Bankstown Hospital Chapel Backed by Council as Petitions Near 10000 Signatures

Rachelle Harika did not ask for a grand cathedral. She asked for a small room where a frightened family could pray, in a hospital where the worst news of their lives might arrive at any hour. On 27 October, the council she helps lead backed her, unanimously, and the fight over a chapel in a new Sydney hospital moved one step closer to the state government.

Canterbury-Bankstown Council has unanimously recommended that the New South Wales Government provide a Christian chapel in the new Bankstown Hospital, CathNews reports, citing reporting by The Catholic Weekly. Deputy Mayor Rachelle Harika drafted the proposal. She said her motion had incredible support on 27 October.

Rachelle Harika Bankstown Hospital Chapel Proposal

Harika's request was deliberately modest. She asked only that the facilities already present at the existing hospital be carried into the new one. The existing Bankstown Hospital has a Christian chapel and two seperate prayer rooms, and her motion asked for those same spaces to be replicated.

"All I am asking is for the existing facilities at Bankstown Hospital, a Christian chapel and two separate prayer rooms, to be replicated at the new hospital."

Two petitions on Change.org calling for a chapel have gathered almost 10,000 signatures between them, CathNews reports. One petitioner described the lack of a Christian space as a logistical nightmare for the hospital's multifaith community, arguing that people of different creeds would otherwise crowd into limited shared spaces at the very moment they most needed quiet.

The council's case rests on who actually lives in Canterbury-Bankstown. About 75 per cent of people in the local government area profess some religion, compared with only about 45 per cent in Sydney's inner west and North Shore, CathNews reports. About 42 per cent are Christian and 24 per cent Muslim, with the rest mainly secular, Buddhist, or Hindu.

New Bankstown Hospital Faith Spaces and Shared Facilities

The new hospital is planned as a 14-storey teaching hospital, with construction scheduled to begin next year, CathNews reports. Within the planned facilities, there is apparently not enough space for both a dedicated chapel and Muslim prayer rooms. That squeeze is where the argument begins.

The state government's project website says hospitals are mainly meant for healthcare, not spiritual care, CathNews reports. It states that faith spaces are therefore designed as shared facilities that can respond flexibly to the needs of patients, visitors and staff. Harika's motion pushed back on that logic, arguing in her motion that hospitals have a spiritual dimension.

The cost figures in reporting differ by source and date. CathNews describes the project as a $2 billion hospital, while an earlier New South Wales Government page on community consultation said the government had committed $1.3 billion for the new hospital.

Readers should treat the two figures as coming from different reports at different stages, not as one settled total. The government page said the funding would meet the needs of south-western Sydney's fast-growing and diverse community.

Bankstown Hospital Chapel Petitions and Community Response

The senior Muslim chaplain with NSW Health, Mohamed Elshafei, told The Catholic Weekly, via CathNews, that most hospitals in the state have only multifaith facilities. He said people need to be realistic about prayer space in cramped hospitals, adding, "Sharing is caring." He also said that ideally Muslims would prefer separate prayer rooms, a point that shows the pressure is felt well beyond one faith community.

The NSW Government page records that more than 400 people attended recent community information sessions for the new hospital, giving feedback to help shape the master plan. The new hospital will stand on Chapel Road, close to Bankstown city centre, public transport and the future Sydney Metro. A street named Chapel Road, in a suburb arguing about whether its hospital will have a chapel, is the kind of detail nobody in Bankstown will miss.

Readers can follow other Australian church stories in 400 men gather on a mountain in Inverell as 11 are baptised at Mighty Men weekend, and nine adults welcomed into the Orthodox Church in Perth as Bishop Elpidios baptises eight. Wider church building pressures are covered in Southwell Minster could close in 2027 as a 900 year old cathedral runs out of money and a report warns the Church of England faces financial disaster.

The council has spoken, the petitions have been signed, and the decision now rests with the state government. Whether a family in Bankstown will one day find a chapel door open beside a hospital ward may depend on what happens next, in a planning process where prayer rooms compete for the same floor space as everything else.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.