A JOURNEY OF FAITH

1
CARING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

• A JOURNEY OF FAITH
• Who with reason despises the day of small
  things? Zechariah 410 (Amp)

2

• Healthcare Sunday has been established
  co-ordinated by a group of Christian
  organisations involved in healthcare who want to
  encourage the whole church to be more involved in
  praying for health concerns
• CARE
• Carers Christian Fellowship
• Christian Medical Fellowship
• Christian Nurses Midwives
• Evangelical Alliance
• Healthcare Christian Fellowship
• The Christian Therapists Network

3
Healthcare Sunday is held on the Sunday closest
to 18 October, the day traditionally known as St
Luke's Day. Each year we try to provide some
resources to make it easier to mark Healthcare
Sunday and give support and encouragement to
Christians who work in healthcare. Resources are
provided on our website-www.healthcaresunday.org.
uk
4
Why Healthcare Sunday?

• In the UK the National Health Service (NHS)
  employs more than 1.5 million people.
• An estimated 100,000 of the staff employed by the
  NHS are Christians.
• On average, it deals with 1 million patients
  every 36 hours - thats 463 people a minute.

5
Why Healthcare Sunday?

• There are over one million people employed by the
  Health Service. Within the nursing and
  residential home sector there will many thousands
  of others. Every church is likely to have numbers
  of members who work in Health Care. By the very
  nature of the jobs they do, they may often have
  to work unsocial hours and be away from church on
  Sunday. Often the work is demanding and the rate
  of pay for those at the lower end of the scale,
  very low.
• Increased politicisation of the Health Service
  has reduced morale among many and this, together
  with long hours, low pay and little
  acknowledgment has caused many to become very
  uncertain about continuing in their work. Yet,
  they often care for the most needy and vulnerable
  in our society.
• Healthcare Sunday is an opportunity to focus on,
  and pray for and encourage these members of our
  Churches. The caring work they do is very close
  to Gods heart. Jesus always had special concern
  for the vulnerable and needy.

6
WHY HEALTHCARE SUNDAY?

• It is an opportunity to acknowledge and pray for
  the many Christians within Healthcare who have
  leadership responsibility and have the very
  difficult task of making decisions about the
  application of limited resources, helping to
  steer an ethical course among many differing
  demands and seeking to maintain the highest
  integrity in the care of each individual in need.
  
• It is an opportunity to focus prayer and concern
  out beyond our church communities into a specific
  area of need in the hurting world that surrounds
  us.
• Since 1992, Healthcare Sunday is celebrated
  around the world (e.g. South Africa now invite
  over 5,000 churches to mark Healthcare Sunday.
  It is generally the Sunday nearest St Luke's Day
  (18th October) however this is flexible as it may
  be necessary to choose another date to fit in
  with your Church's programme.
•  

7
AIMS OF THIS ANNUAL EVENT

• Awareness
• to promote understanding among Christians of the
  value of all human life and the need for society
  to maintain Christian integrity in all issues
  relating to healthcare
• Prayer
• to promote continuing prayer support for good
  healthcare in our nation
• Care and support of professional and voluntary
  carers
• to stimulate Christians to continuing support for
  all carers
• Community responsibility and action
• to stimulate Christians to recognise that
  healthcare is a shared community responsibility
  and thus to take appropriate local and national
  action.

8
CHURCH SERVICE IDEAS TO CELEBRATE HEALTHCARE
SUNDAY

• Introduction (drama)
• Meet Introduce Healthcare Workers
• Overseas Focus
• Ethical Focus
• Information/statistics
• Sermon
• Intersperse with hymns/prayers/poems etc. to suit
  your liturgy.
• Meet the workers
• You can make this as broad as possible by
  including paramedics, social workers,
  administration ancillary staff and those who
  are full-time care-givers for relatives or
  friends.

9
OTHER IDEAS

• Healthcare Sunday through the year
• The year is full of days-for-this and
  weeks-for-that but Healthcare Sunday can last all
  year!
• It could help your church to have regular (small)
  reminders of what is going on and who is
  involved. e.g.
• Identify the major health related sites within
  1-2 miles of your church and pray for them in
  turn through the year, using anyone in the
  congregation who works there as a focal point.
• Hold 6 short interviews during the year with
  people involved in healthcare find out their
  issues and pray for them during the service.
• bring along a Sunday Newspaper to the service and
  use the health related stories it contains to
  give focus and content to your prayers that day.
• Encourage members of your congregation to adopt
  a healthcare worker and find ways to encourage
  them in their work. Just taking an interest will
  make a difference.

10
IDEAS CONTINUED

• Healthcare Sunday Drop-by
• Lunch/tea/BBQ - arrange a flexible get together
  with simple (or elaborate!) refreshments. Invite
  all of the Christian healthcare workers you know
  in your area and send invitations to local
  churches to link up with others you dont yet
  know. You could also ask to put up posters in the
  local hospitals, GP surgeries, Social Services e
  Invite healthcare workers to a thank you dinner.
• Mid Week meeting
• If the Sunday slot is not available, you could
  offer to do a talk for the prayer meeting or home
  group on A day in the life of... and talk about
  whatever it is you do!
• Offer prayers
• A lot of churches have prayer diaries or use
  written prayers as part of their liturgy. Why not
  write some prayers down and offer them for use in
  an appropriate slot?

11
MORE IDEAS

• Healing Rooms
• Many Churches now have special meetings to pray
  for healing.
• Health Promotion
• Community drop in - Saturday morning coffee with
  free health check and healthy living advice and
  literature
• Keep fit evening or course
• Cookery demonstration with healthy options for
  meals
• Parish Nursing
• More information on www.parishnursing.co.uk
• Start a specific focus group in the Church e.g.
  MASK (story on our web site)

12

• EACH YEAR MORE PEOPLE ARE PASSING THROUGH OUR
• LOCAL HEALTHCARE FACILITIES THAN
• THROUGH OUR CHURCHES