Compassion for one another in the Global Village

Compassion for one another in the Global Village Social and cultural approaches to Care and Counselling

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Preface Caring for one another in the Global Village Compassion for one another in the Global Village?

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Ulrike Elsdörfer New editorial: Pastoral Care and Spiritual Healing Spiritualität interkulturell Compassion as Pastoral Psychological Competence

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Klaus Kießling Chances and Challenges of Solidarity ICPCC from post-colonialism to global challenges

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Ulrike Elsdörfer The Impact of Technology on Spiritual Care Linda Graham

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Caring for one another in the Global Village within the increasing Inflation of Compassion. A challenge to a Pastoral Hermeneutics of Caregiving

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Daniël J. Louw Caring for the Caregiver in the Global Context Gloria Marsay Pastoral care within globalization as care at the in between The dynamics of pastoral care and counselling for meaning and coping in a global context Vhumani Magezi Relationship in Difference The SIPCC as a Learning Community Helmut Weiß 5

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Spiritual Screening in a Secular Context Wim Smeets & Anneke de Vries

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Benefits, Challenges and Dangers of Attending to Social Crisis and Justice Issues in CPE Formation of Pastoral Practitioners

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Barbara Sheehan

Tweeting God: Tracing religious reporters’ expressions of faith on Twitter Albert van den Berg

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Reflection on Pastoral Care and Creation Perspective of a Lay Person Annie Sow Chin Wong

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Cultural narratives and nonverbal presentations in Clinical Pastoral Education Noel Tiano

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Toward the General Theory of Inter-Faith Spiritual Care The dimensional projection model A perspective from Japanese Experiences T. David Ito

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Authors

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Preface

Caring for one another in the Global Village Compassion for one another in the Global Village? Ulrike Elsdörfer In October 2015 about 300 researchers and practitioners of pastoral care and counselling, of psychology, psychotherapy and spiritual therapy met in San Francisco under the topic Caring for one another in the Global Village ICPCC (International Council for Pastoral Care and Counselling) held its 10th Congress in cooperation with four regions of the American ACPE (Association for Clinical Pastoral Education). In the light of the international audience, the keynote addresses focused on intercultural and interreligious communication, their chances and challenges. Approaches from Christian and Muslim speakers in this realm were accompanied by workshops describing the cooperation of Jewish and Christian chaplains in hospitals, the current state of Muslim care and counselling throughout the world and many different approaches to interculturality, as the encounter with “the other” in psychology, anthropology, theology, philosophy and politics – just to mention some of the topics. New approaches to the mode of rewiring brain structures showed possibilities to develop conscious and compassionate connections among people. It also shed light on the most broadly discussed concepts of wellbeing and their implications. Evidence-based research proved the efficiency of pastoral care and counselling in the progress of healing – as well as in the process of assisting cancer patients during their walk through the manifold challenges within the mental and physical stages of this illness. Social crisis and justice - whether in terms of gender or in financial and other aspects - as well as the reflection on the political shifts worldwide in–between different wars, threats of wars, natural disasters and mass illnesses like HIV and their social implications were brought into awareness of the international audience. 7

Jewish, Christian and Muslim services accompanied the daily meetings and provided a great opportunity to encounter world-wide accesses to spirituality. The SIPCC (Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counselling) celebrated its 20th birthday during the Congress. SIPCC describes itself as an open space and a learning community practising intercultural encounters and inter – religious dialogue in annual meetings. SIPCC aims at an understanding and development of relationship in difference and does translational work. The warm and friendly atmosphere of San Francisco and the Bay Area completed a successful Congress implying very sensitive approaches to human life and mankind. Participants were encouraged, empowered and filled with hope when going back to their particular “world” in order to preserve the impression of a peaceful encounter between people from many cultures and most different countries. Organizing and hosting the Congress was a great experience as well as meeting the interests and mentalities of researchers from Africa or practitioners from the American continent – just to mention a few examples. Psychotherapists and religious counsellors like pastors, priests, imams, rabbis gave accesses to the diversity of questions and answers. ICPCC members are grateful to those who were courageous to host the Congress, to prepare the meeting, to do all the preparations and financial calculations – and to keep the work of the Congress in going. Many thanks to George Fitzgerald and Rodney Seeger with their team for these days in San Francisco! Many thanks to all presenters of lectures, workshops, and films. We are grateful to our colleagues who gave their time and energy again for contributing with their articles to this volume. They all represent the present state of reflection and practice in the global movement of pastoral care with its basic assumptions in psychology, theology, anthropology and sociology – in so-called “Western sciences”. They show as well the efficiency of the concept of “caring for one another in the Global Village”. “Caring” means to have a look at the other’s needs, feelings, health in mental, spiritual and physical respects. “Caring” means even to act politically, to be aware of recent critical developments, not to refrain from the public stage in order to maintain private islands of mental and physical well-being. These days in San Francisco marked a new access to worldwide migration – as in October 2015 Europe, espe8

cially Germany invited a major group of refugees from the Syrian war and other endangered places to Europe. In May 2016 I am writing this with different insights than we had when the invitation was given. “Being European” and by that being concerned with one small part of the Global Village was one of my biggest results in terms of a learning process of the Congress. The invitation of a major group of migrants and refugees to Europe changed our world a great deal – to describe the different aspects would be a too big task to be considered here. The experience of the political and practical challenges for Europe when dealing with a greater number of refugees may help to recognize different cultural and social aspects of caring. To include indigenous traditions and social aspects will become a prevalent task for the future of the care and counselling theory and practice. The conveners of the next meeting will meet those questions when preparing the ICPCC Congress in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in August 2019. Some of the contributions to this volume provide a first glimpse of the surroundings in Asia`s countries, societies and cultures. Spirituality, as it is highly estimated in “Western countries” and in Christianity as well, seems to have its “cradle” in Asia, in non-western societies, in indigenous worlds and their special rites and world views. Social and cultural approaches to pastoral care and counselling, psychology and theology in these realms may give a key to a fresh view on “Western” world views. Humanity’s special demands are rooted in various cultures and religions, and they all have their distinct contributions to a profound wellbeing of mankind and of each individual in every regional and cultural, political and social context. Daniel J. Louw, the President of the San Francisco ICPCC Congress, in his contribution to this volume speaks of “Vulnerability in the Global Village as challenge to a theology of compassion”. “Vulnerability” seems to be an anthropological keyword for several sciences – psychology, theology, social anthropology, sociology - approaching the wholeness of man and mankind. It comprises physical, mental, social and spiritual aspects of a single person. It describes political, cultural, financial and ethical aspects of the most different societies all humans share in the Global Village. Regarding worldwide accesses to counselling, there is no great difference when distinguishing between “Caring” and “Compassion”. The latter as an ancient term addresses the spiritual and theological space of approach9

ing the state of man and mankind. By that, it opens the horizon to a deep insight into humanity and encounters between humans. Frankfurt/Main, Germany, May 2016 Ulrike Elsdörfer

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New editorial of the series: Pastoral Care and Spiritual Healing Spiritualität interkulturell

Compassion as Pastoral Psychological Competence Klaus Kießling The two Emmaus disciples experienced solidarity – from one another and especially in the person of the stranger who joined them: They experienced divine solidarity. Divine solidarity does not shut out suffering or want; instead, it commits itself to compassion, to a suffering in solidarity, with all the authority of the suffering Lord. Compassion as pastoral psychological competence is not simply a new label for traditional sympathy or empathy; it goes further, implying being literally touched to the marrow, feeling the sufferer’s pain; it means especially taking sides for the under-dog, and it means a spirituality of the Good Samaritan. Here I would like to recall, that the Samaritan was someone from a foreign folk, someone from a neighboring people that was despised as religiously inferior. The story suggests, in passing, that we Christians can learn compassion from others, from Buddhists and Tamils, from Muslims and Hindus. Around the world, across the boundaries of the religions, we can learn with each other that compassion is not a Christian specialty, but a gift of Heaven to all human beings. The place where the assault took place reveals the deficits on the part of both the priest and the levite; the place where the victim found refuge makes the Samaritan a model of conduct. The anonymous presence of God depends precisely upon the distinction between these two places. A culture that rests on empatheia (Greek) and compassio (Latin) stands in a long tradition. In his Regula pastoralis, Gregory the Great explains the meaning of compassio, as an attitude that should be exercised per pietatis viscera – with a heart full of love. Compassio goes to the guts (viscera); at the same time, it goes to the core and becomes solidarity in the flesh. *** Only with the Second Vatican Council and the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes did the theme of solidarity gain significance in Catholic systematic theology, namely as a category of salvation. The traditional notion of expiatory satisfaction offered to God by Jesus’ death on the Cross took a back seat: no longer is there a need for a sacrifice of 11

atonement to pacify an enraged God. Thus a new foundation for solidarity came to the fore – the incarnation of a God who does not need reconciliation but who instead freely bestows it. With God’s becoming man, our own becoming human took its start. And when the crucified Jesus descends into the Kingdom of Death, in his death and in his resurrection, he enters into solidarity with the dead and their sufferings, and in this way he establishes a solidarity within mankind that reaches out even beyond the boundaries of death. Jesus opens up a vision of a worldwide community that is based on divine solidarity. Theologically, this vision is oriented to a future that eludes human grasp. It points to a life-world in which the qualities of God become the life-qualities of the human condition. Solidarity is connected with the biblical notion of proxy, which means an active standing-in for others to protect them from threatening peril. It is not God who needs a substitute sacrificial victim to reconcile himself with the sinner; it is rather human beings who need to offer themselves in defense of each other. Solidarity does not sweep away the narrow place where the cornered person finds him- or herself imperiled; instead solidarity opens up a space in which that person can unfold his or her own mode of existence. Proxy here means an active engagement that does not replace its object, but instead sets it free. *** The Church acts as the proxy before God for all the peoples of the world. It likewise acts as the proxy for Jesus Christ, who, although no longer present on earth, continues to take a stand for and before each human being on earth. In the Church’s mission, the message of the Gospel serves as the yardstick according to which witness must be given: You can only evangelize what you love in your heart! It is not our faith that is the condition of God’s love; faith is rather the confession that God loves all human beings unconditionally – so much so that human beings can be transformed by this love, in the same way that those who experience being loved feel themselves transformed, and those who love unfurl amazing energies. But the experience of being unconditionally accepted and loved can only perdure and bear fruit when a person does not claim it for him- or herself alone like a piece of booty, but rather willingly shares it with his or her fellow human beings who are so indispensable for true happiness and fulfillment. Human beings are irreplaceable. Were this not so, they would betray themselves and their human dignity. But for whom am I irreplaceable? Anyone who fails to pose this question fails to recognize the mystery 12

inherent in each individual, irreplaceable human being. I am irreplaceable precisely for those who love me – as long as they continue to love me. I do not become irreplaceable by reason of anything within me alone, but only in the measure that I depend on others. I am irreplaceable for those who set their hopes in me. And precisely then and then alone, am I in a position to accept myself in my own weakness and shortcomings, without becoming despondent about them. But that means that I am and remain ever-dependent on proxies, those who stand up for me and support me, who insure that I am not simply a nobody. What it means in practice to act as a proxy, is the issue that increasingly occupies my attention. Anyone who inquires about the structures of practiced proxy-action cannot avoid asking about Christ. Christ is my proxy: he believes, hopes and loves in my place, precisely because I so often cannot believe, cannot hope, cannot love. But he does not take my place as if I had nothing else to do myself or as if I count for naught. On the contrary, he goes before me, and I follow after him. And others follow in our footsteps. The risen Christ takes the lead, the two disciples follow. They follow that third person who unexpectedly joins them, who holds them fast when the ground threatens to slip away under their feet, who watches out for them and who looks them straight in the eye. He gives them character through his own character. And he suffers with them, and he suffers what troubles them, when they fail to keep up with him. *** When my life threatens to go under in darkness, I need someone to be a light for me, someone who puts his or her hopes in me and who helps me to find the place where I will experience God’s possibilities for me – in spite of it all. I need someone to build a bridge for me – tentative and by way of proxy – to span the chasm between an existence full of suffering and what are at best vague hopes if not total hopelessness. Only when I can feel that others put their trust in me and in my future and that they gingerly keep the spark of hope in me alive – “Were not our hearts burning within us?” observed the Emmaus disciples – only then will I be able to take up hope once again. Hope gives life: that is why it is so vitally important that other people hope for me in my stead – until I once again become able to hope on my own. Loving proximity and fidelity can open up, once again, space and time for learning to hope again, and they can point the way to a path out of destructive darkness into the light – out of the darkness of the cross experienced by the disciples. This kind of love forces nothing, but it hopes everything. The proxy gives the person stood in for, time to recover to his or her own proper 13

place. But the proxy does not force the person to do so; he or she instead holds out hope for doing so. Love in the form of hope is practical proxy serving! The person who serves as a proxy makes him- or herself dependent on the person stood in for. The proxy knows that he or she cannot make happen what is hoped for, but precisely in this situation of powerlessness, the proxy is freed to love. *** Compassion as pastoral psychological competence – this introduction may offer some insights in Catholic theology and spirituality, but also in ecumenical commonalities. I like to join the group of editors of our series Pastoral Care and Spiritual Healing – Spiritualität interkulturell from now on.

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Chances and Challenges of Solidarity ICPCC from post-colonialism to global challenges Ulrike Elsdörfer Abstract: ICPCC as a movement is rooted in the idea of encouraging or empowering individuals to do their work in hospitals, elder care homes, in hospices, in the Army or in correctional centres or as religious leaders. This is a difficult task, it demands a lot of energy and mental and spiritual dedication to the work. Qualified persons from most different regions of the world join the ICPCC Congresses in order to present and learn more about the current state regarding practice and theory of Pastoral Care and Counselling.

