An Update from the Pastoral Team
In a previous edition of Sunrise we mentioned that a small group of people have been meeting together to plan how to get a pastoral care team up and running again. We have continued to meet since that time and are making progress! Thank you so much for your prayers, support and encouragement.
As mentioned before, the idea is that we will focus on supporting people as best we can whether they be young, old or somewhere in the middle, and this may involve pastoral visiting, practical help, training courses and so on.
Our core team consists of Sarah Neish, Julia Poole, Elizabeth Dain and Wendy Burnhams along with the two of us, and we are delighted that Wendy has agreed to head up our team as we go forward. We are especially grateful to Peta Sutherland who has headed up the team in the past and who has been a great help to us as we move forward. We have a good number of people who have agreed to be pastoral care supporters; too many to mention here but ‘thank you’ to everyone concerned. If this is something you would be interested in getting involved with, please do get in touch.
We have arranged a Listening Skills course which will take place during the morning of Monday 18 October at Holy Rood. The materials that will be used on the course have been produced by the Acorn Christian Foundation and are widely used in churches and within the NHS. They teach a particular way of listening, chosen because it is safe, easy to learn and non-directive. It allows the speaker to set the agenda, not the listener. It’s called ‘Christian Listening’ because it is offered by Christians, made in the image of the God who listens. If you would be interested in attending the course please can you book your place by contacting the parish office at potr.alton@btinternet.com Numbers are limited, but if there is enough interest then we will make arrangements to re-run the course on another day.
Please continue to pray for this initiative; we really appreciate your support.
Gordon and Ruth Randall