The Bloomsbury Guide to Pastoral Care
in the field as a widening of the horizons. I have tried to outline some of the challenges facing the field of pastoral care. My concern isn’t that they won’t be addressed but that they will be addressed in a haphazard fashion. Many of those working in the field are busy in the areas of training, research and the delivery of pastoral care and counselling, and have little time for theorizing and critical reflection. I am concerned that valuable initiatives will falter and come to nothing because of lack of follow-through.52 It is precisely for this reason that I would appeal to the various professional bodies active in the area to ensure that the necessary conversation, study and research continue to take place.
Reflection on Pastoral Care In keeping with the inductive methodology of pastoral care, I invite you to write your own definition of pastoral care based on your experience of doing this work. I encourage you to make your definition as extensive as you can. When you have completed this part of the exercise, take the opportunity to reflect on your definition in the light of the following questions: 1
Which of the traditional functions of pastoral care – healing, sustaining, guiding and reconciling – does you definition focus on/emphasize? 2 How do you describe your ‘representative role’? 3 Does you definition focus on care in a one-to-one context or is there a community dimension? 4 How does your present definition differ from your understanding of pastoral care when you first entered this field? 5 What discipline do you mostly draw on in your practice of pastoral care? Has this changed over the years? 6 What ‘model’ of pastoral care does your definition reflect? 7 Does your definition of pastoral care have room for the practice of critical research? 8 If you were to share this definition and your reflection with others, who would you discuss it with?
Notes 1 W. Clebsch and J. Charles, Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective. 2nd edn (New York: Aronson, 1983), 4. 2 J. Sweeney, G. Simmonds and D. Lonsdale, ‘Introduction’, in Keeping Faith in Practice: Aspects of Catholic Pastoral Theology (London: SCM Press, 2010), 1. 3 S. Pattison and J. Woodward, ‘An Introduction to Pastoral and Practical Theology’, in The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2000), 13.
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