Nursing Home Ministry

Tenth Presbyterian Church Nursing Home Ministry Training with Ed Verbeke

Nursing Home Ministry Manual by Tom McCormick

This manual for working with the institutionalized elderly (the “Nursing Home Manual” as we have always called it) had its beginning in the basement of Skilton House, a center for Christian ministry in Philadelphia. John Skilton, professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia for 43 years, had long been visiting in several nursing homes in the area. Tom moved into the Skilton House to help in the ministry, and gradually others joined John in his vision to have a Christian witness in every nursing home in Philadelphia. It soon became obvious that some kind of instruction was needed to help newcomers to the ministry and to encourage and enlarge the scope of activity of those al- ready involved. Thus the manual was born-not a theoretical ideal, but a practical response to pleas for help.