Mission as Spirituality

Institutional mission gives an institution its purpose, its reason for being. In a sense, a hospital or institution has its own spirituality, and it can be summarized in a mission statement. Of course, just as in the life of an individual, what we claim as our institutional goal is often not what we actually do. An actual, lived institutional mission emerges from the collective spirituality of its members. The concept of collective spirituality transcends the differences in departmental purposes. Understandably the purposes of the marketing, food services and surgery departments are very different, although they serve the overarching institutional purpose of curing disease and healing the spirit. Yet, collective spirituality refers to the collection of all of the people’s individual spiritualities who work within or are served by the institution.

How significant is the mission statement in your institution?