Pastoral Care

Altar Flower Delivery · Prayer Team · Agape
Newborn Agape · Love in Action (Visitation Committee) Community of Hope

If you would like more information about any of the groups below, would like to join one, or need services from one, please contact our parish secretary, Nancy Garvin.

Altar Flower Delivery

After the last Sunday service, volunteers deliver the altar flowers to sick or shut-in parishioners. Volunteers usually are scheduled for two deliveries per year.

Prayer Team

The Prayer Team is a group of church members whose ministry is to pray for parishioners, their families or friends, in crisis.  Such a crisis might be an accident, illness, surgery or divorce.

Anyone may submit such a prayer request.  Your prayer request will be kept confidential.  In response to your request, the prayer chain will pray for one week.  Should the crisis continue, please re-submit your prayer request weekly and provide an update on the crisis.  You may submit your prayer requests through our On-line Prayer Request Form. 

The Prayer Team is a lay ministry.  It welcomes new members.  Even if you do not use email, you can participate.  One of the moderators of the prayer chain will call you, when a prayer request has been received.  To join the Prayer Team, please contact our parish secretary, Nancy Garvin.

Agape Ministry

The Agape Ministry involves the preparation and delivery of meals to parishioners who are experiencing sickness or death in their families. Through the work of the ministry, a freezer at St. John’s is kept stocked with meals that can be delivered when they are needed. Groups and individuals who are willing to cook or deliver meals are encouraged to volunteer.

Newborn Agape

This ministry provides encouragement and support to families with new babies. The families are visited, delivered a meal, and provided a packet of information about baptisms and special prayers for parents of newborns.

Love in Action (Visitation Committee)

The Visitation Committee ministers to parishioners who are either confined to their homes or are residing in assisted living facilities for an extended period of time. This committee’s efforts are designed to complement the clergy and other pastoral groups in ministry to confined parishioners. The committee meets monthly to coordinate its efforts.

Community of Hope

Community of Hope is a training community to help those people who are called to lay pastoral ministry develop their spiritual gifts. The program is grounded in the Benedictine Way and supported in community in order to provide Christ's ministry of presence to others. Training in the Midlands will begin in September at St. John's. More information about the program can be found on the website for Community of Hope or you may contact Margaret Jennings Todd, 256-2191, for more detailed information and application materials.