Travelling seems to be one of the greatest pleasures of mankind. Whenever I read comments, letters, personal remarks in my research on the history of the ICPCC Congresses, the following words recurred: “And after the conference we visited this wonderful country and had great experiences”. Travelling and encountering places and people of meaning and significance for societies or at least for one’s own life is the best part of an effective education. And it can help to build bridges and to develop peace. When Pastoral Care and Counselling came to Europe in the 1960ts one big challenge to deal with emotionally and intellectually was the Holocaust. It was a great historical burden and impact not only for those who had survived war and Holocaust, but also for the next generations to learn about. Documents of these early times, when ICPCC was not yet established, but the emerging movement of Pastoral Care and Counselling fascinated the Europeans as well, show details of the atmosphere of those meetings. They tell about impressive visits in Auschwitz/Poland, about Jewish speakers, about their lectures and reports on a Sabbath devotion with an intercultural group in the venue in a town close to Auschwitz. Visitors of this meeting were not only religious leaders but also members of the Solidarnosz, then being the uprising movement towards a humanistic socialism in Poland and in the rest of the socialist world. The “Iron Curtain” was the second subject of the international meetings at least in Europe.

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Another subject for many years of the ICPCC encounters in conferences was feminism and its impact on emotions, on power and structures in religions and in civil societies. Since the beginning of this movement a lot of publications have been dedicated to this subject, either from hermeneutic feminist approaches or from sociologists, psychologists and psychotherapists – just to list the ICPCC frame of reference. The researchers as well as their subjects were “Western-world-style.” During recent years international feminism has had to consider the cultural gap in the world apart from “Western rationalities”. The recent discussion on the distinction between” Islam” and “Western world” seem to bring a new paradigm. They demand more sociological and ethnological knowledge to list the impacts of the worldwide situations of women. The abstract claims for matriarchal power mostly do not exactly fit for the worldwide realities of women. There is a demand for more sophisticated and detailed approaches to the empowerment of women within different cultures. This may emerge again when ICPCC is confronted with Asian cultures and their particular approach to feminist thoughts. The 300 pastoral counsellors meeting in Edinburgh 1979 gave this first Congress the title “The Risks of Freedom”. The subject was focused on the individual’s freedom from strong and patriarchal structures in churches and societies. The methods to achieve this goal were regarded in the individual’s introspection, and great emphasis was put on group encounters. They provided the vicarious space to prepare the “long walk to other institutions”. Psychoanalysis and Clinical Pastoral Education should enable students to “change churches and societies”. The emerging trainings in these methods were combined with upgrades for professional work and by this, at least in the Western European churches, became attractive. A report about one pre-conference of this meeting in Eastern Germany/Eisenach opened an access to another big item of the implementation of Pastoral Care and Counselling in Europe and with that one part of the worldwide ICPCC developed: when meeting for the first time “behind the “Iron Curtain”, the Germans in the German Democratic Republic seemed to be “persons whom to approach with fierce and awe”, as an American pastoral psychologist reported. This lead to the aspects of mentality and cultural backgrounds, as well as to the social situations in the regions where Pastoral Psychology was implemented. During these days Germans behind the Iron Curtain” were economically more vulnerable than the inhabitants of West Germany and more afflicted by the material 16

damages of World War II. They did not enjoy as much individual liberty as those Germans “in the West”. Socialist societies did not provide wealth for the individual. People had a harsh everyday life. Americans and people from other western nations sometimes neglected this fact. Their basic needs were already met when they approached items of psychology. Western psychology seemed to depend on an easier access to riches and liberty. And by that it sometimes missed the goal of being sensitive to cultural and social differences. Theories and practices of psychology aimed at individual happiness and smiling faces and an experience of well-being – and this was not always the most important goal in Eastern Germany; here people more clearly struggled for mental and physical survival. In the second part of his report on the meeting in Eisenach the American pastoral psychologist added that he discovered more than the lack of a smile in the German faces. He encountered an authentic ethical attitude and signs of a serious understanding of Christianity behind these “fierce” faces of the Eastern German theologians. Maybe he even discovered the connection between the economic and political situation and the mentalities of these people. There was a big gap between the political status of churches in East and West in Germany as well, and the practical aspects of life were crucial when considering mental attitudes. Africa 1999 was the great moment when ICPCC became worldwide and encountered the outcomes of colonial and post-colonial orders. ICPCC members were guests of churches in a society which was struggling economically and – compared to the international status of ICPCC’s member countries – less powerful politically. This more and more lead to the reflections on North and South of the world and to the questions of globalization and its impacts on everyday life – the motto of the Congress in Bangalore/India. Encountering Maori Culture in New Zealand 2011 led back to the subjects of spirituality and culture, indigenous healing and western medicine – back to the great divisions of the world: rich and poor, powerful and marginalized. Again, and in a new way race and gender topics worldwide were raised – and last but not least, ICPCC found access to the dialogue of religions. In San Francisco this topic emerged, and presumably will be an important subject in Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia. In Asia the cooperation of religions seems to be crucial, especially in a secular country like Japan, where religions have to cooperate in order to bring forth their impacts and their contributions to society. The proportions of Christians in countries with major Islamic population are not so small, and if religions 17

begin to cooperate, they hopefully may help to develop and maintain civil societies and democracy in their region. When reading preparatory texts for all these conferences I found a remark: The 8th ICPCC Congress in Kryszowa/Poland took place with the title: A Treasure in Earthen Vessels. Intercultural Perspectives on Pastoral Care and Counselling facing Fragility and Destruction. The discussion emerged whether a biblical citation in the title may include the risk not to be understood. Secular recipients won’t grasp the meaning of the context. The citation results from Christian tradition and world view, which is not familiar to the whole society. Though perhaps the ICPCC members understood what was meant, this discussion shows the progress of secularization in the Western countries. It may be a hint to be very sensitive and distinct in a region of the world where religions are in cooperation and sometimes in rivalry for reasons of acknowledgement and political influence. A risk of freedom may be converted into other risks if ICPCC does not develop a very sensitive view on the changing societies: There are risks for not being understood – whether we speak in religious terms or in psychological ones, whether gender accesses are discussed in different settings or whether racial aspects are used either to keep peace or to provoke hatred. It is not a big secret that the ICPCC finances are short: Regarding the situation of many members of ICPCC all over the world, the finances altogether diminish, while expenses for the Congresses grow as well as the expenses of funds for those who are not able to travel around the world or even to participate in conferences. ICPCC should maintain solidarity wherever it is possible. There is already a big gap between those member organizations who are able to contribute fees or send Congress attendants and those who are already kept back. When turning to the Asian – Pacific region the members of ICPCC will encounter profound cultural riches and diversity. They also will meet fragility and destruction in respect to nature and environment – whether there are man-made risks or results of big natural disasters. In this region of the world millions of people encounter threatening economical risks in everyday life. Malaysia again may be a good place to travel and enjoy culture – hopefully it will become a place to meet as well – people from divers “worlds” in their struggle for their lives and families, for their religious 18

entities and for the improvement of their societies. Again pastoral counsellors have a chance to expand their concerns for humanity worldwide. When turning to Asia in Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia in August 2019 ICPCC members will encounter Christians from various churches belonging to religious and ethnic minorities within their special countries. Maybe there will be Congress participants from different religions – as in San Francisco. Malaysia and Indonesia are mainly Islamic countries, India has its indigenous Hindu tradition, Japan is historically influenced by Shinto and Buddhism. Christians of various denominations came to this part of the world either by colonialization or by some sorts of mission. Christian churches are – besides the Mar Thoma in India or few other groups – not a part of the ancient cultural traditions of this continent. If pastoral counsellors will be guests of this region of the world, the basic virtue of listening will be of outstanding importance. Listening and participation are two sides of the same medal. They both represent the willingness to understand what is really going on. And this is not only important for the goal of understanding. We will come to know the joyful cultural sights of the places and will meet the burdens of this region of the world - burdens like great economic shifts and the ongoing dangers and possible destruction of the environment for numerous reasons. A special emphasis will be laid again on the empowerment of women wherever they are victims of unjust laws and practice. “Confronted Societies” as the Asian pastoral psychologist Padmasani J. Gallup claims 1, provide rare chances for a profound change. While traditional life and customs erode, violence seems to be an alternative for those who feel left behind in the fast worldwide economic development. Men and women are victims of this situation, but women bear the bigger burden. Religions have a double-bind function in this respect. On one hand, they symbolize aid and relief for suppressed persons. Religions provide guidelines for “morals” and may protect those who need mental and physical shelter. On the other hand the powerful aspects of religions are regarded to be a challenge for modern women’s emancipation. In modern societies in Asia, persons from many religious and ethnical descents have to survive and will have to cooperate in peace. They have to overcome the boundaries of colonialism. They have to preserve their environment in common achievements. They have to find their special ways to establish their authentic political systems. A training of religious Padmasani J. Gallup: „Subham“: The Concept of Wholeness in Pastoral Counselling in the Hindu Cultural Context, in: Ulrike Elsdörfer: Interreligious Encounter on cura animarum, Berlin, Germany 2013; p. 125 1

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leaders in Pastoral Care and Counselling may help to reach the goal: to develop and maintain democratic structures including men’s and women’s true needs: leading to tolerance and peace in the multicultural, multireligious and multi-ethnic societies of the South East Asian region. ICPCC members are looking forward to this meeting with pastoral counsellors in Asia and their special gifts and challenges.

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The Impact of Technology on Spiritual Care Linda Graham I’m addressing the impact of technology on spiritual care because I wrote a book called Bouncing Back about the impact of experience - any experience - on the development and functioning of the human brain and thus on our behavior, our resilience, our well-being. Especially the impact of our experiences in human relationships on the development and functioning of the human brain, thus our behavior, our resilience, and our wellbeing. As practitioners of pastoral care and counseling, you know how much the quality of the relationship you have with your clients impacts their openness to learning, growth, health and well-being. This quote from my mentor Diana Fosha, founder of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, sums it up: The roots of resilience are to be found in the felt sense of being held in the mind and heart of an empathic, attuned, and self-possessed other. We want to provide the felt-sense kind of empathy that creates the conditions for this kind of empathic listening: Ah, the comfort, The inexpressible comfort Of feeling safe with a person. Having neither to weigh out thoughts Nor words, But pouring them all right out, just as they are, Chaff and grain together; Certain that a faithful hand Will take them and sift them; Keeping what is worth keeping and, With the breath of kindness, Blow the rest away. - Dinah Craik A Life for a Life, 1859 21

This intuitive and subjective wisdom from experience with our clients has been supported for 60 years by attachment theory and research. John Bowlby in England, Mary Ainsworth and Mary Main in America. Demonstrating “beyond irrefutability” that interactions between the initial caregivers and the developing child either develop an internal secure base within the child based on secure attachment with the parent or derail the development of that internal secure base when the attachment style between child and parent is insecure anxious, insecure avoidant, or in the case of trauma and abuse, disorganized. As re-parenting figures for our clients, we become True Others to their True Self. We provide the kind of attuned, empathic experiences - empathy for themselves and for their suffering, empathy for their responses to events and the stories of themselves in response to experience - that allow the clients to experience themselves as acceptable, loveable, cherished and worthy and of significance to their family and community. We provide guidance and expertise - in our theories, our maps, our vision of problems and solutions. We also shift from being the expert to guides of experience and experiment (since that’s how the brain learns and rewires) and then offering reflection and integration. Recovering the client’s inner secure base provides the best buffer against stress and trauma, psychopathology. Regardless of our faith or orientation, all of this is done through the quality of the relationship. I once heard a keynote speaker at a conference on Attachment and Psychotherapy say: All this talk therapy is just an excuse to hang out long enough for the relationship to do the healing. In the last two decades both behavioral scientists and neuroscientists have been validating the importance of positive resonant relationship to “rewire” the brain and develop skills of relational intelligence. Matthew Lieberman, a neuropsychologist at UCLA says in his book Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect: This is what our brains are wired for: reaching out to and interacting with others. These are design features, not flaws. These social adaptations are central to making us the most successful species on earth….Increasing the social connections in our lives is probably the single easiest way to enhance our well-being. 22

And we do know, from Dan Siegel, developer of interpersonal neurobiology, also at UCLA, in his book The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, that human brains develop and learn best, lifelong, in interaction with other brains. Behavior is not confined to one single skull but always operates in interactions with other brains; the experiences that impact the brain and thus behavior, resilience and well-being the most are interactions with other brains. What this healthy resonant brain-to-brain interaction does is strengthen the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, the center of executive functioning, what I call the CEO of resilience, how we develop somatic intelligence, emotional intelligence, relational intelligence, and reflective intelligence. How do we assess impact of digital technology, which operates as an extended brain for most people, on the spiritual care our clients come to us to receive? When I first started learning to use my smart phone, at one point I was so astonished at Siri that I exclaimed, “Oh my God!” and Siri replied, “I’m made of silicon. I don’t do religion.” Digital devices and the explosion of their use and our dependence on them is very, very new. Modern computers to process information developed rapidly after World War II. But the internet, originally designed to help research scientists disseminate data quickly around the world, across cultures and disciplines, is even newer - only 25 years old. And the proliferation of devices and technologies for social connectivity - cell phones, texts, email and social media like Facebook and Twitter - is even newer, just in the last decade. The use of our devices is impacting our brains and thus behavior far faster than evolution, far faster than researchers, educators, and policy makers can keep up with. So mostly we’re in a new era where we have far more questions than answers, perhaps far more doubts and fears than reassurance or certainties. Sherry Turkle, professor of psychology at MIT, has spent 25 years researching the impact of digital technology on relationships. In her books Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other and Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, she reports with some alarm the devastating impact of our digital technology on empathy, intimacy, and capacities to tolerate solitude and boredom. 23

I want to suggest this framework for exploring the impact of technology on spiritual care and then offer 5 practical tools we use to create the resonance in counseling relationship that allows our clients to recover from stress and trauma, heal into resilience and well-being, even thriving and flourishing. The framework is Information

