I recently saved someone’s life after intervening in a critical incident through my work as a pastoral carer, and while I can’t go into details due to confidentiality reasons and because I respect everyone’s privacy, after a triumvirate of serendipitous messages from the universe on this one day, I had to write about what it’s like to be at the coalface of pastoral care.

When I meet patients and introduce myself as being from pastoral care, there is often a degree of confusion. Some older patients have asked me if I’ve come to tell them about how their animals are going while they’re in hospital, and so when I say ‘pastoral’ care, I usually follow it up with the words ‘spiritual care’. Most of my patients are not religious, but all are spiritual. Every single one of them. Some people I speak to don’t believe they have any spirituality in their lives…