St. Mary's Datchet aims to provide pastoral care to those who may be in need at any time,
and who either seek our help, or whose needs come to our attention. It is important however, to understand the limitations to
the Pastoral Care scheme that we as a church can provide, as we are not using
any of our volunteers as trained experts, and we are not competent to provide
expert advice or counselling.
We are mindful of Safeguarding and Lone working and our visitors receive training and checks
The areas in which the Pastoral Group might be expected to
operate could be:
-
Spiritual
direction
-
Bereavement
visiting
-
Marriage
problems - visiting
-
Problems
with children – visiting
-
Major
illness – visiting (home or hospital
-
Housebound
– visiting
-
Home
communions
Of the above, needs for spiritual direction and home
communions would be directed to the clergy. In other cases of need the pastoral
leader should be able to signpost members of their group with particular
problems to the appropriate professional assistance, for example, Relate for
marital problems.
In many cases a visit for a cup of tea, the ability to
listen sympathetically, and to empathise is probably all that will be required.
In order to achieve this aim the congregation has been split
up into ten groups with about fifteen people in each, with a group being the
responsibility of a Pastoral Care Leader. The intention is that each leader
will keep a look out for all the members of his or her group; be sensitive to
any possible issues that arise and offer support from the church if
appropriate.
To do this the leaders should be reasonably regular church
attenders, and take the initiative in contacting members of their group that
they haven't seen for some time, to check that everything is alright with them,
without being intrusive. Members of each group should be aware that their group
leader is there to offer help in time of need.
The key role for the Pastoral Group Leader is to get to know
the people in their group. If they have made the effort to develop a friendly
relationship with them they will be in a strong position to offer support if
required. Relationships can be built in a variety of ways including chatting
over coffee after a church service; how the leader gets to know the people in
their group is entirely up to them. It is likely that some of the people in the
group may already be well known to them anyway. It is the leader's
responsibility to remind the group now and then about the scheme so that if
there is a need they will know who to call upon.
The pastoral care leaders meet once every three months in
order to update lists, receive training and generally ensure that the scheme is
running successfully.