The Pastoral Care Committee is concerned with the personal and spiritual well-being of individuals in the Meeting. The committee attempts to be in touch with each member and attender at least once a year, to invite reflection on whether the Meeting is addressing their spiritual and personal needs. We also respond to individual needs as they arise, often because of illness, death in the family, or personal crisis. Each person in the Meeting is assigned a “friendly ear” on the committee, one person who will make sure to contact them during the course of the year, and to whom they can turn for help as needed. Every First Day, someone from our committee is available after Meeting to answer questions about Quaker faith and practice, membership, or to listen to personal concerns.

We also have the great privilege of receiving applications for membership and forming clearness committees to meet with prospective new members. In the past year, we have also hosted welcome dinners or lunches for nine new members. At our April potluck lunch, we announced and honored both our new members (including junior members) and our new babies, giving token gifts of flowers and age-appropriate books.

We also have the great joy of receiving requests for marriage under the care of our Meeting. This past year was unusual, in that we have had four requests for marriage under the care of the Meeting. Two marriages have taken place, and two others are currently in the process.

This year, as has often been the case, there were a number of deaths, to which we respond by reaching out to the affected member/attender with phone calls, visits, flowers, and cards.

In addition, this year we have been called upon to reach out and support people who have serious illnesses, who are facing health crises within their families, and who are facing other significant personal challenges. We find ourselves humbled and awed at the courage and endurance of so many in our midst who deal daily with very difficult situations. We are heartened at those times when the community at large responds with thoughtfulness and caring to those in need of support, and we ask that each of us remember that there is a collective responsibility to be aware of one another, and to care and reach out to those in need.

For several years, we have reported that we are concerned about our associate members who are nearing the age (30) when we expect them to choose full membership or lay down their membership. We have made a concerted effort in this past year to contact each of them, and were very gratified to find that two of these young Friends were eager to assume full membership. Two others have decided to lay down their membership for now. Quite a number have not responded to our messages yet. We will continue to reach out to these associate members.

In the past year, we completely updated our Pastoral Care manuals.

The Transition, Loss, and Caring Group, which our committee revived early in 2006, continued to meet through much of the past year, but the need seems to have subsided, and it is not currently meeting.

During the past year, our committee carefully reviewed our practice of sending sub-scriptions to Friends Journal to young friends in college, who are difficult to locate. We have decided instead to give subscriptions to new members.