Friday, January 16, 2009

Pastoral help needed, Santa Cruz, CA area

Friends -- Padre Mickey and the Lovely Mona are off in the Panamanian hinterlands without their e-mail, and they are my closest ties to the Santa Cruz, California area aside from a clergywoman friend farther north whom I have just written.

Here's a question for you: Do any of you know of a) a pastorally sensitive clergyperson (preferably a woman for this situation, doesn't have to be an Episcopal priest, can be any denomination) and b) resources for battered women and other women in abusive situations (with school age child or children who will need to stay with them) in the Santa Cruz, California area? This will require sensitive outreach as the person is still reluctant to leave her situation.

I think my priest friend in the San Francisco Bay Area is sufficiently south of SF that she can rustle up some kind of resources in or around Santa Cruz, but I am not sure, and this pastoral situation has landed long-distance in my lap via someone I know here who is worried about this household and called me out of desperation. More I cannot say, obviously.

If you know of any resources or good people who are competent to address the kind of situation I have sketched out, please write me off-blog at widsauthor at earthlink dot net. Thank you, and please pray for this woman and her child/ren.

No comments: