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Programs - Pastoral Care

Hospital Visiting

• Volunteers visit St Christopher's parishioners in Joseph Brant Hospital Monday to Wednesday and Friday each week. Parishioners need to let the church office know when you are admitted to hospital. Also let Admitting know you are a parishioner of St. Christopher's.
• Volunteers provide God's presence at a difficult time, comfort in an uncomfortable time.

• Post-Hospital Admission: volunteers follow up by a home visit to parishioners home from hospital by needing or finding it helpful to maintain increased contact with St. Christopher's during the time of their convalescence. This is short-term.
• Bereavement: volunteers follow up with bereaved parishioners as part of the support offered at St Christopher's for bereaved persons. Where possible volunteers are those who have had a similar bereavement to the bereaved person.
• Keeping in Touch: volunteers visit parishioners regularly who are not able to get out of their home by themselves, if at all. These are most often friendly visits, but providing parishioners with a connection to St Christopher's. This is ongoing.
• Communion: volunteers trained in giving home communion for those unable to get to the special Christmas and Easter Worship and Luncheons. Also, some parishioners would benefit from communion more often.

• Keeping in Touch: volunteers call parishioners on a regular basis, as a way for them to keep in touch with St Christopher's. And so they don't feel forgotten.
• Post-Hospital Admission: volunteers follow up by telephone with parishioners after their stay in hospital to see how they are managing.
• Bereavement: volunteers follow up by telephone with parishioners after a bereavement, where a home visit is declined.

• A gift of food once a week is offered to parishioners stressed especially by illness.
• Referrals may come from clergy and/or members of the parish.
• The coordinator discusses needs and options with the family directly.

• Bereavement Support Groups are offered twice a year in fall and in winter/spring, coordinated by two bereavement volunteers.
• Invitations are sent out to the people who have been bereaved in the last 6-12 months. Everyone is invited twice, knowing that people grieve in their own time. However, anyone at any time is welcome to attend the bereavement group to assist them on their grief journey.
• Groups meet once a week for 8 weeks.
• Often the connections between participants last beyond the time of the group.
• Pastoral visits: at place of residence or by telephone. See Pastoral Care, Visiting Ministries

• A service on November 1st at 4:00pm, commemorating all who have died in the past year.
• All are welcome.
• This is a quiet reflective service where hymns are sung, prayers are said and the Eucharist is shared.

• Christmas can be a difficult time. This service offers all the Christmas and none of the glitz and excitement associated with the celebration of Christmas in our society.
• Hymns are sung, prayers are said, the Eucharist is shared in a quiet, reflective way, respecting the different places people come from to this service.