What does the Care and Concerns Committee Do?
How may C&C help F/friends?
What is Care and Concerns?
The Care and Concerns Committee is identified in Faith and Practice as the Overseers Committee. In Friends Meetings this committee acts as the Pastoral Care committee. Faith and Practice, on Page 182, outlines the general task of C&C.
“Pastoral care and counseling are the special responsibility of the members of this committee. They should take a personal interest in the spiritual and physical welfare of each member of the Meeting. Membership on the committee calls for dedication, tact, and discretion. It should be entered into prayerfully, with an alert willingness to be of service. Overseers should meet together regularly and carry out their work in a spirit of consecration and love.”
Who makes up the C&C committee?
Practically we are a group of Friends who are members of the Meeting. We are not, for the most part, professionals in pastoral care. We are just Friends with a deep wish to help. You can find the name of our current clerk elsewhere on this web site. Members of C&C serve for three-year terms; you can connect with the committee by talking to any of the members, or by emailing care@princetonquakers.org.
How to seek clearness through C&C?
Perhaps our greatest value to Friends is the clearness committee. Clearness committees always meet with individuals who apply for membership and with couples who are planning to marry. What some Friends don’t realize is that clearness is available to Friends to address any concern or problem they might face. Clearness committees do not give advice, but rather they listen, ask questions, and support a Friend seeking clarity in their lives. Friends may name their committee members and meet with them to consider personal decisions, financial worries, health issues or any other concern so common to us all.
To initiate a clearness process, Friends should contact anyone on the C&C committee and form a question that can be held in the Light. A clearness committee works within the spirit as a meeting for worship with a concern for individual Friends wishing to move forward in the spirit.
Care and Concerns visitations
Friends may also request a visit from C&C members for themselves or another Friend. We regularly visit shut-in Friends and the sick. Friends may also just want to talk about a concern about the Meeting community, or have a safe place to talk about something that weighs on their spirit.
Holding Friends in the Light
Each month C&C holds Friends in the Light. C&C does this for the Meeting community. C&C also holds Friends who have let us know they would appreciate our care and would welcome prayer. Any Friend may request being held in the Light without indicating a reason.
Part of holding Friends in the Light may include practical things such as delivering meals to the sick or giving rides to Meeting for worship. Friends do not always want to share needs with the whole Meeting community. We are a committee that keeps our deliberations and Friends’ concerns in confidence.
We are working on offering a space on the web site for the names of Friends who we wish all may hold in the Light. To add your name, or the name of another, contact C&C. To better care for our shared Meeting Community, take a few minutes in worship to pray for those listed or others in need.
C&C frequently hears stories of Friends caring for each other. Often this care is not generated within our committee. The love and concern we witness is to see God. We are grateful for all gifts of self. Please feel free to share these stories.
Why does the C&C committee make yearly calls?
Part of the duty of C&C is to keep accurate records of Friends, attenders and families of Friends in order to generate a directory about every two years. Committee members also make calls to ask Friends about their cares and concerns related to their life in the Meeting. The calls are an indication of the health of the Meeting.
How may Friends use the directory?
Please place your directory in a place where you may often hold those listed in the Light. A note or call to the members and attenders listed is important to maintaining a strong community. Ministry is the work of all Friends. C&C and the whole Meeting depends upon this loving care and outward concern. Staying in touch with other Friends is a precious form of ministry.