My experience is that a sectarian hospital will have an identity and corresponding space that displays the hospital's faith tradition. (eg. St. Anthony's/Denver and St. Vincent/Indianapolis) Non-sectarian hospitals, (as I wrote in your answer to my question), are challenged to create a neutral space that may have many resources. I know of one hospital that has a Christian-based space and next door is a neutral space. (Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center) Rev. Joy Bilger Goehring created a contemplative space at IU Health Saxony Hospital (Fishers, IN) in 2010 that is an example of an inclusive space with many resources.

Many thanks Samer and Donald for your replies and to Samer for the paper. It is an interesting read related to my research quest.

Regards

Yonah

Hi Yonah, I don't have any resources on public spaces for contemplation but I'm interested in the subject. I have jottings on method for teaching the process itself. I have personal experiences of finding worship spaces in Dubai airport, a shopping mall in Dublin (inside the Ilac Centre). Quite a surprise. I also had the benefit of seeing someone apparently rapt in meditation/contemplation in an open park.

Dear Dr Uchem

Many thanks for your thoughts on this subject regarding religion/spirituality is public places. Your observation about Dubai Airport where I have also visited several times is interesting. The title of my research interest itself is revealing because here in the west where I am operating from at the moment religion is increasingly been seen as a  'private' matter while in Africa where I am from the opposite can be true. So my interest, at least here in the west, is why are public places/institutions alloting spiritual/religious spaces in what is supposedly to be a 'secular' dispensation? My other interest is to hear the voices of those who utilise these spaces and why they do. In Africa, we may also need to understand these issues, or should we if we take the assumption that religion is a 'public' affair on the continent, anyway?

I guess your thoughts on why people use these public places - whether in contexts where people are comfortable being publicly identified with religion as in Africa or elsewhere in Europe and America where people  prefer a closet approach - is worth pursuing. On the question of whether to assume that religion is public in Africa, I think one can safely assume that. I am yet to find exceptions even among Africans in the diaspora including among those who have become westernized in mentality, attitudes and behaviours, beyond recognition. They seem to retain their spontanous responsiveness to relifion and spirituality. I will be glad to be i formed of the contrary or any excedptions if you encounter any in the course of your research.