My wifes pastoral contact came to the morning service very drunk and had to be taken out. Her new boyfriend came to church for the first time. While I was trying to welcome him properly a church member butted in wanting assurance that her ten minute item that the vicar had promised she could do next week as part of my service was going ahead. She has to do this to avoid letting down someone in a pastorally sensitive situation. Of chose the vicar hadn't told me about this item. What he had told me is not to go over time, and my programme was timed to the minute and includes a number of people I can't let down for pastorally. Awkward! I told her I would communicate later in the day. She went off to the vicar while I went back to my 'client'. Then mrs came over to tell me we had to leave now to go to her friends house, mainly to get her out of the building. We were to go in our car and she with the boyfriend. We went first, foolishly it turns out, because the drunk was intercepted by another pastoral case who managed to extract cash from her and by another pastoral worker who told her off for giving cash to the other one. She then dragged a random teenage boy who happened to be paying into the church and demanded that the church provide him with the help he needed, and slandering the church for its hypocrisy in not helping. (so if you were a teenage boy and a drunk woman dragged you into a church how would you feel?)
Eventually she came to the house. I finally had my chat with the boyfriend. But the lady was too drunk to be able to help her much.
She is a recently baptised christian who has a lot of learning to do. And I think that part of the church's help will be a referral to alcoholics anonymous.
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