Normalizing Care…
At last year’s Longest Night service, two of us were stationed in the back of the sanctuary for anyone who needed prayer. And what that experience clarified for me is that if you offer to pray, people will come! As the Mental Health & Wellness team strives to focus on areas of ministry where people need support, care, companionship, or just space for their emotions, we don’t want to forget the basics of church ministry: being active listeners and willing prayers.
FPCY offers many opportunities to request prayer – Sunday morning prayers of the people, emailing the prayer chain, and prayer ribbons regularly added out by the labyrinth. Still, sometimes we just need 1:1 prayer, and members of our Mental Health Ministry are available when the need is more personal than what you’d lift during church on Sunday. You will begin to hear an invitation in the bulletin and during announcements about a prayer service scheduled for Sunday, September 27th after church where you can come receive more individualized prayer, and once a month thereafter. Because we want to normalize ministry, normalize caring for one another, and normalize prayer. Jesus prayed, and we want to live out his example in our church and community.
~Tamsin Levine, Mental Health Ministry