{"id":3536,"date":"2016-01-03T16:37:28","date_gmt":"2016-01-03T22:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=3536"},"modified":"2016-01-03T16:37:28","modified_gmt":"2016-01-03T22:37:28","slug":"the-caring-hearts-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/01\/the-caring-hearts-ministry.html","title":{"rendered":"The “Caring Hearts Ministry”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"from<\/a>
from http:\/\/www.freestockphotos.biz\/stockphoto\/16283<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

This is something I\u2019ve been thinking about for a while.<\/p>\n

Longtime readers will know that a good friend of the family died this past November. \u00a0Young. \u00a0Father of four. \u00a0Involved in Scouts, a cantor, and well-known in the parish in general. \u00a0An extended circle of friends and parishioners jumped in to help with making meals for the family (especially the weeks when Ray and Betsy were travelling for treatment and grandma was staying with the kids), school lunches for the kids, and providing other kinds of help, during the months before.<\/p>\n

And parishioners \u2014 involved parishioners at any rate \u2014 like to think of themselves as always willing to jump in, and doing so whenever the need arises. \u00a0But this \u201csystem\u201d only works when the Person In Need is already connected into the parish in some way: \u00a0via the school, or CFM (Christian Family Movement \u2014 it\u2019s the other major way families get involved and get to know each other besides the school), or CRHP, or another group. \u00a0If you haven\u2019t already built these connections \u2014 because you\u2019re new, or because you don\u2019t have kids, or because you simply are that sort of introvert that doesn\u2019t feel comfortable with these sorts of groups and activities \u2014 you\u2019re SOL. \u00a0And that doesn\u2019t feel right \u2014 for help from the community to be a reward for having gotten involved, or for being good at making friends.<\/p>\n

Now, a couple months ago, the church newsletter that my husband (who is Lutheran, and a member at a nearby ELCA church) received had a description of a new ministry there, the \u201cCaring Hearts Ministry\u201d; here\u2019s a link\u00a0to the description<\/a>\u00a0of the ministry. \u00a0It\u2019s described as offering \u201cshort term assistance to those in need.\u201d \u00a0Some examples of the sort of help that\u2019s envisioned include meals, babysitting, yardwork, computer assistance, transportation, and social outings. \u00a0The site links to an interest inventory for helpers and a need inventory for those who need help.<\/p>\n

Would this work, in the context of a Catholic parish? \u00a0I could imagine that needs would be identified by parish staff, especially the parish nurse, or perhaps by an open invitation, not so much to ask for help so much as to identify to the staff someone else in need of help. \u00a0And, around here, people use Sign-Up Genius for everything from PADS shifts to Cub Scout activity sign-ups to school conference times, so it would seem to be easy enough to invite parishioners to provide an e-mail address to be put on a mailing list, and receive Sign-Up Genius e-mails whenever a need is identified, right?<\/p>\n

Or maybe not.<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n

What does your parish do \u2014 formally or informally \u2014 for those with these sort of needs, due to an illness or death in the family or another problem?<\/p>\n

(The photo, by the way, is of no one in particular; you\u2019re just meant to think of this couple as happily preparing a dish to bring over to their neighbors.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is something I\u2019ve been thinking about for a while. Longtime readers will know that a good friend of the family died this past November. \u00a0Young. \u00a0Father of four. \u00a0Involved in Scouts, a cantor, and well-known in the parish in general. \u00a0An extended circle of friends and parishioners jumped in to help with making meals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":3541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe "Caring Hearts Ministry"?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is something I've been thinking about for a while. 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