Pastoral ministry typically includes a measure of illness and bereavement care. The pastor plays a special role ushering people from this life into the next. I don't have a great deal of experience with this, though I know that I don't like it much more than the next guy.
Due to the makeup of the congregation here, hospital and funeral care are not a significant part of my duties. I have attended a wake but funerals are rare. (And I am legal forbidden from performing marriage ceremonies). However, I have already discovered that there is a parallel responsibility: ministry transition care. If that sounds like a euphemism, it is. I could have written "helping people leave" or, as above, "ushering people from this ministry life into the next." This involves counseling people about ministry decisions, helping people sell their belongings, writing references, and taking people to the airport.
So far, I don't like it any better than funerals, but at least they're not dead.
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