Healthcare Sunday (on Sunday 18 October this year) is an annual opportunity for churches to acknowledge, affirm and support the work done by members of your congregation and local community who work in health and social care. In your congregation you will almost certainly have doctors, nurses, care assistants, social workers, occupational therapists, hospital administrators, porters, cleaners, ward secretaries, laboratory staff or chaplains, and people serving in many other roles.

This is a chance as a church to say 'thank you' for the work that they do, to pray for them and the institutions in which they work, and to remember the vital role that they and many, many others play in caring for the most vulnerable members of our society.

We will all need to use the health service at some point in our lives. Healthcare Sunday helps us to remember this and to give this invaluable work that affects us all back to the Lord in prayer and thanks.

Healthcare Sunday is usually held on the nearest Sunday to St Luke's day (18 October), but do feel free to celebrate it on any date that works best for your church.

The following resources may be of assistance:

• A PowerPoint presentation for your church to use on Healthcare Sunday is available here
• A testimony about what it means to be a Christian doctor
• A 'how-to' guide to running a Thank You Dinner for local NHS staff in your church
• A brief flyer explaining why to hold a Healthcare Sunday in your church