Connection

Resonance

Processing and Dissemination

Social Connectivity

Priming Neuroplasticity

Political Mobilization

Rewiring Brain

Information: Nothing can process and disseminate bits of data faster than the extensions of the human brain we now use every day - the microprocessor that we use in every individual computer and phone, and the world wide web of networks that exchange and store data in the virtual reality of the cloud. Literally mind-boggling and no one mind can create or comprehend what we have created with our technology. We can now offload so much of what we used to use the left hemisphere of our brains to do - to analyze data - and re-focus the brain to what else it does best right hemisphere of the brain to create, make associations, relate to other brains. There is an upside and a downside to this incredible capacity to process information. The upside is virtually unlimited data storage and access and massive amounts of data shared over networks at hyper-speed. The downside is information overload; we experience brain fatigue or brain fog; we need to give our brain a break or rest every 60-90 minutes, and we don’t always take that break, we lose the capacity to distinguish the relevant from the irrelevant. And the multi-tasking we can take such pride in, researchers are finding actually leads to more errors, perhaps even contributing to ADD. Connection All of us use our devices to stay in touch with loved ones far away, to reconnect with long lost high school or college friends, to share important moments and events with others. 24

The upside: the sense of social connection releases the neurotransmitter dopamine, the neurochemical of satisfaction and reward. Social connections enhance well-being and bring us the pleasure, joy, and satisfaction of belonging. The downsides are: Addictive behaviors can be triggered by continual hits of dopamine. (Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that leads to addictive behavior around drugs, alcohol, gambling); we rush to our devices every time we hear a ping or compulsively check them many times an hour (even minutes). American adults now spend 33 hours/week on devices; that’s 20% of all the time in a week; 30% of waking time. Teenagers, now called screenagers, spend 30% of their time on social media, and almost 50% of all of their waking time. Turkle also found that our sense of connection morphs into a pancake style of connection- broad - many contacts - but superficial, not much depth to any of them. People will have 3,000 friends on Facebook, but no close friendships.She found that because emotions are too messy, people just send texts; people are even being fired by text. Expression of emotions is more easily compromised or avoided, leading to a decrease in empathy. People tend to become less tolerant of boredom or solitude, always wanting the stimulation of the next hit, rather than hanging out in a neutral space where the brain can be creative. And with so much time getting bits of information from our devices, there is actually less downtime available to consolidate all of that information into long-term memory/learning. Resonance There is a motivational system in the brain as powerful as the dopamine system of reward and pleasure; it’s the oxytocin caregiving system. Oxytocin is basis of attachment, bonding and belonging, it’s basis of safety and trust. Oxytocin is far more powerful in contributing to resilience and well-being than dopamine. And it is what we offer in care and counseling. Another important point: technology is not biology. I happened to hike recently with Juan Rada, a senior executive with Oracle, who patiently explained to me why computers cannot duplicate the functioning of the human brain. A human brain communicates through both electrical and chemical signals. We offer that neurochemical synchrony every time we sit with client. Barbara Fredrickson, one of the pioneers in positive psy25

chology research, states in her book Love 2.0 that love is based on physical presence, eye contact, shared positive emotion, and mutual care for the welfare of the other. Those elements create the conditions for the neurochemistry of the two people to come into in sync. As therapists, with physical presence, eye contact, shared positive emotions, and mutual care, we can entrain our clients into that state of safety and resonance. Not just through our thoughts and emotions, but through the body-brain’s chemistry. This resonance is called the “cathedral” way of relating - depth of feeling, rigor of thinking, true connection. That’s what devices can’t do and what people are starving for. I can imagine Siri saying, “I’m made of silicon. I don’t do resonance.” How can we as spiritual counselors and mental health professionals use tools to create the experiences for clients that will bring them into resonance neurochemically? To foster the safety, trust and openness to learning that will harness their innate neuroplasticity, rewire their brains when habitual patterns of response to life’s disappointments, difficulties, even disasters don’t work so well, and help them create new more flexible, stable, patterns of coping. We can help send clients’ brains in a more wholesome direction, reconnect with self, with others, with community, with divine. I offer my tools and techniques in these Top Five categories: Attunement and empathy Mindfulness Self-compassion Positive emotions Memory deconsolidation-reconsolidation Attunement and Empathy Attunement and empathy - in an intersubjective relational field - are what family therapist Dan Hughes calls the double helix of an inner secure base. Examples from the AEDP modality developed by Diana Fosha: What are you experiencing? What is your experience sharing your experience with me? What do you imagine I am experiencing at I listen to your experience? How do you hear my experience of you? 26

This strengthens the intersubjective experience between therapist and client, and promotes that neurochemical synchrony that opens the brain for learning and rewiring. Mindfulness Mindfulness - as defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn, developer of MindfulnessBased Stress Reduction and pioneer researcher in the neuroscience of mindfulness, as focused attention on present moment experience without judgement or resistance, has proven to be one of the most powerful agents of brain change known to science. When we ask clients to reflect on their experience - “What are you noticing how?” - we are strengthening their capacities to notice whatever experience is happening in the moment, AND their reactions to their experience. This stepping back and reflecting allows them to disentangle from the experience a bit, coming to more clarity, especially about their responses to their experience. Then they have some bandwidth to shift perspective, discern options, choose wisely. (And of course, there are meditations to help clients experience a deeper sense of the divine and their own true nature, spirit or essence.) Here’s one exercise I use quite often with clients to help them train their brains in more mindful awareness; I learned this from Stuart Eisendrath who studies mindfulness and depression at the University of CaliforniaSan Francisco Medical School: Simply come into a sense of presence, being in your own body in this moment. When you’re ready, you imagine that you are walking on a sidewalk down a street in your hometown. Some place familiar and comfortable to you. Just walking along, feeling fine. Then imagine that you notice someone walking toward you on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. You recognize them and you wave and call out “Hello!” There’s no response; you simply notice your own reaction to the lack of response. Just notice. Then, on their own, this person sees you and waves and calls out “Hello!” Now notice your own reaction to their response. Simply notice. Then take a moment to reflect on any differences between your two reactions; noticing any insights or anything you learned from the exercise.

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“What are you noticing now?” has become my favorite mindfulness intervention. I don’t even have to say the word mindfulness, but clients are strengthening that capacity. Self-compassion Compassion is another powerful agent of brain change and when we teach clients tools of self-compassion, they evoke their own caregiving system in their own brain, and can instantly shift from functioning of their brain out of automatic survival responses into that larger perspective again from which they can begin to solve their problems.. I teach clients to use a self-compassion break many times a day, either when they are actually upset or distressed by something, or simply to check in as they go along in their day, “How am I doing? Is there any suffering here?” And if there is, to: Place your hand on your heart center (which will begin to activate the release of oxytocin, the hormone of safety and trust). Breathe gently, deeply into your heart center. And begin to say softly or silently to yourself: May I be kind to my self in this moment. May I accept this moment exactuly as it is. May I accept myself exactly as I am in this moment. May I give myself all the compassion I need. Clients can repeat these phrases, or any other phrases of kindness, care and compassion that work for them, until they come into a physiological equilibrium again and can face whatever they need to face. Positive Emotions Positive emotions like compassion, kindness, gratitude, generosity, love, joy, awe, etc. shift the functioning of the brain from the innate negativity bias of our automatic survival responses to a larger, broader perspective. Rather than being driven by the fight-flight-freeze-numb out-collapse responses of our lower brain, the higher brain comes online again and we are able to see the larger perspective, the bigger picture again.

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This tool is from my colleague and friend Rick Hanson, author of Hardwiring Happiness. I often ask clients to track positive experience they have had during the day and then Notice the experience as it is happening or remember it later Get the felt sense of the experience, and the gratitude for it, in the body Savor that felt sense for 10-20-30 seconds to give the brain time to install it in long-term memory Repeat the recollection and savoring 5 more times during that day to create a resource you can use in later more difficult time. Memory Deconsolidation-Reconsolidation When we can juxtapose positive experiences or memories with negative experiences or memories, holding the two in awareness at the same time, that juxtaposition causes the neural networks constellating those memories to fall apart and rewire a fraction of a second later. When the positive is much stronger than the negative, it can “trump” the negative. Neuroscientists have only seen this in their scanners in the last 5-7 years, but it is the neural basis for the healing in all trauma therapy. Here is as exercise I do as a guided visualization I use quite frequently to help clients rewire the inner critic or rewire a sense of shame from an interpersonal encounter that didn’t go so well. Wished for Outcome So, as I always like to do when reconditioning, we begin by coming into a sense of presence, aware of being in our own body in this moment, in this place. And bringing a sense of kindness and openness to one’s experience, evoking a sense of one’s own true and deep inner goodness. Then, beginning the exercise by remembering one moment, one small moment, when an interaction between you and another person went awry, and you wound up feeling not very good about yourself, you wound up feeling badly. Stay anchored in your own awareness and your own self-compassion as you evoke this memory, and you light up all the neural networks constellating this memory by remembering where you were, who you were with, remembering what you said, and what they said. Remembering what you did, and what they did. And remembering how all of that made you feel, at the time, or even now as you remember the event. Notice how you feel, or felt, and see if you can locate where you feel, or felt, that in your body. The visceral sense of the experience. Notice any negative thoughts you may have about yourself now because of 29

what you experienced then. Let the evoking of this negative experience be as vivid as you can, lighting up the memory so it can be rewired. Then, you create the positive resource that you will juxtapose with this negative memory to do the rewiring, by beginning to imagine a different outcome to this scenario. A different more satisfactory resolution of the event. Remembering, whatever you can imagine is real to the brain, even if this new ending never could have happened in real life. So you begin to imagine something different you might have said. You imagine something different the other person could have said, even if that never could have happened in real life. Let your brain do its own imagining and its own rewiring. Imagine something different you might have done. Imagine the other person doing something differently, even if that never could have happened in real life. Let your imagination create a more satisfactory resolution of the entire event. You can even imagine someone who wasn’t there at the time coming in and doing something helpful. As this new scenario unfolds, let it come to a new more wished for outcome. And light up all the neural networks of this new resolution. Let yourself feel how you feel with this new ending, and where you feel those feelings in your body. Let yourself notice any new more positive thoughts you have about yourself, given this new outcome. Let the experience of this resolution be vivid in its details and vital in your imagination. Strengthen your experience of the thoughts and feelings of this new ending. Then, gently touch back in to the original negative experience. Touch it lightly. And then let it go and return to resting in the experience of the new ending. Then touch into the negative experience again, just briefly; notice any shifts. Then return to the resource of the new positive ending. Touch into the negative again, let it go, and rest in the feelings and thoughts of the new positive ending. Then you take a moment to pause and reflect on your experience of the entire exercise, noticing any shifts. This technique of reconditioning does not change what happened, but it does change our relationship to what happened. And it doesn’t re-write history, but it does rewire the brain. 30

I close with this essay by the Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye. I think it captures the power of people relating to each other as people in difficult times, offering support and connection. May it be helpful to you and yours. “Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal” By Naomi Shihab Nye After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately. Well — one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she did this. I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly. Shu dow-a, shubiduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, sho bit se-wee? The minute she heard any words she knew — however poorly used – she stopped crying. She thought our flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the following day. I said, No, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late, who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him. We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and would ride next to her. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out, of course, they had ten shared friends. Then I thought, just for the heck of it, why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours. She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies — little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts — out of her bag — and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler 31

from Argentina, the traveler from California, the lovely woman from Laredo — we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies. And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers — non-alcoholic — and the two little girls for our flight, one AfricanAmerican, one Mexican-American — ran around serving us all apple juice and lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend — by now we were holding hands — had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere. And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in this gate — once the crying of confusion stopped — has seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too. This can still happen, anywhere. Not everything is lost.

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Caring for one another in the Global Village within the increasing Inflation of Compassion. A challenge to a Pastoral Hermeneutics of Caregiving Daniël J. Louw Abstract: The term ‘global village’ is viewed as a qualitative term linked to very specific issues all over the globe regarding the significance of human life. It describes a kind of ‘electronic interdependence’ (McLuhan) and digital interconnectedness. Due to the inflation of human communication and the danger of the commodification of compassion and human vulnerability, the crisis in the global village is described as the in-between of war and peace (Barack Obama) and the bleak horizon of hope (Ban Ki-Moon). The refugee’s crisis emphasizes this in-between of accommodation/tolerance on the one hand and xenophobia on the other hand. There is definitely a battle of values, with compassion one side and fear on the other (Vick 2015:32). The question is posed whether pastoral caregiving is equipped with a theological language/grammar in order to articulate the character of pastoral care in the global village. In this regard a theology of compassion is developed on the basis of the ḥesed and oiktirmos of God. It is further argued that the creation of a compassionate community is about the challenge to provide ‘hospitals’ (xenodochia), safe havens (monasteries of hope, places of refuge) where threatened people can become whole again. Keywords Global village Globalisation Refugee crisis Pastoral caregiving Compassionate society Theology of compassion Xenophobia Hospitality

The world has been shrunken into a ‘village mentality’ of ‘global sameness’ and digital interconnectedness. Communication online has become more instant than personal encounters. Adidas from Germany is made in China, used in Berlin and bought in Cape Town. And we all wear nice sneakers, even in the poor townships of South Africa.

