Congregational Care Committee
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Mission: To care for RUC congregants in time of need by providing support, visiting, helping them keep in touch with their church family and organizing services (meals, transportation etc) as needed.
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RUC’s new strategic plan asks the Congregational Care Committee to assess the congregation’s need for care. We’re inviting your ideas – in worship Nov. 13th, and by text, email, call, or note at any time. Here, we bring you up-to-date on what we do, hoping it helps you make suggestions. Watch the video, Stories of Congregational Care to hear the beauties of compassion.
Generally, we are to love and encourage the congregation, supplementing our pastors’ care. Our activities mostly fall into four big categories. Here are summaries, if you like things short:
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Seven (or maybe 9) Ways We Pray – We first counted seven ways we pray for each other and our world. Then we remembered more and now we have nine. They differ mainly in the number of people taking part. If you yearn for prayerful support, you can reach our pastors, the Committee, or others in many ways. ALL types of prayer are available to everyone.
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Food, Rides, Visits, and $ – plus Cards! – Too sick to cook? Stuck at home? Running short or have another emergency? Your Congregational Care Committee can help. Volunteers cook, buy, or deliver meals. Others provide rides to medical appointments or church. With our pastors, we offer small grants when hardship hits. We call, visit -- and love to send cards! Please tell us what you need.
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Grieving Our Losses – Losses leave holes in our lives (and in our hearts). They all hurt – sometimes so much that healing seems impossible. We have long relied on our religious organizations to offer immediate care and to help us heal over time. With our pastors, the Congregational Care Committee continues that tradition with special services; offers of prayer, food, memorial gifts, and some new ways to stay in touch.
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(Very)Special projects – Much of what the Congregational Care Committee does happens routinely and regularly. Occasionally, though, we do a special project. Our pastors might ask for help, a new idea may pop up, or we might celebrate a holiday.
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(Very) Special Projects
Members of the Congregational Care Committee pray for us daily. Providing rides, food, cards, and grants is close-to-routine due to our many helpers and years of practice. We’ve been adding ways we help those who grieve. Also, sometimes we add special, short-term projects when our pastors ask or when new ideas occur.
Our biggest very special project aimed to keep us in touch after COVID hit and we couldn’t be together. It was Rev. Scott’s idea and became a model for other churches. He and Rev. Jennifer trained 22 callers (who also became emailers, texters, and card-senders as time passed). Near Easter 2020, our volunteers reached out to all 250 of you. We contacted at least 190 folks, offering a chance to talk and asking if we could help. These contacts continued weekly or monthly, indefinitely. Sometimes people called strangers and discovered new friends. These connections continue now, even two years later.
Over the years, the Committee also:
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Matched small and tall people as penpals;
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Gave rosebuds or mailed cards for Valentine’s Day;
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Held a workshop on wills and planning our funerals.
I’m sure many other projects happened before I joined the Committee.
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Phyllis Windle, Elder, pwindle5@verizon.net