486.
Rev. Tory Bonners, M.Div, staff chaplain
Tory is one of our per diem chaplains here at Thompson and the pastor at Sojourners Mennonite Fellowship in Belfast, NY. In 2016, she graduated with her Bachelor of Science in outdoor recreation then spent a few years travelling around the country, finding work in seasonal positions, teaching outdoor education and managing ropes courses. Her path eventually led back to school, and she started her Master of Divinity program at Denver Seminary. Supervised by Denver Seminary, she completed the first half of her chaplaincy CPE training at Denver Health and later, UC Health Memorial Hospitals in Colorado Springs. After graduating from this masters program in 2021, she was asked to return to her heart home of western New York, and she eventually went on to finish her chaplaincy CPE training at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester in 2022.
Craig Dove, MDiv PhD BCCI, staff chaplain
Craig is a per diem chaplain at Thompson. He grew up in rural Oregon, east of Portland, then moved to the South for school, studying philosophy in North and South Carolina, and completing a PhD at Tulane University in New Orleans. He lived in Virginia for many years, where he joined the local Quaker Meeting, and then moved to Richmond, Indiana in order to earn a Masters of Divinity at the Earlham School of Religion. After teaching at RIT and Nazareth College, he moved to Ohio and has spent the previous decade working as a hospice chaplain in Columbus. He and his wife Julie have recently returned to the area, along with their twins George and Gardenia, in order to co-pastor Farmington Friends.
The Chapel
The interfaith chapel is next to the hospital's main lobby. The chapel, open day and night for anyone who wishes to use it, offers a place for prayer, meditation and reflection.
Chaplains are currently available on a part time basis at Thompson. If you are need of spiritual care, please call 585-396-6486.