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Claims regarding human rights have become globalized. For example, the claim for human rights with its ethical implications has become a pragmatic function and an activist democratic claim framed by the paradigm of a global market driven economy and entertainment ethics. Coca Cola, smartphones and Marlboro cigarettes have become basic human rights, even in very poor and remote villages in Africa (Mosotos News 2010:8). The global village has become a prescriptive mode of living, a kind of universal custom and normative framework determined by production, commercialisation, digital communication and the industry of advertisement and information overload. Life has become a commodity. Inhabitants in the global village look ‘cool’ and project an image of inner contentment, outer indifference and a don’t care mentality of ‘don’t worry, be happy’. In the meantime there are huge tensions in the Middle East, vast poverty in Africa and India, and many dislocated people fleeing from Syria into Europe. The question should be posed: What is going on in the space we call global village? One can even say the whole globe is on the move. Mobilization has become a feature of global life. People are on the move from Mexico into the United States; from Eastern Europe into Western Europe and the wealthy Nordic countries; from North Africa into the Mediterranean areas; from central Africa to the southern parts; from the pacific into Australia. In the meantime globalization has started to take on the image of Chinadisation; the commodification of the market place by means of the label: ‘Made in China’. With Chinadisation is not merely meant a kind of economic or marketing colonialism or global migration. Chinadisation points to the infiltration of Chinese business in all the more poor villages and townships in rural areas and its impact on the compilation of communities and values of local cultures. The challenge to understand what is going on in the global village is a hermeneutical one. Hermeneutics implies inter alia the following dynamic movements: from the epistemology of understanding (prefiguration), to the rational analyses of explanation (configuration), to the challenge of reorientation, reconceptualization and even the reframing of existing paradigms in order to keep up with new insights (appropriation and refiguration). Eventually, this dynamic hermeneutical cycle and spiral process of signifying

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life can lead to fundamental changes in terms of the qualitative meaning and healing of life, (cura vitae). The healing of life in the global village should closely be connected to what is called in philosophical counselling: detecting the connotative value of words and symbols. It should be made clear that caregiving in the global village implies more than empathetic listening. It implies critical assessment of the value of words and symbols because the connotative value of words and symbols are emotional, social, cultural or situational interpretations constructed through various contexts and situations of significant connections that have been submerged. From the literal level of denotation one has to move to the deeper level of metaphorical connotations influenced by belief systems, values, norms, convictions, commitments, philosophical worldviews and ethical frameworks. Detecting meaning in life inevitably implies inter alia to probe into the realm of philosophical paradigms, patterns of thinking. Carl Rogers (1951:4-5) acknowledges that psychology and psychotherapy is deeply rooted in American culture and determined by its philosophical roots. “Some of its roots stretch out even further into educational and social and political philosophy which is at the heart of our American culture.” He admits that an operational philosophy of the individual determines the skilfulness of a counsellor (Rogers 1951:20). Philosophical counselling probes into the paradigmatic roots of both the existing culture, the framework of ideas beyond visible observations (signals of transcendence – Berger 1992). In order to change people, the framework or philosophical forms need to be disputed. Forms or ideas determine our human quest for meaning, thus the role of philosophy in counselling, i.e. the need for philosophical reflection in decision-making and true discernment. ‘Philosophical counselling’ could be viewed as quite a ‘new’2 trend in the practice of counselling. In his book Plato not Prozac, Marinoff (1999:24) refers to the relatively recent scientization of psychology and the psychological industry with the emphasis on talk therapy3 and the human need for dialogue. With reference to psychoanalysis in psychotherapy most of the theories are built on the notion of post hoc ergo propter hoc, it means that because one event happened before another, the earlier event caused “Philosophical counselling is a relatively new but rapidly growing field of philosophy”. Marinoff 1999:7. 3 “Counseling psychologists have a virtual monopoly on government licensing of talk therapy…” Marinoff 1999:24. 2

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the later one. This cause and effect approach, combined with empathetic counselling, leads to the practice of emotional probing and memory analyses. However, knowing the cause of your pain does not necessarily take the pain away or comforts one. The shift towards philosophically counselling4 is a shift towards wisdom and its connectedness to meaning, future orientation, life views and the realm of ideas or convictions. Its aim is to help people to apply the narrow insights they learn about themselves to the bigger picture and metarealm of life; “to integrate every conceivable insight (psychological insights being just one kind) into a coherent, workable outlook on and approach to life” (Marinoff 1999:30-31). It is therefore the contention of Marinoff (1999:31) that if the root of a problem is philosophical, nothing on a pharmacist’s shelves is going to give lasting relief. “Drugs don’t do anything in the outside world – even with a mood softened by Prozac, you’ll still have to deal with a sadistic boss or a cheating partner or a bureaucratic bank: (Marinoff 1999:33-34). The challenge to a pastoral hermeneutics of care and counselling is the following: What is meant by this universal habitus and mentality that we call ‘global village’? What is its impact on Christian spirituality and what are the implication for pastoral care and counselling? It brings us back to the basic theological question: do we have appropriate language to articulate the issues at stake in the global village, or are we stuck with a theological grammar designed to keep God going by means of dogmatic articulation designed to uphold a kind of Hellenistic interpretation of God Almighty (God the pantokrator) and ecclesial hierarchy? Henri Nouwen describes this paradigm of an all-powerful God (omnicategories), a threat to the discovery and acknowledgement of human brokenness and vulnerability: “God's love for me was limited by my fear of God's power, and it seemed wise to keep a careful distance even though the desire for closeness was immense. I know that I share this experience with countless others. I have seen how the fear of becoming subject to God's revenge and punishment has paralyzed the mental and emotional lives of many people independently of their age, religion, or life-style. This paralyzing fear of God is one of the great human tragedies” (Nouwen 1979:121).

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See Sperry 2002:15-16. Philosophical counselling entails a process involving a logical, analytical and noetic evaluation of the meaning dimension of different concepts and how they are related to basic existing paradigms and ideas/ideologies as well as to different existential dimensions of life.

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Douglas Hall (1993:133) asserts that one of the most repressing Godimages of Christian theism and cultural Christian imperialism was 'The Father Almighty’ - an image which was misused in the North American continent to insulate people from the reality of their situation. Such a theology, he argues, constitutes part of the repressive mechanisms of a class that can still camouflage the truth because it is well padded economically and physically; and that this theology, accordingly, is partly responsible for the oppression of others who suffer from First World luxury, aggressiveness, and self-deceit (Hall 1993:133). Hall (1993:134) calls such a theology that maintains the image of deity, based on a power principle that can only comfort the comfortable, ‘a flagrantly disobedient theology’. Indeed, God comforts the afflicted, but also afflicts the comfortable. Should we then explore ‘new categories’ in order to explore and conceptualize the presence of God within the dynamics of life? Does pastoral care to inhabitants of the global village perhaps imply that we get rid of what Reader calls: our ‘zombie categories’? In his book on Reconstructing Practical Theology, Reader (2008:1) warns against the danger of “zombie categories” (Ulrich Beck), i.e. the continued employment of concepts that no longer do justice to the world we experience, and yet, which are difficult to abandon because of tradition and because they are not yet totally redundant. Zombie categories are therefore described as the “living dead”, the tried and familiar frameworks of interpretation that have served us well for many years and continue to haunt our thoughts and analyses, even though they are embedded in a world that is passing away before our eyes. In the light of my choice for a hermeneutical approach, against the background of philosophical counselling, the first challenge is to denote the symbolic meaning and significance of the concept ‘global village, within processes of globalization. Turmoil in the global village ‘Global village’ is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan. In the early 1960s, McLuhan wrote that the visual, individualistic print culture would soon be brought to an end by what he called "electronic interdependence": when electronic media replace visual culture with aural/oral culture. In this new age, humankind will move from individualism and fragmentation to a collective identity, with a "tribal base." McLuhan's coinage for this new social organization is the global village (McLuhan 2015). 37

McLuhan linked the vast network of communications systems to one extended central nervous system, ultimately linking everyone in the world. It furthermore refers to the world viewed as a community in which distance and isolation have been dramatically reduced by electronic media (as television and the Internet). It represents the idea that people are connected by easy travel, mass media and electronic communications, and have moulded into a single mode of sameness. Closely linked to the notion of the “global village’, is the process of globalization. Researchers refer to globalisation as ‘fordism’: the management of the global world by big companies within a market driven economy, resulting into mass commodification Another concept develop later that could be viewed as a kind of local understanding of globalisation, namely glocalisation. The term refers to the impact of global processes of economic infiltration on local cultural contexts. Glocalisation is a combination of the words "globalization" and "localization" used to describe a product or service that is developed and distributed globally, but is also fashioned to accommodate the user or consumer in a local market. The important point to grasp is that communication technology and symbols in the market driven economy affect cognitive organization, which in turn has profound ramifications for social organization and philosophical reorientation. Technology and digitalization extend the human senses ‘outside’. And when the sense ratios alter in any culture, then what had appeared lucid before, may suddenly become opaque, and what had been vague or opaque will become translucent. In this new age, humankind will move from individualism and fragmentation to a collective identity, with a ‘tribal base’ of technological interconnectedness and an instant digital togetherness that one can call the ‘global village’. Qualitative term The ‘global village’ can be viewed as a qualitative term and refers to a state of mind (mind-set) and mentality (qualitative approach; idea about life and its outcome or destiny). Behzad Yaghmaian, a professor of political economy at Ramapo College of New Jersey, who wrote Embracing the Infidel: Stories of Muslim Migrants on the Journey West (in Vick 2015:31), remarks as follows: “Because of globalisation, you have awareness of life elsewhere in the world. That’s crucial now. So you move.” (The dynamics of mobility: moving to a better world -pursuit of happiness, cult of prosperity and wealth). 38

The notion of the global village as a state of mind and mentality can be described as the ‘second age of reason’. “Now everything we do – every online purchase, e-prescription and tweet – adds to the digital tsunami known as big data” (Grunwald 2014:34). Instead of Orwell’s Big Brother in 1984, lurks Big Data. The paradigm shift is from the ‘democratisation of people’ to the ‘democratisation of information’ (Grunwald 2014:34). The global village at a crossroad: oscillating between war and peace Due to the factuality of complexity, the global village does not provide necessarily prosperty, development and peace. Due to many local differences, as well as the fact that a very individualistic interpretation of democratisation is not always sensitive to communal issues as embedded in cultural context, glocalisation also become an indication of resistance against a Western understanding of democratisation and globalisation. In the Middle East and the migration of refugees, a new kind of exodus is developing and it is as if the globe is wavering between a new kind of ‘War and Peace’, between location and dislocation, exploitation and disruption. 

Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary-General on crisis in Middle East and Syria: He is convinced that the horizon of hope in 2014 is bleak and dark. It seems as if the world is falling apart, there is an upheaval of crises and the threat of the Ebola virus is causing concern and anxiety. He warns of ‘turbulence’ ahead, with wars, refugees, disease and climate change. “This year, the horizon of hope is darkened” (Ki-Moon 2014). On the 17th of October 2015, after meeting with families of refugees at a reception center in Italy, Rome, Ban Ki-moon said the global community has to “stand with people who do not have any means” and provide basic necessities, such as education and sanitation (Ki-Moon 2015).

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President Barack Obama of the United States of America, in his response at the United Nations on the Syrian crisis: On the 24th of September 2014, president Back Obama said emphatically: “The world is on the crossroad between war and peace. Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen: We come together at a crossroads between war and peace; between disorder and integration; between fear and hope” (Obama 2014a). Declaring the world at a crossroads between war and peace, US President Barack Obama vowed at the UN to lead a coalition to dis39

mantle an Islamic State "network of death" that has wreaked havoc in the Middle East and drawn the US back into military action. On the 25th of September 2014 he refers to the global crisis as "the cancer of violent extremism" that should be destroyed. This is to his mind a general, global, but in essence, a generational task in the Middle East. "No external power can bring about a transformation of hearts and minds." (Obama 2014b). The argument of Obama points to the fact that healing in the global village is indeed a spiritual issue, namely the transformation of hearts and mind; i.e. we desperately need new paradigms for dealing with crises in the global village. We need what Tolstoy (1978: vi) in his novel War and Peace, calls the spirit of simplicity. According to Tolstoy, the striving for societal equilibrium and justice (peace) draws humankind into war and destruction. It demarcates the tension between evil and goodness, between the falsity of power abuse and the spirit of simplicity. The dilemma is that citizens of the global village live in a kind of catch 22 situation, namely between resistance (anxiety and hate) and outreach, acceptance (trust). The dilemma is: the challenge of tolerance within an atmosphere of suspicion and resistance. Eventually it boils over into the fear of the other (xenophobia). “Right-wing parties that promote nativism and xenophobia were already on the rise in France Greece and other E.U. nations well before the latest surge of migrants’ (Vick 2015:32). Besides the phenomenon of xenophobia, inhabitants in the global village are constantly exposed to the inflation of compassion, indifference and apathy. “Aid agencies abruptly cut assistance in August, citing “donor fatigue,” leaving 4 million Syrians to feed themselves on $14 a month. At the same time, inside Syria, press gangs sharpened their search for young men to serve Assad’s army”; “…the limits of compassion, coupled with wariness of Muslims, comes into remorseless focus, even in an immigrant nation” (Vick 2015:34). A very alarming issue is the ‘inflation’ of compassion due to demands in the market driven economy. Human suffering becomes exposed to brutal economic exploitation and manipulation. See the following remarks of former president George Bush of the USA: “…helping the people of Africa fight disease, advances both our interests and our ideals’ (Bush 2015:22). “When societies abroad are healthier and prosperous, they are more stable and secure. They become markets for our producers, not exporters of danger or sources of humanitarian crisis” (Bush 2015:22). 40

The commodification of compassion develops simultaneously with a mass commodification of human suffering as well. “And yet the idea that migrants could provide a long-term economic boon is hotly challenged by populist politicians across Europe trying to score with electorates that have become more nationalistic in the wake of financial crisis”. The burning question for pastoral caregiving is the following: Is there a possible solution and answer or explanation? Klein (2015:24) emphatically states: ‘Let’s begin with the obvious: there are no easy answers in the Middle East.” In his research on poverty in India and the link between income inequality and economic growth, Angus Deaton of Princeton, winner of the 2015 economics Nobel Prize, raised doubts about sweeping solutions for poverty and the effectiveness of aids programs in the attempt to address the issue of human welfare (Reuters Associated Press 2015:7). What we can derive from the previous outline regarding burning issues in the global village, is the complexity of life within the world wide web of a market driven economy and the digitalization of communication. Mapping the issues: the global village as opportunity and threat to our being human What is currently at stake in the complexity of the global society and how do global issues shape the lives of people on grassroots level? In order to understand the challenges for care and counselling in the global village, I want to point to the following burning issues that appeal to our compassion: 

Global dislocation and displacement of migrants and refugees: the reshaping of national states and disruption of local civil society structures.

