Pastoral Care

Pastoral Care in Local Meetings

Quaker meetings typically have a committee charged with providing pastoral care to its members and attenders. In meetings with pastors, the pastor will ususally play a leading role in pastoral care of members.

Click the following to read the section on pastoral care in New York Yearly Meeting's book of Faith and Practice.

Pastoral care includes the following roles in the meeting:

• Seek to know all the members and to be aware of any ways in which the meeting could help with difficulties.
• Keep in touch with isolated and non-resident members.
• Help ill or incapacitated members, as appropriate.
• Provide material aid where it may be needed.
• Receive applications for membership or transfer of membership in the meeting, help new members join fully in the life of the meeting, and oversee terminations of membership.
• Consider applications for marrying under the care of the meeting and oversee meetings for marriage.
• Assist families with funeral and burial arrangements, including conduct of memorial meetings or funeral services under the care of the meeting.

Pastoral Care in the Yearly Meeting

As local meetings provide spiritual and pastoral care for their individual members, so the yearly meeting seeks to provide spiritual and pastoral care for its member meetings and for the spiritual well-being of the yearly meeting as a whole, especially for the gathered body during its Sessions. Several committees of the yearly meeting help with this work:

• Ministry and Pastoral Care Committee
• Supports local meetings in their spiritual and pastoral care of members and supports those serving as pastors in their meetings. View the charge of Ministry and Pastoral Care Committee in the yearly meeting Handbook.
• Committee on Conflict Transformation
• Helps local meetings and worship groups and the committees of the yearly meeting, when invited, to transform situations of conflict into opportunities for spiritual growth. View the charge of the Committee on Conflict Transformation in the yearly meeting Handbook.
• Committee on Sufferings
• Through a Fund for Sufferings, this committee provides assistance to Friends who are suffering because of fidelity to Friends testimonies. View the charge of the Committee on Suverings in the yearly meeting Handbook.