Dear Editor,
I was saddened by the letters in the June issue of en regarding pastoral care. My wife and I read the original letter in the May en and independently recognised it as a cry from the heart. We did not read it as either a ‘letter of complaint’, nor ‘an attack on a young pastor and his wife’ as has been suggested in these columns. Rather, it seemed to express an increasing problem in some churches.
There appears to be a lack of understanding among some as to the nature of the pastorate. When I trained for the ministry back in the 1970’s it was a ‘given’ that the pastor would preach and would regularly visit and care for the flock as well as spearhead the church’s outreach into the community as the minimum core of his work. However there are many cases where the pastoral work seems to be overlooked, especially when caring for the sick and elderly.