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Global xenophobia and the threat of ‘religious fanaticism’ – the ‘ideologism’ (abstract ideas fuelled by belief systems and the manipulation of the fear of ordinary people for ‘divine powers beyond’) of dislocated faith.

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‘Donor inflation’ and the hidden agendas of ‘global funding’ (international helping schemes).



Global selling of human attention (website spirituality and the commodification of attention online): the role of the internet and 41

the social media on the inflation of empathetic modes of civil engagements - the deterioration of human relationships and the inflation of humane conversations. 

Predict and future hope as legal betting on daily events (performance gambling).

(a) Global dislocation and displacement as a spiritual crisis of values and compassion. In an article by Karl Vick in Time (2015:25-43), he refers to ‘The Great Migration’. “Rarely in modern history have so many been so desperate to flee, now there brave, and tragic, journeys are reshaping Europe and the world” (Vick 2015:25-26). Migration is about being uprooted without a sense of belongingness and the option of going ‘back home’. “What’s scary is the uncertainty embedded in any journey, a vague foreboding that informed the theory of a flat earth, which merely assumed the horizon was exactly what it appears to be: a precipice. Beyond lay a void like the one at the pit of the stomach when you find yourself in a place where you know no one, darkness is gathering and nothing is like back home” (Vick 2015:28). What is happening within the past 30 decades in the global village is a constant migration from poorer countries to richer. From Latin America to the U.S. from Burma toward refuge in Malaysia, from Northern Africa and the Middle East toward the European Union, from Asian countries to the South (Australia and New Zealand) from Burundi and Zimbabwe to the Southern parts of Africa. But, suddenly it has become a cascade and tsunami – the most visible flotsam in a wider stream of human beings, a tidal stream that is changing and reshaping our understanding of what geography and civil society means . More than 600,000 people have entered Europe so far in 2015, sometimes 10,000 a day. Many governments were totally unprepared when Syrians began emerging from the Aegean Sea this summer ending in the deaths of thousands of desperate and helpless refugees. Behzad Yaghmaian, a professor of political economy at Ramapo College of New Jersey, who wrote Embracing the Infidel: Stories of Muslim Migrants on the Journey West (in Vick 2015:31) remarks as follows: “Because of globalisation, you have awareness of life elsewhere in the world. That’s crucial now. So you move.” (b) Civil society has become a mirage elsewhere in the global village. It has become merely impossible to make a distinction between 42

‘migrants’ (The umbrella term for people who have left their country of origin. This includes everyone from international students to workers entering countries illegally in search of a better life) and ‘refugees’ (The status of people who have fled their home country because of war or because they have suffered (feared) persecution). The crisis how to deal with refugees entering local civil societies is the crisis of their status and identity. National authorities are now being prescribed by the international law that shapes the juridical feature of the global village. Under international law refugees cannot be returned home against their will. “In relative terms, it can actually be good to be a refugee. At least it’s better than being a “migrant,” a legal status afforded no special protection under international law, and a label applied to some 240 million people across the globe who have crossed borders, often seeking work.” (Vick 2015:32). The tip of the iceberg-crisis is that the Syrian war has driven worldwide displacement and global dislocation to record high, draining the emotional capacity for empathy to the spiritual pastoral crisis of compassion fatigue. According to António Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees: “There is definitely a battle of values, with compassion one side and fear on the other’ (In Vick 2015:32). One can say the crisis of displacement and dislocation is indeed a ‘spiritual crisis’; it infiltrates value systems and the paradigm of empathetic compassion. After the alarming online pictures in the global media of the death of the 3-year-old boy, Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi in the Mediterranean Sea, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan put the blame on European countries for turning the Mediterranean Sea into a “migrant cemetery” (Shuster 2015:40). (c) Global xenophobia and the threat of ‘religious fanaticism’ - the intoxication of spiritual radicalism. Migrants coming to Europe and Africa are often from a non-Christian background. Under the façade of developmental improvement of the structures in many poor countries in the world, especially in Africa, China is infiltrating the rural areas of Africa – the ‘Yellow Danger’ of Buddhism. Most migrants to Europe are from a Muslim background. Muslims are treated with suspicion so that the crisis is fed by security concerns. “Right-wing parties that promote nativism and xenophobia were already on the rise in France Greece and other E.U. nations well before the latest surge of migrants’ (Vick 2015:32). Political parties are even taking advantage of local fear for the stranger (xenophobia). According to Joe Klein (2015:24), in the upcoming 43

presidential elections in the U.S., Republicans – including almost all the GOP presidential candidates – say that Vladimir Putin is “eating Obama’s lunch in Syria”. Referring to Mohammed Javad Zarif, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Klein (2015:24) is pointing out that the major problem in the Middle east is a rogue strain of Islam, invented by Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabis, that has given rise to radical Islamic movements like ISIS, al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Hizballah. The impression of xenophobia in the global village is that the Middle East is a threat to global peace. Suspicious fingers are pointing to the Saudis as the overwhelming source of not only World Trade Center bombers, but also “radical Islamic missionaries, who have used religious schools – madrasahs – to spread a doctrine of hatred through the Islamic world”. As in the case of the imperialistic corpus christianum, religious radicalism has become the spiritual pathology in the global village and is intoxicating the belief systems of communities of faith. Instead of spreading peace in the global village, the radicalisation of abstract belief systems are contributing to the phenomenon of xenophobia and are increasingly becoming a schismatic factor rather than a reconciling factor, dividing civil societies along religious prejudices. (d) ‘Donor inflation’ and the hidden agendas of ‘global funding’ (international helping schemes – gambling with human beings. The transformation of civil societies into democratic societies of justice and equality has become a costly business. Local programmes of transformation in developing and poor countries, are heavily dependent on external donors ‘from overseas’. Funding in the global village is not merely about humanitarian helping schemes and the philosophy of philanthropy. Donors see funding as a capital investment, they are therefore prescriptive in terms of a ‘hidden agenda’ and if they don’t benefit, the financial aid is cancelled. “Aid agencies abruptly cut assistance in August, citing “donor fatigue,” leaving 4 million Syrians to feed themselves on $14 a month. At the same time, inside Syria, press gangs sharpened their search for young men to serve Assad’ army” (Vick 2015:33). The point is: the outreach to refugees and the reshaping of civil societies are costly and put a lot of pressure on donations. Not even on donations but on empathy and compassion as well. Both are becoming conditionally with the real danger of both donor and compassion fatigue; “…the limits of compassion, coupled with wariness of Muslims, comes into remorseless focus, even in an immigrant nation” (Vick 2015:34). Yet people seem unable to help 44

themselves. They are even becoming victims of materialistic exploitation, what Simon Shuster (2015:38-39) calls ‘a smugglers’ cove’. The desperate situation of migrants crossing from Turkey to Greece has becoming a booming business. Over the course of summer and autumn 2015 the 3.2 kilometre stretch of the shore around Fener Beach, on Turkey’s Bodrum peninsula, “…turn into one of the busiest staging areas for migrant smuggling in the world” (Shuster 2015:40). The migrant’s Mediterranean Odyssey has become a global nightmare and civil society deadly whirlpool. Without any doubt, the migrant crisis points to the fact that the predicament of vulnerable has becoming an object of gambling, risk taking and speculation. The global issue has becomes the following question: can the global society accommodate the plight of migrants. As Foroohar (2015:60) aptly pointed out: the decision to take in hundreds of thousands of immigrants are enormous. Although there could benefits for hosting countries like Germany with a decline in birth rates and the need for more productive and skilled workers, the risk is tremendous. “And yet the idea that migrants could provide a long-term economic boon is hotly challenged by populist politicians across Europe trying to score with electorates that have become more nationalistic in the wake of financial crisis” (Forohaar 2015:60). Incoming migrants could cause a new form of slavery: to lower wages and continue to recruit slaves through mass immigration. (e) The Internet and the global commodification of attention online. The world wide web has become a new market place: the selling of attention on websites. Being on the Internet implies being exposed to advertising and a multitude of choices. Fortunately one can manipulate advertising by using ad-blocking software, which filters and screens most ads. “Unfortunately, like most ideas that appear unambiguously good. Ad blocking isn’t, not quite. The reason you see ads online is that the people who make the websites you visit sell advertising space on them; that is to a lesser or greater extent how they get paid. Which in itself is sort of bizarre, if you think about it: what they’re really selling is your attention, an invisible, unquantifiable commodity that they harvest and then sell to ad servers, who resell it to companies who want you to pay attention to them” (Grossman 2015:16). Google does not make its money from selling research results. Search results are free. Google and Facebook are ad-serving companies. Due to the advertising ethics of online communication, the personal human life is 45

becoming the “…the phosphorescent lure of an anglerfish, attracting attention so that advertisers can devour it” (Grossman 2015:17). The eventual side effect is the inflation of human attention, namely attention without emotional and empathetic humane encounters. In her new book, MIT researcher Sherry Turkle argues that relying too much on virtual messaging is killing our human relationships (Docterman 2015:17). We start to text with people rather than to converse with them within personal encounters. Due to the fact that one’s attention is focused on issues, one misses the opportunity to see faces and the expressions of body language. Students who were asked to sit alone without their phones for fifteen minutes – severing the line of constant communication – “opted for mild electric shock rather than meditation in solitude” (Docterman 2015:17). In fact, civil society is about the quality of human encounters, not online text verbalisation. (f) Global prediction-gambling based on performance ethics rather than hope imagining based on trustworthy covenants/promises. In global village the driving motto is: I am performing, therefore I am. The creative impact hope-provoking ethos of responsibility (respondeo ergo sum – I am responsible and therefore respondable, therefore I am), is mostly determined by the dominant impact of achievement ethics. Daily events are basically unpredictable and exposed to uncertainty and what Taleb (2010:3) calls the ‘anatomy of a Black Swan’ – the structure of randomness in empirical reality (Ta1eb 2010: xxxii). However celebrities and important people in the global should perform so that the online predictions have become a political game of gambling with possible future performances. According to Alex Altman (2015:18), logging on to a political forecasting website called PredictIt, one can start bidding on everything from president Obama’s weekly approval rating to the results of the Israeli elections. PredictIt operates as follows: pick a prediction, buy shares, watch the market, prove yourself right and cash out (Altman 2015:18). PredictIt is based on the assumption that due to the demand to perform in the global society, whether you are a politician or sports athlete, is becoming a commodity as well, even the unpredictability of future events should be controlled and manipulated by the ethos of gambling. The point is that marketing has transformed performance into the money-making business of gambling with speculative predictions. Rather than to deal with a hope-inspiring ethos of responsibility as an exemplification of moral values, one should start ex46

ploiting the future by rating present performances in order to ‘cash out’. Rather the profit of ‘cash out’ than the prophet of ‘trust in’. The previous sketch of tendencies in the global village and the ‘complexification’ of civil society as a global networking phenomenon pointed out a basic spiritual problem, namely the inflation of empathetic human encounters and the crisis on sincere compassionate civil society engagements. Even ‘compassion investment ‘and social helping interventions have fall prey to ‘personal interest’ and political power struggles rather than the focus on fostering a compassionate society. The alarming thing is that even helping others have become a political commodity, human vulnerability has become a market “for our producers not exporters of danger or sources of humanitarian crisis” (Bush 2015:22). If compassion is being high jacked for selfish capitalistic interests in the global market economy and the political struggles of power-hunger politicians, if compassion has become a political investment, how should pastoral caregiving respond to the crisis of compassion and the deterioration of human encounters on grass roots level? Furthermore, from a pastoral perspective, what are the needs of people exposed to suffering due to inefficiency of civil societal structures? What kind of challenge does occurrences in civil society put on our being the church within the public sphere of life? Civil idiotism: the flight into escapism? The connection between church polity and the public sphere of life seems to be an unavoidable imperative. The point is, that for the creation of a just society and the understanding of the role of the church in social issues, the flight into personal and individual escapism, is a kind of civil idiotism. Retreat into privacy went strongly against the grain of Greek thinking. “The citizens and inhabitants of Greek city states were generally far too aware of the social base of their personal lives to simply ignore the politics of the community on which they depended in one way or another. An individual who retreated from politics and public life was called an idiotes - a person who lacks the knowledge and social skills that mature individuals can be expected to possess. Even Socrates, an outspoken individualist, had always been concerned with Athens as a community in which his, as well as everyone else’s, life was inescapably grounded” (Plato 2015) 47

Plato had no faith in the rule of the rich (oligarchy), neither in the integrity of ordinary people. Ordinary people were too easily swayed by the emotional and deceptive rhetoric of ambitious politicians. “It was the demos, after all, the majority of ordinary people, who time and again had supported the disastrous campaigns of the Peloponnesian War by their votes, who had condoned numerous atrocities and breaches of the law, and who were also responsible for the questionable trial and execution of Socrates. Athenian politics, in other words, seemed an irremediably corrupted affair, and all a rational person could do was to attend to personal matters and to pursue wisdom in the privacy of one’s solitude and a small circle of friends” (democracy of Athenian politics) (Plato 2015). Plato’s choice for the sustainability of a fair and just society, as well as the fostering of sound principles for the implementation of democracy, is a paradigmatic turn towards the wisdom tradition of philosophy 5 . To ‘save’ democracy from chaos, wisdom thinking is most needed. A civil society should then be directed by principles, paradigms (patterns of thinking for the conceptualisation of ideas that steer human behaviour and daily orientation) stemming from sapientia – the spirituality of the wisdom tradition (prudence). It is in this regard that theological reflection on wisdom as source for practising faith in the public arena, comes into play. The threat of apatheism According to Norenzayan (in Lawston 2014: 32-34, in our global postmodern world a new form of irreligiosity appears that can be called ‘apatheism’. There is new kind of atheism that is surfacing in affluent societies, namely an irreligiosity and attitude that is totally apathetic (Norenzayan in Lawston 2014:33). Wealthy people don’t really care about issues regarding the transcendent realm of life. With apatheism is meant: “This is not so much doubting or being sceptical, but more about not caring”. Apatheists simple don’t think about reli5

In his Republic, Plato (1946:279) warned as follows: the soul of the ‘democratic type’ is eventually possessed by “Insolence, Anarchy, Waste, and Impudence, those resplendent divinities crowned with garlands, whose praises they sing under flattering names: Insolence they call good breeding, Anarchy freedom, waste magnificence, and impudence a manly spirit.” Thus, Plato’s conclusion regarding the habitus of ‘democratic man’: “His life is subject to no order or restraint, and has no wish to change an existence which he calls pleasant, free, and happy. That well describes the life of one whose motto is liberty and equality” (Plato 1946:280).

