CARRE Lay Ministry to Shut-Ins

Tacoma O'Connor, retired diaconal minister

 and Carr Church's minister of visitation,

pushes Lanier Ligon in her wheelchair.

       Carre (pronounced "Care") is an organized lay effort led by minister of visitation Tacoma O'Connor to visit several times a month with each of Carr Church's shut-ins. Team members sign up to be in contact with one or more seniors, and they covenant to visit with “their” senior(s) on a regular basis, often bringing a CD of last Sunday’s worship service. The time spent together has had a profound effect on both the shut-ins and Carre team members, all of whom feel they have received spiritual nourishment and nurture and that their lives have been touched by the love of Christ through this ministry.

        Tacoma also regularly brings Holy Communion to our shut-ins, and conducts services of worship for them.

         The Carre lay ministry to shut-ins is not flashy; we don’t spend (or have) a lot of money, and it is directed at a population that often is forgotten, pushed aside, or “falls through the cracks” in many churches. Many lay people and clergy don’t feel comfortable around elderly, sick people and avoid them. They remind us too well of our own mortality! Elderly and frail shut-in seniors are some of God’s most vulnerable children, and they are a marginalized population – “the least of these” – that Christ would have us embrace. Indeed, spiritual formation goes on until the end of life, and elderly shut-in members continue to need and desire loving contact with their church.