Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

My church is going old-school with a new visitation program.

Like many Episcopal congregations, we have a growing number of elderly people and shut-ins who can no longer attend worship services. These are folks who have been faithful members for six or seven decades, giving of their time and talents until age or ill health confined them to home.

For years, the church has had a committed visitation program. But in the last few weeks, without spending any money, the program is expanding in new and creative ways.

The visitation committee is completely lay-led, with four members on the team and another four about to begin training. The rotation includes a dozen or so elderly parishioners, including one relatively spry 106-year-old. The visits include the Eucharist and time to talk. After the congregational Thanksgiving dinner, the kitchen crew packed up dinners for the shut-ins. During Advent, the visitors brought wreaths. 

And starting this month, the lay visitors will bring the worship service to these elderly individuals. 

While rummaging through a storage room, the priest found a dozen tape players, boxes of blank cassette tapes and a duplicator machine. It could have been fodder for the next church yard sale – or an opportunity. 

A test run found that the sound system for the church worked remarkably well. So each shut-in received a tape player, and each week, the visitation committee will record the Sunday service, make copies and deliver the tapes. 

Now, I don’t have a tape player in my house anymore: I have a digital recorder, a Flip camera, a Droid phone and a laptop. And my mix-tapes from college are packed away, gathering dust, with no way to hear the Sturm und Drang of Indigo Girls and the Cure. 

But for this demographic, a cassette tape is perfect. It’s not scary, and it doesn’t require a call to the grandchildren to navigate new technology. It is a way to offer to people an opportunity to experience worship, even if they’re not able to leave their bed. 

It’s old-school, but for this group, it’s perfect.