Hannah Felsbourg
8 March 2025
The Reverend Victoria Bakerov is an Anglican Chaplain at Royal Melbourne Hospital. She was recently ordained as a deacon. Here, she shares about her work.
What drew you to this work?
I started in November, so I’m quite new to the role. However, I’m not new to the hospital environment. I had a calling to work in the medical area when I was a young girl. I love medicine and wanted to be a doctor. I have spent my entire working life in medical settings. I trained as a midwife in Ukraine, and when I moved to Australia, I worked as a Haemodialysis Nurse at Monash Health for 20 years. When I heard the call to ordained ministry, although I was ready to work anywhere, I always had a soft spot for chaplaincy in healthcare settings.
How did you receive your calling to ordained ministry?
It was the last Sunday before COVID. During worship, I distinctly heard, “Feed my sheep, feed my lambs.” I was trying to finish the verse differently in my head, and I realised I was fighting with someone else’s voice. I said in my heart, “If the finishing of the verse is correct the way the voice wanted to say it, it’s God — He knows the Bible better.” When I came home and read the scripture, I realised God was correct.
Every time I’d heard this verse before, I had this burning sensation that it was a calling to ordained ministry. I would fight it, saying, “No, it’s someone else being called by this, it’s just a verse coming up in my memory.” But this time, I had promised that if God’s voice was correct about the verse, I would take it seriously as God’s calling and not just my imagination.
When I realised it was true, I cried. I wrote a huge list — almost 30 points of why I wasn’t good enough. I said to God, “You have to look closer at who you’re calling. I can’t do this, I can’t do that…”
One of my objections was my accent. I tried to get rid of it, but I can’t. However, I’ve noticed in the hospital setting it works beautifully. People relax around me. Sometimes they say, “Oh, you sound like my grandma,” and they open up to talk. Being a woman was another point on my list, but sometimes it’s beneficial. I can visit anyone in hospital because some patients don’t want men to attend to them.
How do you see your work fitting into God’s work in the world?
We are church outside of church buildings. I don’t see us as separate. Hospital chaplains encounter people who may never have crossed the threshold of a church building before. We meet them in the most difficult times of their lives—during suffering, pain, grief, loss, or uncertainty. We are there. We are present, doing what we can. In many cases, our presence reminds them of God’s loving kindness, His faithfulness, and His steadfast love for all of us.
Daily I see deep suffering. Interestingly, quite often when I listen to someone’s story, they say, “When my father was sick…” or “When my mother…” or “When my child…” What happens in hospitals is often a pivotal point in people’s lives. That’s when they start looking for deeper answers to life questions. So many people just really need to be listened to. It’s not simple when people depart. It stays with us. That’s huge wonder. Being with them in this time, sometimes I use words, but sometimes it’s just being there, listening to what they want to say.
Read more: We want healthcare chaplaincy acknowledged as a vital Anglican ministry
How do you see God at work through your work?
I see God at work every day. I witness miracles of healing through the medical staff, miracles of family reconciliation, and the wonder of someone departing this world to be with God.
I was called to administer the last rites to a young woman who had been brain-dead for some time, and whose family had finally decided to withdraw life support. Some of her family members hadn’t spoken to each other for over 20 years. When I arrived, I introduced myself to everyone, including the young woman, explaining who I was and what I was going to do. Of course there was no reaction, but I treated her like she was responding. I held her hand and held my book and I start reading. When I asked the family to join me in saying the Lord’s Prayer, I realised they were all holding hands. That moment was a miracle of reconciliation.
Read more: Watching her homeland invaded, Victoria trusts in the Lord
I looked at the nurse and she was crying. Afterwards she said, “You remind me of my childhood. All these prayers.” It called her back to the church as well. Sometimes I see, it’s almost like a reminder for people that God is a loving God, and He is with them in good and bad, and in hospital as well.
What encourages you in your work and what support do you have?
Sometimes it’s heavy lifting spiritually. What I’ve learned is to do what I preach — I give my burdens to Jesus. At the end of each day, I think about every encounter I’ve had and give it to the Lord. I pray that God will take care of each situation. I’m also blessed to have my supervisor, the Reverend Dawn Treloar, who responds with kindness whenever I need a ‘little talk through.’ Bishop Kate Prowd has been very helpful as well. I receive tremendous encouragement from the congregation members, staff, and clergy of St Paul’s Cathedral.
What would you like Christians in Melbourne to know about your work?
I serve a community of more than 1000 patients, most from rural Victoria, as well as around 600 staff members, volunteers, and family members. I would love Christians in Melbourne to consider people who are in hospital. You’re only one call away, one message away, one card away, one bunch of flowers away. Small words or gestures in times of deep distress can mean so much.
When people pray for hospitals, they pray for patients and families, but they hardly ever remember staff. Having been staff, I know exactly what a huge burden it is — knowing that what you do affects life and death. Please pray for all of us at the hospital, and especially for our staff, and even their families.
Please consider volunteering in a hospital or financially supporting someone who can. I truly believe that the person who prays, gives financially, encourages a patient or family with a card, or visits a patient is equally important. I would like to invite them into partnership. We all work together—one person sows, another waters, and someone else reaps, but it is God who works through us all.
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