Facilitating pastoral care

To facilitate pastoral services among members, this committee is organized to coordinate the process of connecting members with needs to the Minister, or to members who can help. Examples of services include transportation, meals, child care, hospital and home visits, minor home maintenance or repairs, companionship, support during crises, and bereavement support.

Notifying the congregation

The on call committee member for the month furnishes information to congregants about hospitalizations, illnesses, births, deaths, marriages, or other events of importance, with the approval of the individuals involved.

Being in community and caring for one another is a fundamental aspect of our togetherness. Sharing of information such as deaths and memorial services has been complicated by our services being live streamed and the TWAE being digitally available to anyone, the population at large. Protecting the privacy of our members’ information is a concern in this realm. 

You’ve all hopefully received a few email notifications over the past 6 months through the Breeze platform, which can be used for member communications. This has not happened consistently, creating consternation for some. Congregants want to know of significant life events within our community so we can support one another. 

In an effort to establish a safe, reliable process for this information dissemination, members from the Committee on Ministry, Memorial Committee, Arms Around, the minister, intern minister and our congregational administrator met recently. It was determined that Arms Around will be the primary committee handling this informational piece. You can contact the Arms Around person covering for the month, as usual, who will then work with Joyce Whitson and/or Barb Chessler to send out appropriate emails to congregants via the Breeze platform.

Here’s what you can do:

• As always, please convey important information to the Arms Around contact person/people covering for the month.
• Be sure your contact information in Breeze is up to date.

Funding

An Arms Around fund is available for members’ special needs.

Contact

You can reach out to the Arms Around Committee by contacting them here