16 January 2026
Pastoral Care is one of the Church’s Five Marks of Mission and a way of showing God’s love and care for our brothers and sisters in Christ in response to Jesus’ call to love God and love each other.
Pastoral Care is a major part of the ministry of a parish priest. However, it is the role of all baptised Christians, lay and ordained, to carry out God’s mission through their ministry as a priesthood of all believers.
To facilitate pastoral ministry among the laity in the Diocese of Chelmsford, we offer training for Pastoral Care through the Course in Christian Studies and also a stand-alone six-session Pastoral Care Course. Some individuals go on to be authorised into a leadership role in pastoral ministry as Authorised Pastoral Assistants, and these roles are key in building pastoral teams who work alongside a ministry team, ensuring good pastoral care across a parish or benefice.
This includes home visiting, hospital and hospice visiting, and offering support after a person has faced a bereavement or loss.
One particularly successful Pastoral Care Team is the team from Epping, led by Pastoral Assistant Jo Waller. Jo writes:
“We have a thriving Pastoral Care Team here in Epping, which comprises of members from our three churches in the Epping Anglican Team. There is a steady number who make up the Team, varying between 17 and 22 individuals.
“We are often asked, ‘How have you formed this team?’ Honestly, my answer is that we haven’t gone about consciously forming a team, yet it has evolved and is still evolving.
“Our starting point is our watchword and prayer - ‘What would Jesus have me do?’ And I wonder if it might sound naïve to say that the rest has followed.
“The Pastoral Lead spends intentional time with the team, encouraging them to grow both pastorally and personally. This time includes (amongst many aspects) a good portion of self-awareness which couples with humility, as well as accountability and safeguarding.
“If we look at Jesus’ example of the team He formed, it would appear that they were a diverse crew. I will not speak for other areas of the church, or how other churches enrol their people – all I can say is that our team has not been consciously chosen by us, but I can say as far as I am able, they have been ‘called’, as we hear in the Scriptures, by God, for this ministry.
“As we read in John 15:16 ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you that you should go and bear fruit…’.”
Find out more
To find out more about lay ministries in Chelmsford Diocese, including the role of Pastoral Assistants and the training opportunities on the lay ministry section of the diocesan website:
This article is taken from the latest edition of our quarterly prayer diary, WE PRAY
