The Bloomsbury Guide to Pastoral Care

Bernadette Flanagan, Bernadette Flanagan, Sharon Thornton, Bernadette Flanagan, Sharon Thornton

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Continuum
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781441139191
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The Bloomsbury Guide to Pastoral Care provides a framework for reflection on pastoral care practice and identifies frontier learning from the new and challenging practical contexts which are important in pastoral care research today. In this collection of essays from leading practitioner-scholars, Bernadette Flanagan and Sharon Thornton set out core principles underpinning professional identity and the practice of pastoral care in rapidly changing social settings. Such pastoral challenges as, developing compassionate and effective companioning to those who have suffered trauma, torture, catastrophic events, social disintegration, the moral wounds of war and cultural dislocation are treated with insight and deep care. The new frontiers of pastoral care in more familiar circumstances such as family, health settings where patients facing life-challenging medical events and multi-cultural communities are also explored. With contributions from Kevin Egan, Michael O'Sullivan SJ, Rita Nakashima Brock and Julia Prinz VDMF, The Bloomsbury Guide to Pastoral Care is an essential reference for the theory and practice of pastoral care.

Part 1

European Trends and Themes

1	Pastoral Care Today: Widening the Horizons Kevin Egan

As I review the literature in this field along with my own experience as a pastoral care practitioner I notice that the field is defined by a number of interrelated terms and that the definition of these terms has changed as the horizons of the field have widened. I will begin by reviewing the terminology, as this is a basic to defining the parameters of the discipline and the role, functions and practices of pastoral care.

Terminology

The term pastoral care is made up of an adjective and a noun. The adjective pastoral comes from the Latin Pastorem and refers to someone who is a shepherd. It has roots in the Old and New Testaments. It carries resonances of Psalm 23, Ezekiel 34 and John 10. Jesus used the metaphor to refer to the care that God has for each of his flock and the extent to which God will go to rescue the one who is in danger. While the term has a rich theological tradition, it is open to misinterpretation and no longer expresses what is distinctive about this field. The word care has its origins in the Old Gothic word kara. As a noun it referred to a burdened state of mind. As a verb it meant to be troubled about someone. It conveys the idea that to care about someone is to be troubled with regard to that person. Caring is a complex process. It consists in an attitude which gives rise to concrete acts and a unique attachment relationship referred to as a caring relationship.

Traditionally, pastoral care is considered to be the type of caring which is an expression of the life of the Christian community or of persons who are representative of that community. It is considered to be an expression of agape or Christian love. It is a term with a history, whose meaning continues to change. William Clebsch and Charles Jackle in their landmark text Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective offer the following definition: ‘Pastoral care consists of helping acts, done by representative Christian persons, directed towards the healing, sustaining, guiding and reconciling of troubled persons whose troubles arise in the context of ultimate meanings and concerns.’¹

As we will see in the course of this chapter, this definition of pastoral care would be considered too restrictive as a description of the field we encounter today. The definition names the four traditional functions of pastoral care which no longer reflect the diverse ways pastoral carers function today. Many would find the definition too confining, in the sense of equating pastoral care with the care of individuals without reference to communities. Furthermore, the representative role of the pastoral caregiver is understood very differently today, when the majority of pastoral caregivers are no longer ordained clergy. Finally, there is the assumption that pastoral care is particular to the Christian tradition, whereas the practice of pastoral care extends beyond the confines of that tradition. There is a long history of guidance and care in, for example, the Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim traditions.

In the context of theological education, pastoral care exists as a subset of practical-pastoral theology. It can be defined as a form of practical-pastoral theology that attempts to integrate theory and practice for the purpose of supporting believers in the living of their Christian life. I have decided to use the hybrid term practical-pastoral theology rather than attempting to draw a precise distinction between them. Both terms are not exactly synonyms and have different histories.²

The term practical theology is rooted in the German Protestant tradition and essentially involves reflecting theologically on Christian practice. Its approach is by and large inductive. Sometimes it starts with ideas and examines their implications for practice. Alternatively it may explore practice and look at how this might affect ideas and concepts.³ Pastoral theology could be said to be a more restrictive term, understood as ‘a practical theology of care’.⁴ It reflects on Christian praxis in the context of giving care. One of the key figures in the field, Seward Hiltner, proposed that pastoral theology be considered as a ‘formal branch of theology resulting from the study of Christian shepherding’.⁵ The term is used in both the Catholic and the Protestant traditions, especially among North American authors and practitioners. Stephen Pattison and James Woodward, having compared both terms, find that, while they have a different emphasis, the definitions overlap and there is much common ground between them. They conclude that it is ‘probably futile to try and separate these areas either definitionally or in practice’.⁶

One of the distinct characteristics of practical-pastoral theology and its practical manifestations in pastoral care and counselling is its interdisciplinary nature. This is especially true of pastoral care that, since the beginning of the last one hundred years, has been heavily influenced by the discipline of psychology. During the 1960s and 1970s many observers concluded that psychology had taken the place of theology as the dominant discipline and that pastoral theology was in danger of losing its identity.⁷ While no one will dispute the contribution psychology has made to the effective delivery of quality pastoral care, many contend that it has narrowed the horizons of the discipline.