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gion. In apatheism you just by-pass religion within a nonchalant ‘cool’ attitude of carelessness. This kind of apathetic attitude is also apparent in communities or groups that are focused on attempts to maintain their privileged position. If one feels threatened by the other, the ‘natural’ attitude is to defend what one has achieved and to become suspicious of the other. One starts to fear the other and make use of skewed perceptions, labelling and prejudice. The other is viewed as a threat to existing structures of power and civil society privileges. Instead of xenophilia (the embracement and love/concern for the other), xenophobia sets in (the resistance of the other). With reference to the dynamics and interplay between the phenomena of xenophobia and xenophilia within the social dynamics of human relationships, how should we position ourselves and what should be a ‘pastoral response’? Instead of apathy the basic hypothesis of the article is the development of an attitude of compassion. The public arena should be infiltrated by a compassionate mode of caregiving. “In the public arena where discourse of tolerance and mutual respect is the key to social and political relationships, the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religious belief, expression and practice without governmental regulation, requires great understanding and discipline form amongst the faith communities” (SACC 2006:8). Designing a pastoral care approach: vulnerability in the global village as challenge to a theology of compassion Taking into consideration the Christian tradition of cura animarum and its rootedness in the wisdom tradition (sapientia) of the Christian faith, the challenge for pastoral care will be to revisit its theological roots and to make an assessment of the appropriateness of existing dogmatic categories that try to describe God in relationship to the many paradoxes in life inherent existent in severe forms of human suffering. Revisiting the paracletic mode of advocacy in pastoral caregiving With reference to the traditional notion of pastoral care as an expression of the paracletic mode of caregiving in practical theology (Firet 1986), a praxis approach to civil society issues (fides quaerens actum), should revisit the pastoral action of advocacy in combination with the very old Christian tradition of hospitality (charity and diakonia). 49

The paraklesis metaphor: hope as compassionate advocacy In the LXX parakaleo is mainly used for the Hebrew naham which denotes sympathy and comfort. It was the prophet's task also to comfort the people. 'Comfort, comfort my people, says your God' (Is 40:1). When parakaleo is used to translate naham specifically, it expresses compassion, sympathy and caring (Ps 135:14). When parakaleo is used for other Hebrew equivalents, it denotes encouragement, strengthening and guidance (Braumann 1978:570). While, in the Hellenistic world, the stronger emphasis is on an ostracizing admonition, it is interesting that in the Old Testament the accent is on comforting and supporting. In the New Testament the following nuances in meaning are found: summon, invite, reprimand, admonition, comfort, encourage, support, ask, exhort. The link in Philippians 2:1 between solace in Christ (paraklesis); encouragement through love (paramytheisthaz); and communion with the Holy Spirit (koinonia) is significant. These concepts, again, are linked to the concept of empathy and compassion. When parakaleo expresses admonition, it focuses on comfort and preservation and must, therefore, not be viewed primarily as a moral instruction, but as a loving involvement fulfilled on the basis of 'God's mercy' (Rm. 12:1). The admonition in Romans 15:30 then is “by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit.” Parakaleo thus is directly linked to Christology and pneumatology. Therefore it could be said that parakaleo, as appeal, admonition and comfort, always implies God's mercy and work of salvation/redemption in Christ. The comfort and encouragement in 2 Corinthians 1:4 is very specifically linked to the pronouncement in 2 Corinthians 1:3: “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” Hereby the help through human sympathy and empathy is directly linked to God's helping action, as expressed in God's paraclese. Romans 15:4 connects the paracletic function of encouragement to a ministry of the Word. Parakaleo is also linked to the term parakletos which can be translated into helper, advocate, counsellor, comforter, persuader/convincer. Due to the connection with advocacy, the metaphor communicates the work of the Holy Spirit as an advocate who intercepts on behalf of the helpless and the voiceless. In this regard, the caregiver becomes a kind of ‘activist’ on behalf of the outcast and marginalised in society. Advocacy is about the art of replacement: to put one in the shoes of the other and to voice the voiceless; to act on behalf of the marginalised (the outsider, the outcast); to act as intercessor; to dispute injust practices in society. 50

Important to note is that, in some texts, the term parakletos denotes the soteriological dimension of Jesus Christ's work of reconciliation (1 Jh. 2:1: '... we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence - Jesus Christ') and in' other texts it indicates the Holy Spirit's independent work, continuing and realising Christ's work on earth. The Holy Spirit is the Intercessor who instructs the disciples and reminds them of his message (Jh. 14:26). The parakletos6 is also the Spirit of truth (Jh. 14:17) who guides humankind in truth (Jh. 16:13) and proves the world to be guilty, convinces of justice and of coming judgement (Jh. 16:8). The paracletic activity in caregiving thus takes place out of God's mercy, in accordance with the scriptural intent (Rm. 15:4). Care and comfort take place focusing on hope and growth in faith, so that the congregation itself (corporative dimension) is spiritually prepared. In fact, parakaleo envisages support that conveys Christ's work of salvation, undergirded by the work of the Holy Spirit. In the light of the pneumatological component of paracletic care and comfort, pastoral care focuses on continuing the effect of Christ's reconciliation, with the sanctification of human life and of the whole world as goal. The shepherding mode of protective cherishing, the servant figure of sacrifice in suffering, the wisdom of true discernment, the hospitality of unconditional and non-discriminating love and charitas, and the admonishing component of actual support and change are combined in the concept ‘paraclese’ so that the pastoral mode (loving care) and pastoral content (salvation) can be mediated effectively in practising congregational ministry. This leads to the important conclusion that pastoral care mediates the Gospel's message of comfort aimed at the sanctification of the entire creation in God's presence. Pastoral care, as intermediary for the Gospel of salvation, leads to imparting comfort - thus a real gift via the work of the Holy Spirit. In the pastoral mediating process the Gospel grants salvation and fosters hope for the future of the coming kingdom of God. The function of advocacy in caregiving should not be isolated from the other, already mentioned metaphors (shepherd, servant, wisdom, hospice, paraclete). For an effective praxis approach to public issues (public theology), practical theology as fides quaerens actum should represent the following caring activities: (a) sensitivity and compassion (pathos); (b) 6

The following conclusion by Braumann (1978:90) is noteworthy: The term is a variable concept which cannot be reduced to a single interpretation. On the one hand, it is Jesus who sends the parakletos from the Father (In. 15:26). On the other hand, the Father sends the parakletos at the request of Jesus (14:16, 26). In Iohn 14:26 Jesus himself is called a parakletos - distinct from the other parakletos whom the Father will send in his name.

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identification (woundedness); (c) insight and understanding in terms of paradoxes (wise fool); (d) hospitable outreach to the stranger, the outcast and the outsider, (e) compassionate advocacy (paraklesis) and empowerment. For the practising of faith in the public arena, the concepts 'God as Friend,' 'God as our Soul Companion’ or ‘Host'; 'God as our Partner for Life' (God's friendship in terms of his covenantal and compassionate faithfulness) should play an important role in a practical theological engagement in civil society. The reason for such a metaphor is that God as a Friend, Host, a Partner for Life, and his friendship/hospitality are linked to the faith tradition of the church. It depicts God in terms of his faithfulness and covenantal identification with the history of Israel. Through the death of Christ, God indeed is our Friend. This is how Christ views the future relationship between God and human beings. John 15:13-14: “Greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” The reason for God as Friend is that it brings the dimension of partnership, hospitality and companionship (which in fact are ingredients of the pastoral encounter) home to the praxis of hope care. It creates a familiarity and intimacy that serve to indicate God's love and grace. Friendship illuminates the God-world relationship in such a way that it imparts meaning to postmodern human beings, who indeed are in need of intimacy. It further depicts God in a non-sexist way, which is acceptable to both men and women, being equal before God. It also reflects the meaning of bonding between Christians who are willing to make enduring commitments. The intimate friendship of God thus guarantees a sustainable factor in practising faith in the public arena. Paraclesis is in fact a ‘public activity’; its intention is to unmask injustice and to dispute paradigms that rob human beings from their dignity and basic rights. “The aim of our advocacy is to raise a Christian ‘voice’ to policy-makers on those social, political and economic policies that affect our lives and communities” (SACC 2006:16). Public policy advocacy as the influencing of the environment in which public policy decision are made, which may include even persuading public officials, becomes the core activity on the agenda of a public theology designed for a civil, societal reflection7.

7

Participation in public policy debates and advocacy as an expression of their mission, witness and public ministries (SACC 2006:25).

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Within a praxis approach, civil society engagement within the networking complexity of the global village, comprises of the following pastoral caregiving activities: 

Disputing the paradigmatic framework that directs acts of practising faith in the public arena. In this regard, the connection between the constitution of South Africa and the interpretation of processes of democratisation should be revisited critically8.



Mobilising local spiritual energy and goodwill amongst ordinary people/citizens outside governmental structures in order to organise themselves within local communities around social issues of common interest or need.

8See

in this regard the criticism of Plato on democracy .For Plato the construction of a rational just society, was imperative. However, democracy as exercised by Athenian politics, failed. “If peace and just conditions were to be secured in the future, an alternative to the limiting choice between oligarchy and democracy had to be found. A convincing blueprint for such an alternative was the task that Plato set for himself in writing the Republic.” Economists (craftsmen, farmers, merchants, manufacturers, and money changers or bankers) was classified by Plato as “lovers of money.” Plato calls the class of professional warriors that is responsible for the safety of the community, “lovers of honour.” Their main desire is to gain fame and admiration by serving their fellow citizens—for whom, in extreme situations, they are willing to sacrifice their lives as well as their material possessions. To ‘safe’ democracy from chaos, wisdom thinking is most needed. Corresponding to the faculty of reason is the smallest class of people—scientists, scholars, highlevel experts, and similar sophisticates. Plato calls them “lovers of wisdom,” i. e., “philosophers.” Their most passionate interests are understanding and knowledge, and their greatest pleasure a lively life of the mind. Thus, Plato’s choice for the incentives of philosophers to foster a just and healthy society. As a just and healthy person is governed by knowledge and reason, a just society must be under the control of society’s most cultivated and best informed minds, its “lovers of wisdom.” “Just societies cannot be run by big money or armed forces with their too narrow agendas. Limitless desire for wealth and blind ambition must be watched and contained as potential public dangers. The most informed minds must determine objectively, with due consideration of all points of view, what the most healthy and practical goals for the commonwealth are” “Democratic self-government does not work, according to Plato, because ordinary people have not learned how to run the ship of state. They are not familiar enough with such things as economics, military strategy, conditions in other countries, or the confusing intricacies of law and ethics. They are also not inclined to acquire such knowledge. The effort and self-discipline required for serious study is not something most people enjoy. In their ignorance, they tend to vote for politicians who beguile them with appearances and nebulous talk, and they inevitably find themselves at the mercy of administrations and conditions over which they have no control because they do not understand what is happening around them. They are guided by unreliable emotions more than by careful analysis, and they are lured into adventurous wars and victimized by costly defeats that could have been entirely avoided.” Plato: The Failure of Democracy, http://faculty.frostburg.edu/phil/forum/PlatoRep.htm. Accessed: 16/05.2015.

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

Voicing the needs and concerns of ordinary citizens and protecting basic human rights.



Addressing the quest for human dignity within the context of processes of democratisation and transformation (caring for the wellbeing of humans in society realities).



Shaping and empowering human capital in order to maximize social efficiency within local communities.



Reaching out to basic community needs with actions of diaconic service.



Advocating 9 on behalf of the voiceless in order to create more structure and order within societal disorder.

