FISH
Diocesan Press Service. December 8, 1966 [49-6]
At 8 A. M. Mrs. Smith receives a phone call telling her that her father has been in an accident and is hospitalized an hour's drive from her home. Her husband is away on a business trip and her neighbor unavailable. She wants to visit her father but there is no one to stay with her two young children - recovering from colds - for the three or four hours she would be away.
If she lives in Worcester or West Springfield, Mass., she can solve her problem by calling FISH.
Members of FISH, a modern lay ministry, attempt to obey the Christian command to be good neighbors, to show mercy to those in distress. Although FISH emphasizes emergency help - limited to one day's duration - it also serves shut-ins on a long- term basis and supplies callers with information on available community services.
The telephone is the nervous system of FISH, a system that begins with a 24- hour answering system and ends, often, with a telephone call asking a FISH member to supply a needed service. Mrs. Smith, in need of a babysitter, calls FISH at a number well publicized through a flyer, the newspaper or television. The answering service calls the FISH member who is available that day to screen calls. He calls Mrs. Smith back, finds out what her real need is and obtains necessary information, and then reaches for his list of volunteers. The final call in the chain is soon made, and help on its way.
FISH began in England at St. Andrew's, Old Headington, Oxford. An Episcopalian, a member of the U. S. State Department, became a FISH while on holiday, and soon relayed the idea to a friend of his, rector of a Massachusetts parish in West Springfield. A parish in Worcester, seeing the success of the FISH project, invited their nearby American originators, and soon a new FISH project was started. The idea has caught on in Worcester, and a Lutheran church has joined in.
This ministry has provided many with help, and, as important, provided others with a way to help.