Stephens ministries

[lydiac]

A new member of our parish is pushing to start a Stephen’s Ministry. I have looked up their website and while it doesn’t look like a bad thing, I still have some reservations. For one thing, although billed as nonprofit, it is still fairly expensive to get started. It also seems to come awfully close to being the role of a counselor, but without the credentials. They do specifically say they aren’t, but I can certainly see where beneficiaries of the ministries could be unintentionally misled to believe that. The whole concept seems to be something that could be done at the parish level without involving great expenditures, and without so many required meetings. I am still sitting on the fence about it’s role in, well, any Catholic parish. Has the church taken any formal stance on the issue, does any one know?

Thank you in adance.

 

[TheLittleLady]

You would want to see if this is approved by your Bishop.

I cannot understand what the benefit would be, as the Catholic Church has Catholic Charities which provide counseling services.