 Towards a compassionate society: a theological challenge On the level of theory formation in practical and pastoral theology, the challenging question is whether theological reflection is equip to deal with civil societal issues pertaining human suffering. Do we have appropriate, efficient and credible theological and pastoral ‘grammar’ , ‘vocabulary’, ‘language’ to articulate a societal engagement in a pastoral hermeneutics of caregiving and societal healing? Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, put the following challenge on the table of practical theological reflection: “We were involved in the struggle because we believed we would evolve a new kind of society. A caring compassionate society. At the moment many, too many, of our people live in gruelling demeaning, dehumanising poverty. We are sitting on a powder keg. We really must work like mad to eradicate poverty” (Tutu 2004:33). What is meant by the notion of a caring community within the realm of a civil society engagement? What kind of metaphor do we need in a pastoral theological reflection on caregiving in civil society? What is an appropriate theological paradigm for public engagement and practical action? If ‘compassion’ implies more than merely the affective dimension of human emotions, what is meant by a ‘theology of compassion’? Features of a theology of compassion as spiritual alternative to a politics of compassion inflation Advocacy as a mode of giving attention; literally translated from the Latin – advocare – meeting basic social needs and to act on behalf of the other.(SACC 2006:6). 9

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A theology of compassion is based on the following fundamental paradigm shifts in theological reflection (a) The notion of an apathetic God to a com-passionate God. Thus the importance to reflect on the combination between paraclesis and the pathos of God as displayed in the mercy of God (oiktirmon) and the moving passion of God (ta splanchna) - the praxis of God and the connection: hope and compassion (the spirituality of comfort). (b) The notion of an immutable God to a suffering, weak God. Thus the imperative to reflect on a theologia crucis and its connection to the forsakenness of God – the praxis of God and the connection: hope and meaning in suffering (the spirituality of whereto and purposefulness). (c) The notion of a pantokrator (all-powerful, omni-potent God) to an all-empowering God. Thus the need to reflect on a theologia resurrectionis and its connection to our hopelessness and helplessness in the face of death, and our need for overcoming dread – the praxis of God and the connection: hope and parrhesia (the spirituality of ‘inner strength ‘and encouragement). Compassion gives meaning to life. Dostoyevsky concurred with the assumption that without compassion life becomes an unbearable toil. Compassion makes life bearable. “Compassion would teach even Rogozhin, give a meaning to his life. Compassion was the chief and, perhaps, the only law of human existence” (Dostoyevsky 1973: 263). Compassion could be called the poetics of love and the aesthetics of God in suffering. In order to expand on the notion of homo aestheticus from the perspective of the poetics of God, I would like to link the meaning question to a theology of oiktirmos. It was the so-called ‘atheist’ Ludwig Feuerbach (1904) who already in the nineteenth century warned the church against the idol of a God with ‘brains’ without any passion and ‘heart’. In chapter VI of his book Das Wesen des Christentums Feuerbach reflects on the secret of the suffering of God (Das Geheimnis des leidende Gottes) (1904:126-136). He distinguishes between the God of abstract philosophy/God as pure action, and the God of Christendom: God as pure passion/the God of pure suffering (die Passion pura, das reine Leiden) (Feuerbach 1904:127). The suffering of God means: God is a heart (Gott ist ein Herz) (Feuerbach 1904:131). A God without a heart is an idol. The secret of the suffering God is the secret of existential experience (Geheimnis der Empfindung; 55

kontingente bevindelikheid). The Christian religion is for Feuerbach in essence a religion of suffering and compassion. Vulnerability and weakness are constituents of suffering and human experience; they are signs of passionate fulfilment and of a divine force in our being human (Feuerbach 1904:31). One can say that Feuerbach actually challenges the formal and zombie categories of an institutionalised religion that projected a powerful imperium rather than a vulnerable ecclesiology. Within the Hebrew tradition the scriptural narrative as displayed in Exodus 3:14 founds the priority of compassion: the act of “divine presencing which is a boundless and unending being-with” (Davies 2001:20). The notion ‘I am who I am’ is one of the most profound statements regarding the being and essence of God. The Hebrew refers to a fundamental promise and expression of the faithfulness of God. In fact, it can be translated and paraphrased that God is a unique kind of deity, namely that God will always be there where his people are. Exodus 3:14 can be viewed as the foundation of a spirituality of hope; it founds the future dimension of hope guaranteed by the faithfulness of God. In a Christian hermeneutics, an ontology of hope (hope as the structure of being and a new state of mind) is essentially an expression of a theology of hope and a divine promise: I will be your God! Kenotic love: the divine categories of ḥesed and rāḥam In the Exodus narrative God is revealed in term of a verb to be (hajah: the infinitive tense). The promise to Moses if he had to declare the name of God is framed in a phrase that means that God, in his faithfulness, will always be there wherever human beings suffer. Even the name Jehovah does not refer to a fixed, immutable substance or proper noun, but is derived from hajah that means ‘to be’. The ‘infiniscience of God’ thus refers to his compassionate being-with within the predicament of our being human. It is an indication of faithfulness and a source of vivid hope. The deity in the kingdom of Pharaoh is framed by ‘remote stagnation’; the deity in Israel is framed by promises of freedom (Exodus-categories). In the concept of compassion the bipolar intersection of human and divine finds a cohesive factor that combines in order to create a divinehuman web of interconnected caregiving. In this regard, the pneumatological reciprocity between divine will (intention) and human volition becomes a vivid praxis of kenotic love10 and promissio-inspired hope. 10

On the notion of love and its connection to a philosophy of pastoral care and counselling, see F. J. Streets 2014: http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v35i2.1323. It is argued that love, as the capacity to stimulate a positive resonance in ourselves and with other human beings is shown by scientific

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Different languages have different words to express the meaning of compassion as co-suffering. Davis (2001:234) points out that among these we can site the Latin word commiseratio, the Greek word sumpatheiea and the German Mitleid (in Afrikaans medelye: to suffer with). Other concepts which are used to express a kind of pathetic mode of care, are: clementia, misericordia, humanitas and sometimes pietas, the Greek eleos and oiktos, the English ‘mercy’ and ‘pity’ , and the French pitié (Davies 2001:234). While compassion points more to ‘fellow-suffering’ as suffering with, mercy in the Bible implies a kind of rationality informed by principles and values to express righteousness. Mercy implies a juridical component as well (Davies 2001:246). The Christian poet Lactantius (in Davies 2001:235), who lived from the third to the fourth century, combined the concept of compassion, misericordia, to the notion of humanitas. He viewed compassion as a corporate strength granted by God (hunc pietatis adfectum) in order that humankind can show kindness to others, love them and cherish them, protecting them from all dangers and coming to their aid (Lactantius in Davies 2001:35). Compassion thus creates a bond of human society and displays human dignity. “Humanitas is to be displayed to those who are ‘suitable ‘and ‘unsuitable’ alike, and ‘this is done humanely (humane) when it is done without hope on reward’” (Lactantius in Davies 2001:35). According to Martha Nussbaum compassion should be preferred in order to express “the basic social emotion” (In Davies 2001:238), connecting both the cognitive and the affective. For Nussbaum compassion is in fact a certain kind of reasoning, a certain kind of thought about the well-being of others. For the rabbis in the Jewish tradition the compassion and creativity of God were modalities of the divine presence in the world (Davies 2001:243). Compassion displayed an active and historical presence with and for Israel, serving in the formation of a holy fellowship of people who would be mindful of the covenant and reverently honour his name and faithful promises. “As the signifier of a divine quality which can apply also to human relationships, the root rḥm has much in common with the noun ḥesed, which denotes the fundamental orientation of God towards his people that grounds his compassion action. As ‘lovingkindness’ which is ‘active, social and enduring’, ḥesed is Israel’s assurance of God’s unfailing benevolence” (Davies 2001:243). research to be the most generative, creative and healing of all our emotions. Love of our fellow human beings ought to be the queen motive of helping professionals in general, whether or not they are religious.

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The language of love and mercy, as used of God, has its origins in the close familial relations denoted by ḥesed an rḥm. “Human love and compassion therefore provide the analogical language for divine love and mercy which, in the image of a parental rāḥam, tend at times towards an affectivity which is analogically evocative of a divine compassion. However, if ḥesed and rāḥam are primarily qualities of God’s righteousness, those who serve God as his righteous people are called to display love and mercy to those around them. They who fear the Lord are themselves ‘gracious (ḥannūn), compassionate (raḥūm) and righteous’” (Davies 2001:246). The fact that compassion combines fellow-suffering, suffering-with to mercy, caritas, justice and humanitas is perhaps the reason why it is the best theological option to express the meaning of caregiving within the tradition of cura animarum, as well as to express the humane component in a praxis of hope care. It also expresses the promissio-character of the ḥesed of God to Moses in the Exodus 3: 1-22 narrative. Compassion is linked to the Hebrew meaning of the name of God as expressed in the continuous tense of the verb to be haja. The name of God has thus future, hopeful implications for the quality of life emanating from the vivid presence of the Lord (YHWH): ‘I am that I am’, or ‘I will be who I will be’. In this name, his El Shaddai, his all-empowering presence, will be displayed as a co-suffering source of encouragement and hope. The suggestion of the future tense in the promise to Moses yields the hope that the significance of the name of God will always be revealed in his faithfulness to his promises and gradually (infinitive tense) through his unfolding actions of comfort and care (the praxis of God). The fact is that the ḥesed and oiktirmos of God have implications for both the naming of God in the praxis of caregiving, as well as for a Christian anthropology. Hesed and oiktirmos define God as a Compassionate Companion and Intimate Partner for spiritual wholeness in life; they define human beings as agents and beacons of hope and wounded healers of life despite the sig sag patterns of suffering. For Hall (1993:146-148) God is therefore a “revealing Presence, a Companion – your God”. The God- image becomes: God-with-us.11 This revealing presence of God is further exemplified in the theopaschitic paradigm of a compassionate and suffering God. According to Augsburger (1986:36), a spirituality of presence embodies grace. A pastoral approach should therefore be rooted in an incarnational 11

For a discussion on the fact that God suffers with us, even in the Old Testament, see T. E. Fretheim, 1984:127-137.

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theology. The epitome of incarnational thinking is the theology of the cross (theologia crucis) 12 and its attempt to illustrate the passion of God.13 In Christ, God identified himself with our human suffering and becomes our co-sufferer. In the light of our search for metaphors which convey the pastoral dimension of God's compassionate involvement in the human predicament of suffering and dread, as well as the previous outline of the basic components of a theology of compassion, the following five played a fundamental role in processes of comfort and caring: shepherd, servant, wise fool (wisdom), host/hospice (hospitality) and paraclete (comfort and advocacy). These metaphors convey sensitivity (the shepherd-metaphor); conciliation and woundedness (the servant-metaphor); discernment and insight (the wisdom-metaphor); charity/caritas and unconditional love (hospice); support and empowerment (the paracletic metaphor). Due to the existential locus of God language, the hospice metaphor of unqualified xenophilia, supplements the notion of advocacy. The hospice metaphor (hospitium): diakonia (charity) as social and cosmic healing (tikkun odam) Hospitality and how one deals with the stranger or outsider, could be viewed as one of the cornerstones of a praxis of love and hope in the Old Testament. The basis for hospitality is the conviction in Israel that the encounter between God and his people is based on the principle of God’s hospitality (Vosloo 2006:64). It is closely connected to what Fitchett and Grossoehme (2012:388) calls the tenet of tikkun odam (to repair the world) in Judaism. “Efforts to repair the world are mitzvot (acts of human kindness rooted in commandments” (Fitchett and Grossoehme 2012:388). In his book Reaching Out (1998), Henry Nouwen identified the shift from hostility to hospitality as one of the most important shifts or movements of the human soul in order to foster spiritual growth. Hospitality exceeds the threat of xenophobia (the fear of strangers) and racial or cultural discrimination; it represents unqualified xenophilia. The practice of hospitality is not exclusively connected to the Christian and Jewish tradition of grace. According to Young (1999:440), the Hadith Accounts encourage the gracious hospitality displayed by men and For a discussion on Luther’s theology of the cross, see McGrath 1985. For an in-depth discussion on the theology of the cross, see J. Moltmann (1972). See also G Bornkamp 19863. 12 13

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women in early community toward the stranger or the pauper who arrived at the door to share a meal or to find a place to rest. Hospitality was fundamental to the culture of the Babylonians and the Canaanites. They were so concerned with the principle of hospitality that they would call local gods to protect strangers in their midst (Madeleine and Miller 2003:41). In Egyptian mythology the principle of hospitality functioned as spiritual even religious criteria for the connection between the Pharaoh and the quality of life after death. An Egyptian text on the reign of Amenemhat II, the third Pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty (he ruled Egypt for 35 years from 1929 BC to 1895 BC and was the son of Senusret I through the latter's chief wife, Queen Nefru), reveals the interconnectedness between life, human attitude, personal convictions, spirituality and religion in Egyptian mythology (Saddik 2004:486-487). When the Pharaoh dies, his life is assessed by a deity (Anibus) with a scale in hand. The scale represents the normative criteria for righteousness. In order to justify worth and to assess the spiritual value of life, the heart of the deceased should be weighed. The criteria are related to the realm of social and cultural values as well as the principle of hospitality. On the tomb is written that he (Pharaoh) was like a father for the fatherless, a husband for the widowers, a windshield for those who suffered from severe cold; he gave bread to the hungry; he clothed the naked (Saddik 2004:486-487).

Anubis with scale. Anibus is the name for a jackal-headed god (kind of Egyptian wolf) associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion. He is the son of Nephthys and Set according to Egyptian mythology. Anubis also attends the weighing scale in the afterlife during the "Weighing Of The Heart" The depiction portrays Anubis 60

performing the measurement that determines the worthiness of the deceased to enter the realm of the dead. 14 Anubis performs as the conductor of souls (the heart). The heart was believed to be the seat of intelligence and if innocent of evil it would balance with truth (see the criteria of purification in the The Book of the Dead by Ani, a scribe of the eighteen Dynasty) (Patrick 1972: 60-63). The Pentateuch contains specific commands for the Israelite to care for the stranger as themselves (Lev. 19:33-34; Deut. 10:19-19) and to look after the welfare of the other (Deut. 24:17-22). The practice of hospitality was extended to every sojourner, even a runaway slave (Deut. 23:16-17) or one’s arch enemy (Deut. 24:17-22) (Butler 1991:670). In the Old Testament Abraham is depicted as the prototype of the good host in Jewish culture (Wright 1996:431) even though he was actually considered a sojourner in the land (Gen. 23:4). Hebrews 13: 3 summons one not to forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some has unwittingly entertained angels. Pohl (1999:24) pointed out that Abraham’s kindness to the strangers connects hospitality to the presence of God; hospitality enfleshes the blessings and promises of God. The metaphor of hospitality include the following several positive, vital elements (Muragi 2011:150-151): openness in the encounter between the host and the guest (the stranger); obliging invitation; embracement and whole-hearted welcoming; the principle of sharing; the giving of protection; the opening of a new future and promising future and altruistic generosity. Hospitality and sharing are mutually interconnected. Because Israelites inherited the Promised Land after their sojourn in Egypt (Bruggemann 1977:23), land and belongings were not possessions put merely gifts to be shared with the poor and the less fortunate in the society (Davies 1989:351). Hospitality introduces true friendship. To abuse strangers or for strangers to take advantage of the host was interpreted as an improper act that totally breached the treaty of guest friendship (Matthews 1991:523). That was even the case in ancient Greek and Roman culture (Koenig 1985:5) wherein hospitality became a public virtue: hospitium publicum (Matthews 1991; 523). Hospitality also puts into practice the notion of replacement; i.e. to put oneself in the shoes of the other. Thus the reason why the law repeatedly commanded and reminded Israelites that they were aliens or orphans in Egypt (Ex. 22:21; 23: 9; Lev. 19:33-34; Deut. 10:19; 23:7). Hospitality creates a hermeneutics of understanding and insight in the predicament of 14

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis. Accessed: 30/09/2013.

