Providing Eucharist to Hospitalized, Home-Bound, and Other Parishioners Who Are Viewing Church Services on Video
How can altar guild prepare the table for those unable to join us in communal worship? In the new normal, healthcare facilities are making informed decisions to retain some of the visitor restrictions for their patients. Whether it be acute hospital settings or skilled nursing facilities, our fragile parishioners continue to have limited access to Eucharist.
In the “before,” we had Lay Eucharist Ministers who would use the altar guild-prepared Lay Eucharistic Minister (LEM) kits to visit our vulnerable parishioners. They had parish-led training and then volunteered their time to make those visits.
In light of the current guidelines, this model of reaching our parishioners is often not available.
• How can we facilitate providing this service, via at-home LEM kits, to our parishioners who cannot join us in communal worship?
• Do we need to broaden LEM training so that family members can serve as their own patient’s LEM?
• How do we help facilitate the commissioning of the designated LEM?
• What new partnerships and collaborations need to be knitted together to expand the available LEM population to serve the needs of our hospitalized and home-bound family members?
Betsy Davenport, NAGA Board Member