Our Life Together: Pastoral Care
Here at Second Congregational United Church of Christ, we believe that caring
for one another is important to our mission and identity. That care and
support extends both to times of sorrow and times of rejoicing.
Pastor Mike and Pastor Fred are available
for conversation, visits, and even short-term counseling—really, it's
a core part of their jobs as pastors, and they have training and experience
in these areas. They would be glad to grab a cup of coffee with you, give you
a phone call, or stop by while you're in the hospital. Feel free to
drop them an email (Pastor Mike email, Pastor Fred email) or give them a call at the church: 815/963-8431. (If you have an urgent pastoral concern outside normal office hours,
you can get Mike's cell phone number on the church's voicemail
system.)
Mike and Fred also have a regular schedule of visiting members
of our church community who are unable to get to church anymore
("shut-ins") as well as occasional visits to those in retirement
communities and other special situations. If you know of someone who should
be added to this list, or you yourself desire a visit, please contact the
church office.
A note on pastoral visits while at the hospital: Because of confidentiality and privacy regulations that hospitals have to
follow, more and more we cannot rely on receiving complete and accurate
information from them about who among our congregation is in the hospital.
Thus, we ask two things related to hospital stays:
- when possible, please notify the church directly (especially if you
are somewhere other than SwedishAmerican, Rockford Memorial, or OSF St.
Anthony's), and
- please be specific and indicate "Second Congregational Church"
as your religious preference when being admitted (if you indicate a more
general preference, like "Christian", "Protestant",
and even "United Church of Christ" or "Congregational",
then the hospitals are not allowed to inform us of your presence there).
Congregational Care:
Our congregation's Board of Deacons is looking forward to renewing and revitalizing our lay-caregiving ministry (that is,
church members engaging in care and visitation activities, in addition
to the pastor). |
