Looking Out :

The following quote from Henri Nouwen ( a Dutch theologian who died in 1996) was shared at the Pastoral Partners meeting last Sunday.  As a community of loving, caring, compassionate people who respect, trust and care for each other and who live according to the example Jesus provided, I thought it was appropriate to share it with the whole congregation.

“When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand.

The friend who can be silent with jus in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares.”

As we move closer to new ministry and mission arrangements at Carlingford and West Epping we, as a congregation need to be pen  to the possibility that pastoral care arrangements will alter.  Whilst the Minister will retrain overall responsibility for pastoral care, the nature of the ministry we envisage will require greater awareness of, and response to, the pastoral concerns of our fellow congregants.

Let us reflect carefully on Nouwen’s word and seek to apply them in our relationships with hose around us.     NRM