On October 26th, at our Parish Expo, Rhonda provided an update on how the St. Helen’s Prayer and Pastoral Care Teams will work together to ensure people seeking care receive the kind of care they are seeking.
For many years, it has been possible to request prayers from the Prayer Team by sending an email to a central address. These requests were and are held in complete confidence. This means that members of the prayer team do not talk about the situations for which they are asked to pray with anyone – including the people who asked for the prayers. This allows people to ask for prayers without worrying about having to talk about their situation unless they choose to bring to it up. It protects everyone’s privacy and means that our prayer team members can be chosen purely because of their gift for prayer without requiring them to be trained in pastoral care.
Sometimes, though, people ask for prayers and want someone to follow up but don’t feel quite comfortable asking for a visit from a member of the pastoral care team. Maybe they aren’t sure their situation is serious enough or maybe they are a little shy. Or maybe they don’t even realize the prayer request is not the same thing as a pastoral care request.
We want to make sure that everyone receives the care they need and so we are introducing a slightly new procedure for our Prayer and Pastoral Care Teams. This is how it will work:
- Someone emails prayerchain@sthelens.ca or speaks to one of the clergy about a prayer request.
- The request is sent to all of the members of the Prayer Team and of the Pastoral Care Team. This group of people will add the request to their prayers, keeping all details completely confidential.
- Within a day or two, a member of the Pastoral Care Team will follow up with the person who made the request. They will assure the person of our prayers and see if anything else is desired or needed – a visit or a phone call or a comfort quilt or something else. If yes, we will make sure that happens. If prayers are all that is wanted, we will leave it at that.
We hope that this small change will improve our ministry of pastoral care and make it easier for St. Helen’s parishioners to reach out for the support they need.