Tracking Life Events and Anniversaries

The rhythms of pastoral ministry follow the rhythms of life. Births, baptisms, weddings, deaths, illnesses, job changes — Shepherd calls these life events, and it treats them as first-class entries on a person’s timeline.

What counts as a life event

The Life Event Type enum covers:

• Birth — a child is born into the family.
• Baptism — the person’s own baptism, or a child’s.
• Confirmation — confirmation or a comparable rite.
• First Communion.
• Wedding — marriage.
• Anniversary — a non-wedding anniversary you want to remember (ordination date, sobriety milestone, day of a conversion).
• Death — of the person themselves, or of a loved one.
• Illness / Diagnosis — a significant medical event.
• Recovery — healing, remission, discharge.
• Job Change — new job, retirement, unemployment.
• Move — relocation.
• Graduation.
• Other — anything else worth a dated mark on the timeline.

The sacramental types (baptism, confirmation, first communion, wedding) also surface on the person’s Sacramental Dates card when they are set — Shepherd pulls the most recent of each type into the compact readout.

Adding a life event

From the Person detail view, scroll to the Life Events section and tap +. The sheet asks for:

• Type — from the list above.
• Date — defaults to today. Life events can be backdated freely.
• Title — pre-filled based on the type. A baptism defaults to “Baptism of Jane Doe”, a wedding to “Wedding of Jane and John”. Edit as needed.
• Notes — context. The baptism liturgy used, the cemetery the deceased was buried at, the name of the hospital.
• Minister officiated — a toggle for your own records. Filter on this later to build a list of “every wedding I’ve officiated since ordination.”

If the event is also on your ministry calendar — a wedding you’re planning, a funeral you’re presiding over — you can link it to aMinistryEvent via the Linked event picker. The same reality appears in two places without duplicating data: the wedding shows up in the person’s life timeline and in your Events tab with its full planner.

Anniversaries on the Dashboard

Life events with recurring significance — birthdays, weddings, baptisms, ordination anniversaries — roll forward automatically. TheUpcoming Anniversaries section of the Dashboard uses each event’s nextAnniversary(from:) calculation to surface the ones falling within your anniversary lookahead window (Settings; default 14 days).

What surfaces:

• Birthdays — computed from Person.birthdate, not from a life event. You only need to set the birthdate once.
• Wedding anniversaries — from a life event of type wedding, or from Person.weddingAnniversary if you set that field directly.
• Baptism anniversaries — from a life event of type baptism, or from Person.baptismDate.
• Other recurring dates — any life event of type anniversary.

Each card exposes a quick Log Contact action so you can mark a birthday call or anniversary card without leaving the Dashboard.

Using life events pastorally

A few patterns worth adopting early:

Always log a death

When a member dies, create a life event of type death on their own timeline. Shepherd preserves the person record — death doesn’t remove someone from your congregational history — and the life event gives you a dated anchor. The first anniversary of the death will surface on the Dashboard, prompting you to reach out to the bereaved.

Also log a death on the bereaved

When Linda’s husband dies, log the death on Linda’s timeline too. Either as a second life event of type death with the deceased named in the title, or — if the deceased was in Shepherd — just the relationship is enough. Combined with a pastoral visit of type bereavement, this is what keeps the Continuing Care Dashboard section pointed at Linda for the month after the funeral.

Use illness and recovery as a pair

When someone is diagnosed, create an illness life event. When they recover, create a recovery event. The pair tells a story the timeline alone couldn’t.

Job loss and job change are pastoral concerns

They don’t feel as sacramental as a baptism, but they shape people’s lives as much. A jobChange life event, even a spare one, gives you a dated reason to check in three weeks later.

Linking to a MinistryEvent

When a wedding, funeral, baptism, or memorial service is something you’re planning, create it in the Events tab with the appropriateEventType (wedding, funeral, baptism). Then, from the Life Event sheet on the relevant Person, set Linked event to that MinistryEvent.

You get:

• A full planner in the Events tab (sacrament component for candidate names and prep notes, liturgy component for presider and readings, hospitality component for the reception).
• A dated life-event marker on the person’s timeline.
• Both pointing at the same reality.

Sacramental history

The Sacramental Dates card on the Person detail view shows:

• Baptism date.
• Confirmation date.
• First communion date.
• Wedding anniversary.

These come from either the direct Person fields (set in the person edit sheet) or from the most recent corresponding life event. Use whichever is more convenient — set the person field when you know the date but don’t need the context, create a life event when the context matters.

Exporting life events

Life events are included in the People CSV export as a separate sheet (or separate CSV file, depending on export mode). Useful for:

• Generating a list of every wedding you’ve officiated.
• Pulling sacramental records for an insurance or denominational report.
• Sharing a family history when a member transfers to another congregation.