Pastoral Ministry (PM)
Family Life
Supporting the variety of types of families is an essential parish ministry. How good are we at it? Do we help parents in the early years to develop firm foundations, in their own relationship, and then in the upbringing of their children? Do we offer any sort of life-line support for single-parents? Do we offer direct ministry and formation to children in our parish situations? What about the role of grandparents - how can we support them? CCR are developing a series of workshops for support of marriage and family life.
PM1 Supporting Parents (2 sessions)
Sometimes as parents we feel very inadequate and frazzled! It’s hard work,
and no-one told us what it would be like before we had children! It’s good to get together with other parents, talk about the issues, find others have got the same worries and problems, and we are not alone - and then the chance to work
through some ways of dealing with being a parent!
CCR Workshops/study days can support self-help parenting groups to get off the ground, and developing parenting skills (nursery to teens). We find it works best through exploring parenting of different age groups, for example:
• 0-5
• 5+ primary school age
• teenage
The facilitators will introduce participants to material produced by the Family Caring Trust. Each ‘age group’ workshop is over 2 sessions, offered at times of day to suit you - for a group of house mums or dads, in a morning for example, or for parents together, evenings or Saturday sessions. It is hoped that this workshop will encourage self-help support groups to form in parishes.
PM2 Marriage Preparation (The workshop requires a full day 9.30 - 5.30, or a Friday evening followed by a Saturday morning, or two Saturday mornings.)
A foundational workshop suitable for individual couple or group of couples preparing for marriage, covering a menu of ideas tailored to the couples’ needs:
• An audit of our relationship
• How do we communicate?
• - Growing together
• -
Listening
• -
Resolving conflict and forgiveness
• -
Parents in law
• Children - what do you think?
• Finances
• Understanding ourselves as individuals
• Understanding ourselves as a couple
• What do we hope for? What is ‘commitment’?
• The spiritual basis of the married relationship
It's tough finding the time to do a marriage preparation workshop,
but it will pay off in the long run!
PM3 Marriage Revival (4 sessions)
An old friend of ours, married for 55 years, said he and his wife often laughed about their relationship. He was never tempted to divorce his wife, but often tempted to murder! Seriously, our marriages can go through ups and downs,
and it’s good to take time together to reflect -
• How are we doing?
• What do the vows mean to us now, these 5 or 10 or 20 or 50 years on?
• How do we communicate?
• How do we handle conflict?
• What about God and prayer?
• How do children affect our relationship?
• What are our individual needs?
• How can we support one another.
CCR offer support for married couples wishing to review their marriage, either individually or in a group of couples from the local area, friends, or potential friends! We are also happy to help individual couples who would like us to help them make it through difficult times.
