so hallowe'en was good. now back to reality:
You receive a phone call from a woman who is sobbing. After a few minutes you calm her down and find out it is Linda, who sings in the choir. Linda is a single mom and is relatively new to the church. Her daughter, a three month old who you baptized about a month ago, was found dead in her crib by Linda’s mother while Linda was at work.
Respond:
1. what is your pastoral response?
2. write a homily for the funeral.
eek.
Some of you may notice that I've edited this post quite severely, and I have a perfectly good explanation.
4 comments:
Hey Mick, that's a doozey!!!
Although internship has certainly taught me that give us those scenarios for a reason!
yeah, that's what I'm banking on in choosing this one. The other options we had I'd encountered in one form or another, so I get to distress my brain with this nightmare.
hope internship is going well, Erik!
-m
My pastoral response:
1. i. Keep my yap shut and listen/cry/support, etc
ii. call other church members to come over to listen/cry/support, etc
iii. Get her a Stephen Minister
2. Keep it short, authentic, don't make promises God doesn't keep, acknowledge the pain and injustice, and read scripture.
Just my initial thoughts.
kgp
Kevin,
my initial thoughts run along the same lines -- glad to know that I'm on the right track.
however, 'keep my freakin' mouth shut' - which I have learned well in CPE -- does not make a 2-3 page assignment. so, I've pulled out my thesaurus to look up various other ways of phrasing the above sentiment.
As for the homily -- about what I was planning. I'll post it when it's done.
-m
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