Pastoral Care and Pastoral Counselling

While pastoral care and pastoral counselling have both drawn on psychology and its related disciplines, pastoral counselling has done so to a greater extent. A related development is that pastoral counselling has itself become more influential in the practice of pastoral care, and has tended to dominate the field.⁸ I will attempt to map the historical development of these two practices because I consider this essential to understanding the issues that confront the pastoral care field today.

Pastoral counselling in the United States developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a specialization of pastoral care. The establishment of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC) in 1963 historically institutionalized the difference between pastoral counselling and pastoral care.⁹ The formation of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) in 1967 further accentuated this difference. It was focused more on institutional chaplaincy and on training. While these developments served to accentuate the difference between pastoral care and pastoral counselling, other developments, for example in Canada, served to keep the two together. In Canada, pastoral care and counselling are two streams under one association, namely The Canadian Council for Supervised Pastoral Education (1965), renamed the Canadian Association for Pastoral Practice and Education (CAPPE) in 1994,¹⁰ and more recently The Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC).¹¹ The influence of North American trends on pastoral-practical theology in Britain has been significant.¹² The Association for Pastoral Care and Counselling (APCC), founded in 1972, is a division of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). This link with the other professional bodies has lent credibility to the profession of pastoral counselling. A separate organization, The British and Irish Association for Practical Theology (BIAPT), was formed in 1994. There is a good level of cooperation between the different organizations. I attended a joint conference, ‘Forgiveness: Psychological, Spiritual and Theological Perspectives’, in 2007.

As pastoral care came into its own, this distinction has become more pronounced. ‘Pastoral counselling has become increasingly separate from pastoral care by its location, identities of practitioners and means of remuneration.’¹³ While it has contributed to a greater specialization of pastoral care and improved training for practitioners, it is not without its critics. I plan to return to this point later when I will critically reflect on these developments, especially on the professionalization of pastoral care. It is sufficient at this stage to acknowledge the distinction between pastoral care and counselling, where pastoral care is the more inclusive activity, is less structured and takes place in both formal and informal settings while pastoral counselling is more limited in focus and more structured. Pastoral counselling is considered to be a speciality of pastoral care.

The distinction between these different specialities reflects the extent to which the interdisciplinary nature of the care relies on the discipline of theology or psychology. In pastoral counselling the practitioner is heavily reliant on psychology and identifies more with that discipline. Many pastoral carers are uncomfortable with the growing intrusion of counselling into the traditional areas of pastoral care. For example, there seems to be an assumption that one is not qualified to give care to the bereaved unless one is a trained grief counsellor; likewise one should not extend pastoral care to families unless one is a qualified family therapist. Many pastoral carers possess the skills to do short-term and brief counselling with the bereaved and with families. Pastoral carers by nature of their role frequently offer more ready access to such people, especially as a first point of contact.

A Shared Methodology

Charles Gerkin was concerned that the evolving field of pastoral care/pastoral counselling was in danger of losing its theological identity. He welcomed the emphasis given to human experience and the different disciplines used to explore experience. However, he was concerned that the voice of the tradition was being ignored. A number of related questions are at stake here: What weight is to be given to human and theological tradition in the related fields of practical-pastoral theology and pastoral care? How should pastoral counselling be related to pastoral care and pastoral theology?¹⁴ In his Widening the Horizons: Pastoral Responses to a Fragmented Society, Gerkin proposed a hermeneutical model for pastoral care. He drew a parallel between the interpretive life of Christians generally and the interpretative task of pastoral care. ‘Pastoral care finds its purpose in the interpretation of ordinary human affairs in ways that give ordinary life coherence because it is seen as enacting a Christian story.’¹⁵

In this light the central task of pastoral care is the facilitation of the interpretative process of the people of God.¹⁶ As well as being concerned about preserving the integrity of pastoral care, Gerkin shared a related concern with regard to protecting what was distinct about the pastoral role. He acknowledged that this role could be carried out in a wide variety of relational contexts.¹⁷ The parish pastor carries out his role for a local community, the hospital chaplain does so in the context of giving care to the sick, and the pastoral counsellor carries out the role by extending care to individuals and families. I first came across Gerkin’s writings while teaching on a Master’s programme in Leadership and Pastoral Care at All Hallows College, Dublin City University. I was struggling with questions such as: What makes caregiving pastoral? What skills are required for the role of pastoral carer? In Gerkin’s model the carer needs skills in interpreting the human condition, skills in interpreting the Christian tradition and skills in bringing both into dialogue. His definition of pastoral care is indicative of his efforts to unify the field and at the same time to provide a wider horizon.

Pastoral care involves not only the care of individuals and families, but also the care of the community itself. Pastoral care also entails the thoughtful reinterpretation of the tradition that shapes Christian identity as that tradition is brought into dialogical relationship with contemporary culture and its impact on the community of Christians as well as individual members.¹⁸

While I agree with Gerkin’s emphasis on the interpretive role of the pastoral carer, it is not enough to stop at interpretation. One needs to move forward into practice and ask: What do I (we) need to do here? Barbara McClure speaks of the pastoral carer needing to move from being a listener to stories to becoming a ‘participant’ where the careseeker is empowered to participate in the transformation of the social order.¹⁹

Context in Pastoral Care

A...

Table of contents

• FC
• Half Title
• Title Page
• TOC
• Introduction: Pastoral Care Today
• Part 1: European Trends and Themes
• Part 2: North American Trends and Themes
• Notes on Contributors
• Index
• Copyright