Thursday, May 30, 2013

Joy & Grief

The Church is the community of Christ, and as a community, we are called to support each other in life's joys and griefs.

This used to be done by the women's groups at church, the wives and widows who we knew as the church ladies, who became the little old church ladies.* It was meal support and emergency childcare and hand holding and bringing food for celebrations, because the community cared.

That support is changing as times are changing. My grandparents had two support networks - family and church, and one or the other could step up. These days, the communities to which we belong and who we can call on are as varied as the congregants, but the issues are still there and the church should be one of the basic community pillars of a support network, esp in times of need. Some times those needs are from joys, some times from grief, some times from medical necessity.

Part of how we're changing is the type of support. We're not just thinking of the women involved, but their husbands/partners/family as also in need of emotional and physical care. Meal delivery is now coordinated through the internet. We're moving to care packages as the instant "we're thinking of you," rather than a prayer shawl.

This is a relatively long lead up to asking for some help with brainstorming.
-What are the life events that you think should be included in this kind of support?
-What would you, personally, like to see in such a care package?

Example: Major Surgery
- small booklet of suggested readings/psalms/prayers
- chocolate
- snack bars
- trashy bestseller
- aromatherapy candle
- microwave relaxing warm wrap (the fancy version of the sock with rice)
- prayer shawl

What are your ideas?

I'll eventually collate everything together for lists for various packages, and have some things common to all of them.

*Expect another post on them later this week