If you are in the hospital, facing some illness, stress or family turmoil – or if you are celebrating the birth of a new baby or have some other transition where you could use support, please let us know so that we can serve you.

There are those in the church gifted with a unique calling to pray on behalf of others (intercessory prayer) as well as to come alongside others and guide them toward Jesus in ways that may offer healing of deep wounds in the soul (healing prayer). With this work, the person who is praying is not central, but they are simply a friend walking alongside us toward Jesus, the One we know as the Great Healer.

Our homes are places of great joy and deep hope. It is a beautiful thing to bless the places where our body receives the nourishment of rest and food, where we pursue love and friendship, where we raise our children and welcome strangers. We pray for our homes to be filled with compassion, light, life and holiness, places where God’s Spirit freely dwells. If you would like us to arrange a blessing for your home, we’re eager to do so.

James tells us that we are to confess our sins to one another (James 5:16). Corinthians tells us that godly sorrow leads us to repentance which then leads us to salvation, to a healed life where we are no longer consumed by regret (II Cor 7:10). A pastoral confessor is one who will confidentially receive your confession and remind you of the forgiveness and wholeness Christ assures us through his cross and resurrection.

Oil, a sign of the Spirit’s presence and power, provides a physical means to prayerfully ask for God’s help to heal our bodies or our minds. “Are any of you sick or suffering,” asks James, “then call the elders of the church to pray over you and anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord.” (James 5:14) We do not presume to know what God will do in response to our prayers, but we do know God invites us to pray. We trust that God will receive our prayers and do whatever is right with them.

If you have spiritual questions or need spiritual guidance, we are eager to sit with you, to pray with you, to hope with you for God to reveal truth and love to your heart and mind. We welcome spiritual seekers as much as those mature in faith. We all are coming to the same God, in need of God’s help and clarity. We also can connect you with a spiritual director if you desire this sturdy, deliberate practice.

The Quakers have a distinctive practice known as a Clearness Committee, an experience both “simple and demanding” aimed at helping a person find clarity around some issue or question. Learning from the Quaker’s wisdom, a discernment circle invites friends to gather, sit with someone they know and love, hear their questions, ask thoughtful questions in response and then trust the Holy Spirit in the context of community to bring whatever clarity is truly needed in that moment (and the clarity may be something far different than what we think we need). These spaces are not for ‘fixing’ a person or administering advice but rather for helping to remove barriers that cloud our vision while creating space for the Holy Spirit to reveal wisdom.

If you have some financial crisis, our common purse (for those within our community) or our mercy fund (for those who are not part of our community) may be able to provide assistance. Our church feels responsible to first attend to the needs of our neighbors in Charlottesville and the surrounding counties.