Pastoral Care

Pastoral visits and conversations support the spiritual well-being of parishioners. The role of a pastoral care visitor is to provide a caring, non-judgemental, listening ear, empathy, and spiritual support through prayer. Visits might take place in hospital or at a personal residence. Occasionally they take place over the phone. Visits might be requested by people dealing with a serious illness, a short-term crisis, or as they move from one stage of life to another (such as from independent living to long-term care). The goal is not to “fix” the difficulties a person is facing, but to accompany them through it.

This is part of our pastoral care and outreach to the wider community. Lay team members work with clergy to provide a monthly communion service to residents in LTC homes. Currently we provide a service at St. Patrick’s Long-Term Care Home on the second Tuesday of the month from September to June. Typically, 20 to 30 residents attend the service. Team members assist with portering residents from their rooms to the large meeting room where worship happens. Some also give technical support in running the PowerPoint and in leading the music. This ministry supports the spiritual well-being of people who live in our parish but have no way of participating in our Sunday services either in person or online.

Parishioners with an ability to knit or crochet create prayer shawls from yarn provided by the church. Parish members create a total of about 100 shawls each year while in a time of prayer. These shawls are blessed and offered to those in need of comfort in times of personal stress, whether physical, psychological, or social; or to celebrate spiritual milestones such as baptism. We give the shawls to people within and beyond our parish so that they know they are wrapped in God’s grace and healing.