I lead a pastoral team with a Christian charity, Mission Care, which provides nursing and residential care for vulnerable adults in South East London.
Our team is tasked with providing pastoral support and sharing the gospel with our 200 plus residents, their relatives and our staff. In our situation most of our residents are older, need nursing care, and many are living with dementia. We have Christian and non-Christian residents, and providing pastoral care in this environment is challenging and rewarding. I would like to briefly reflect on the nature of pastoral care in general and then discuss what pastoral support in a nursing home can be like. Although much of our work involves interaction with non-Christians, I will focus on pastoral support for Christians.
