Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist - York, PA

   Pastoral Care Ministry:

The pastoral care ministries of St. John's support parish members during illnesses, death, and in time of difficult family situations. Persons involved in pastoral care ministries volunteer to provide food, transportation, visitation, or meet other special needs. Some of our pastoral care ministries are:

Lay Eucharistic Visitors: Trained members of the parish bring communion to members of the parish family who are ill or homebound and unable to attend Sunday worship. They bring bread and wine consecrated at our worship service, thereby extending the fellowship of the Table to those unable to be in church.

The clergy and laity are engaged in visits to members of the parish family who are in hospitals, nursing homes, or are homebound on a regular basis.

     

Palm Crosses

Every year, the week before Palm Sunday we come together to make enough palm crosses for the congregation, for people who are unable to attend  services, and for area nursing homes.   We make nearly 3,000 palm crosses each year.   Ann Kordenbrock, Ruth Huff, and Joyce Kearns were the leads in helping get the palm crosses made this year.

Next year we need more help in this effort.      When only a few people assist, the effort takes a lot longer to complete.   With more parish members involved it can be a more enjoyable project.

The Palm Cross is used for Palm Sunday celebrations before Easter to remember Jesus' entry into Jerusalem just a few days before His crucifixion.  Palm crosses memorialize the story that crowds met Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem,     spreading palm branches and waving palm fronds along his way.

The sharing of palm crosses is a reminder to those in area nursing homes that they are not forgotten during this holy season of the church year.