What is Pastoral Care?
Our Pastoral Care ministries exist to care for the body and spirit of our parishioners. Through a variety of programs, we offer a cheerful face, card, or song, along with prayers, to touch lives and share burdens. From being a member of the prayer chain, to visiting newcomers, shut-ins or the ill, or helping with hospitality, Christ Church offers many opportunities to care for one another.
How Do I Get Involved?
The Pastoral Care ministry depends on participants "like each one of us" who give a few minutes of their week for their brothers and sisters in Christ in need. You can participate from your own home through the Prayer Chain, or through the ministries below.
Prayer Chain
A group of parishioners pray on a daily basis for specific needs of church members. This prayer chain is initiated by the Rector through Sharon Lower. All prayer needs are kept confidential by the member of the prayer chain.
Bread & Soup
Eleanor Monahan coordinates the Bread & Soup Committee. This committee meets in the church kitchen as needed to make soup. The soup is then frozen. The soup along with some fresh bread is delivered to parishioners who have been ill or hospitalized.
Food Bank
Members of the congregation bring non-prerishable food to church each week. Volunteers regularly deliver it to the Salvation Army or CCAP (Congragational Community Action Project). Contact Lucia Thomas to volunteer for deliveries.
Knit unto Others - The Christ Church Prayer Shawl Ministry
The Christ Church Prayer Shawl Ministry – Knit Unto Others – will meet twice monthly to combine prayer, love, and friendship while stitching shawls and blankets for those in need of comfort and God's healing in body and spirit. This is our mission statement.
"Shawls ... made for centuries - universal and embracing, symbolic of an inclusive, unconditionally loving, God. They wrap, enfold, comfort, cover, give solace, mother, hug, shelter and beautify. Those who have received these shawls have been uplifted and affirmed, as if given wings to fly above their troubles..." * Some of us have had the privilege of being “uplifted and affirmed” by the gift of a prayer shawl when facing an illness or family death, and we wanted to provide this same comfort to others in our church and community. Christ Episcopal Church began a prayer shawl ministry in the Fall of 2009. We want this to be an intergenerational and inter-denominational endeavor ….and men, women, and teens are welcome!
Many blessings are knitted into every shawl. The knitter begins each shawl with prayers, and intentions are continued throughout the creation of the shawl. When the shawl is completed it is offered a final blessing during a service of Holy Eucharist. The group meets the first Monday of each month from 7:00-8:30 P.M. and the third Tuesday of each month from 2:00-4:00 P.M. in the parlors of Christ Church Old Rectory on Boscawen Street.
If you have questions about this ministry, you can call Sara Bicking [635-4452], Nancy Brown [667-3630], or Kay Keely [722-8977].
* These words were written in 1998© by Janet Bristow, one of the founders of the Prayer Shawl Ministry. She and Victoria Galo took their love of knitting (and crochet) and began a prayerful ministry that reaches out to those in need of comfort and solace.