2025 Lay Pastoral Visitors Course

An introductory course for lay leaders called to serve as Lay Pastoral Visitors in their parish.

This is a four-day course, running on Saturdays 1 & 22 March, 26 April and 17 May from 10am-4pm. The venue is St John's Church, Woking.

The course is led by Revd Martin Smith from Christ Church Woking with a team of trained pastoral tutors.

This is NOT a free course; the course fees are £150 but they are paid upon completion of the course. Booking a ticket via Eventbrite reserves your space on the course. The course fees are normally covered by the PCC in support of the applicant, although there may be occasions where participants opt to self-fund.

The course covers:

• Definition of pastoral care
• Understanding ourselves
• Gains and losses of significant life experiences
• Learning from Jesus' ministry
• Exploring judgment and prejudice in our response to others
• Key skills in pastoral care
• Listening skills
• Pastoral care in the community
• Safeguarding

We are committed to ensuring that everyone has completed the correct level of Safeguarding Training for their role. The Lay Pastoral Visitor must complete Core Safeguarding training up to Foundation level and complete the e-learning course on Raising Awareness of Domestic Abuse.

Access to the safeguarding e-learning is found here:

https://www.cofeguildford.org.uk/about/safeguarding/safeguarding-training