Elaine Smith returns to Chalmers United Church this fall as Coordinator of Pastoral Care. During studies at Queen’s Theological College from 1988 to 1990, her Practice of Ministry placement was at Chalmers.  Following ordination by Maritime Conference in 1991, she served the Cornwall Pastoral Charge on Prince Edward Island and the Harrowsmith-Verona Pastoral Charge near Kingston.  For the past four years Elaine has worked with a local funeral home, offering support to bereaved families. 

Childhood on a family farm on Prince Edward Island provided Elaine with a foundation for life, informed by the convictions that we are all called to care for each other and that the church is called to be an inclusive, caring presence in the community.  Her own life experience has included teaching high school in Nova Scotia and Alberta, fifteen years at home caring for a family, counselling in a family therapy clinic, and directing a Social Work department in a nursing home in Ossining, New York. 

In 1987, while enrolled in a graduate program in Bio-Medical Ethics at Drew University in New Jersey, Elaine heard a call to full-time ministry and answered the following year by registering at the Theological College at Queen’s.  Her academic record included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education degrees from Mount Allison University, a diploma in Marriage and Family Counselling from the Foundation of Religion and Mental Health in Briarcliff Manor, New York, and a Master of Social Work degree from Fordham University, New York.  The work leading to a Master of Divinity degree proved to offer the greatest opportunities for learning and change. 

Pastoral Care has always been at the heart of Chalmers ministry to the community in many ways: from the pulpit, through visits by members of the congregation, in small study and outreach groups, by means of the weekly radio broadcast, and constantly in prayer.  May it continue to be so.