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the other because it helped Israel to understand what it meant to be a stranger in a foreign land (Gen. 15:13; Ex. 2:22) and to be oppressed and discriminated against. Bratcher (2002:2) asserts that the Israelites welcomed strangers mainly out of gratitude for their experience of hospitality while they were in Egypt. The Exodus and the wandering in the desert functioned as driving principles for the connection gratitude and hospitality. With reference to Psalm 23 and Psalm 61:3-5, God is depicted as the merciful Host. In his presence human beings are transformed into guests by his Spirit of unconditional love. Therefore, to be hospitable is to represent God within a space wherein even the enemy becomes a guest. Bretherton (2006:129) links the whole understanding of Christian hospitality to all the stories of hospitality in the Old Testament as linked to the notion of the reconciling work of God to his covenantal people and to creation. “It is linked with the renewal of creation (Ecc 10:16-17), and ultimately it comes to include all creation and all the nations at the messianic banquet, as depicted and anticipated in the prophets. Jesus’ ministry can be seen to draw together all these elements, intensify their application and inaugurate their fulfilment”. Following then Jesus’ example of inclusivity and wholeness ministry, the early Christians offered hospitality to the sick, the injured, widows, orphans, sojourners, strangers, the aged, slaves, prisoners and the hungry (Oden 2001:20). In the parable of the Great Banquet (Luke. 14:7-24), Jesus confirmed that he is the inauguration of God’s inclusive hospitality. Jesus is the eschaton, he reconfigured the existing Jewish and Greco-Roman model of hospitality; in his coming the walls of prejudice and xenophobia were destroyed so that all human beings became the guests of a hospitable God. The metaphor of the host displays the fact that God’s hospitality is inclusive, irrespective of religion and culture. It helps pastoral caregiving to understand its inclusive calling of diakonia (the church as the hospitium of God). “The host does not simply give a gift (the real meal), nor does he identify or show solidarity with the poor and outcast in some notional or distant manner, rather, the host parties with them” (Bretherton 2006:133). Hospitality establishes an inclusive communality; a Banquet Community based on the principle of agápē-love, and thus embodies a non-discriminatory, destigmatised praxis of hope. The point is, homo viator, the human being as a wanderer and traveller, needs a place and space of rest and healing. Hospitality can therefore be seen as the first step into the practice of what one can called home-based care, my house becomes a home, hospitium for the other in need. Instead of xenophobia, the metaphors of host and hospitality in pastoral caregiving, exchange fear for the stranger into philoxenia: the mutuality of ‘brotherly’ love. The praxis of hope presupposes the ‘office of deacon’ 62

and the virtue of hospitality in order to establish caregiving as an exponent of diakonia. Christian hospitality counteracts the social stratification of the larger society by providing an alternative based on the principle of equality; everyone is welcome regardless of background, status, gender or race. Within the intercultural framework of community care, the challenge to the pastoral ministry is to provide ‘hospitals’ (xenodochia), safe havens (monasteries of hope, places of refuge) where threatened people can become whole again. “To be moral is to be hospitable to the stranger” (Ogletree 1985:1). One should acknowledge that it is difficult to translate Christian hospitality into the terminology of our contemporary society wherein hospitality was identified with the civic services and domestic spheres. Hospitality is often robbed from its sacramental character of caritas and has become diminished to, mostly, an ordinary secularised expression of human welfare. However, Derrida (2001:16-17) asserts: “Hospitality is culture itself and not simply one ethic among others. Insofar as it has to do with the ethos, that is, the residence, one’ at home, the familiar place of dwelling, as much as the manner of being there, the manner in which we relate to ourselves and to others, to others as our own or as foreigners, ethics is hospitality; ethics is entirely coextensive with the experience of hospitality, whichever way one expands or limits that”. To a certain extent, hospitality reintroduces a kind of social paradox: unconditional loves becomes conditional; it focuses conditionally on the outsider in order to make outsiders insiders even beyond the categories of juridical equality; it functions outside of right, above what is juridical (Derrida 2001). Conclusion The core question remains unanswered. Can pastoral caregiving offer a solution or answer to the many burning issues in the global village? The answer is no. In fact, for most problems in life there are no easy answers, especially when they deal with the hopelessness and helplessness of people. Perhaps, that is the reason why Klein (2015:24) emphatically states: ‘Let’s begin with the obvious: there are no easy answers in the Middle East.” In his research on poverty in India and the link between income inequality and economic growth, Angus Deaton of Princeton, winner of the 2015 economics Nobel Prize, raised doubts about sweeping solutions for poverty and the effectiveness of aids programs in the attempt to address the issue of human welfare (Reuters Associated Press 2015:7).

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Our argument is the following basic assumption: for the creation of a compassionate society, pastoral caregiving should turn to its basic spiritual roots, namely to be there for people where they are (being-with functions). Our attitude should be informed and directed by the notion of both the suffering God of the cross as well as the empowering God of the resurrection in order to maintain sustainable compassionate caregiving within the context of civil society. With reference to a pastoral engagement in civil society, tikkun odam (to repair the world) presents ‘acts of human kindness’ (mitzvoth), as rooted in the wisdom tradition of sapientia. In Christian wisdom thinking, human actions of practising faith in the public arena are directed by the normative framework of kenotic love and sacrificial ethics. In this regard, the contribution of practical theology (fides quaerens actum) to the following civil societal actions of disputing, mobilising, voicing, protecting, addressing, shaping, empowering, outreaching, and advocating on the grassroots level of citizenship, is the koinonic endeavour to create a ‘caring compassionate society’ (Desmond Tutu). A practical theological paradigm of diaconic outreach to the society should be demarcated by Godimages that do not impose a kind of static predetermined world-order, or any kind of judgemental attitude that contribute to estrangement, stigmatisation and xenophobia. The metaphor of God as Partner for Life becomes paramount for the establishment of tikkun odam. The hope for, and the healing of society is based on the notion of the vicarious suffering of Christ; Christ is able to comfort through his compassion; suffering defines Christ as a high priest who sympathises (sympathēsai) with our weakness (Heb.4:15). Theopaschitic suffering constitutes the church as a koinōnia, a fellowship partaking in the sufferings of Christ (sympaschomen), and thus, is summoned to show not merely sympathy with one another, but active and practical compassion (sympaschō). Suffering even becomes a kind of ministry (diakoneō) (2 Cor. 11:23 ff.) and serves to identify the true servants of the church. Paschō as a mode of vicarious suffering-with is intrinsically an eschatological category and guarantees sustainability and endurance in all modes of pastoral engagements; it is even a means to doxa and glorification in all forms of diaconic interventions of the church. In the New Testament suffering and glory (Rom. 8:17; 1 Pet. 5:1, 10), as well as suffering and patience (2 Thess. 1:4; Heb.10:32), demarcate the journey of hope throughout the trajectories of life. Instead of using imperialistic categories that link God with threat power, categories should reveal the compassionate being-with of God (vulnerable power). It should promote a kind of pastoral presence that empowers 64

people and invites the stranger and the outsider. In this regard, practising faith in the public arena should create safe spaces (xenodochia, spaces of refuge) wherein people will be helped to voice their concerns regarding citizenship, human rights and the quest for human dignity. In order to contribute to the shaping of a compassionate society, the argument is that all forms of diaconic outreach should be guided, directed and steered by at least two metaphors that explain the identity of caregivers in order to differentiate them from other helping and healing disciplines like social workers and other NGO’s, namely the metaphors of host and advocate/hermenout. The metaphor of the host communicates sharing, welcoming, embracement, inclusive communality (the church as the hospitium of God). A compassionate community is about the challenge to provide ‘hospitals’ (xenodochia), safe havens (monasteries of hope, places of refuge) where threatened people can become whole again. Hospitality is actually about a public virtue: hospitium publicum. The pastoral caregiver should reflect the image of a ‘wounded healer’ (Nouwen 1979). In this regard, the metaphor of the paraclete becomes an important supplement to the metaphor of the hospice. In order to comfort and to address the concerns of vulnerable citizens, the caregiver should step into the shoes of the other. Furthermore, vicarious replacement implies the imperative of advocating; voicing the voiceless and disputing the paradigmatic frameworks that determine policy-making in politics (bottom up approach). The caregiver then starts to act on behalf of the outcasts, outsiders and strangers. Advocating is an inclusive category; it should challenge and criticise existing features of transformation and democratisation within processes of civil and societal healing and reconstruction. Bibliography Altman, A. 2015. The View. A Legal Market that Lets You Gamble on Politics. In: Time. Special Report. Exodus. The Epic Migration to Europe & What Lies Ahead. October 19, 2015, pp. 18-19. Augsburger, D. W. 1986. Pastoral Counseling Across Cultures. Philadelphia: Westminster. Berger, P. L. 1992. A Far Glory: The Quest for Faith in an Age of Credulity. New York: The Free Press. Bornkamp, G. 19863. Kreuz. In Diskussion um Kreuz und Auferstehung. Wuppertal: Aussaat. 65

Bratcher, D. 2002. The Need in Jewish Tradition., www.crsourcei.org/needy.htm.l. Accessed: 17/12/2013. Bretherton, L. 2006. Hospitality as Holiness: Christian Witness amid Moral Diversity. London: Ashgate. Braumann, G. 1978. Advocate, Paraclete, Helper. In: Brown C, (ed.) Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol I, Exeter: Paternoster Press, 569-573. Brueggemann, W. 1977. The Land. Place as Gift, Promise and Challenge in Biblical Faith. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. Bush, G. W. 2015. Better Health Care in Africa must go Beyond HIV. For the U.S., it’s a Cause that Advances our Interests and our Ideals. Commentary, in: Time. Special Report. Exodus. The Epic Migration to Europe & What Lies Ahead. October 19, 2015, 22. Butler, T. C. 1991. Holman Bible Dictionary. Tenessee: Holman Bible. Davies, W. E. 1989. Land. It’s Rights and Privileges. In: R. E. Clements (ed.), The World of Ancient Israel. Cambridge: CUP. Davies, O. 2001. A Theology of Compassion. Metaphysics of Difference and the Renewal of Tradition. Grand Rapids/Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Derrida, J. 2001.On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness. London: Routledge. Docterman, E. 2015. Reclaiming Conversation. In: Time. Special Report. Exodus. The Epic Migration to Europe & What Lies Ahead. October 19, 2015, p. 17. Dostoyevski, F. 1973. The Idiot. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Feuerbach, L. 1904. Das Wesen des Christentums. Leipzig: Verlag Philipp Reclam. Firet, J. 1986. Dynamics in Pastoring. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Fitchett, G., Grossoehme, D. 2012. Health Care Chaplaincy as a Research-Informed Profession. In: B. Stephan, B. Roberts (eds.), A Practical Clergy and Chaplain’s Handbook. Woodstock: Skylight Paths, 387406. Young, S. 1999. Encyclopaedia of Women and World Religion. New York: MacMillan. Forohaar, R. 2015. Europe’s Gamble. Migrants could be a Key to a Stronger Economy. In: Time. Special Report. Exodus. The Epic Migration to Europe & What Lies Ahead. October 19, 2015, pp.60-61. 66

Fretheim, T. E. 1984. The Suffering of God. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. Grossman, L. 2015. The View. Our attention is Just a Pawn in the Great Game of Silicon Valley. In: Time. Special Report. Exodus. The Epic Migration to Europe & What Lies Ahead. October 19, 2015, pp. 16-17. Grunwald, M. 2014. The Second Age of Reason. Information Overload will improve Our Lives. In Time, Sept. 8/Sept. 15, vol. 184, no. 9-10, 33-35. Hall, D. 1993. Professing the Faith. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Ki-Moon, B. 2014, http://www.news.com.au/world/un-secretarygeneralban-kimoon-warns-of-turbulence-ahead-with-wars-refugees-disease-andclimate-change/story-fndir2ev-1227069828195. Accessed 20/10/2015. Ki-Moon, B. 2015. http://www.un.org/sg/headlines/. Accessed: 21/10/2015. Klein, J. 2015. As Chaos grows in Syria, Iran could be a Surprising American Ally. In: Time. Special Report. Exodus. The Epic Migration to Europe & What Lies Ahead. October 19, 2015, pp. 24-25. Koenig, J. 1985. New Testament Hospitality. Partnership with Strangers as Promise and Mission Overtures to Biblical Theology. Philadelphia: Fortress press. Lawston, G. 2014. Losing our Religion. In: NewScientist, 3 May 2014, 30-35. Madeleine, S., Miller, J. L. 2003. Encyclopedia of Bible Life. London: Adam & Charles Black Press. Marinoff, L. 1999. Plato not Prozac! Applying Eternal Wisdom to Everyday Problems. New York: Quill. Matthews, V., D. C. Benjamin. 1991. Old Testament Parallels. Law and Stories from the Ancient Near East. New York: Paulist Press. McGrath, A. E. Luther’s Theology of the Cross. Oxford: Blackwell. McLuhan, H. B. 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan#cite_note-45. Accessed: 20/10/2015. Moltmann, J. 1972. Der gekreuzigte Gott. München: Kaiser. Mosotos News. 2010. Africa Achieves Universal Access. Cell Phones Finally Available Throughout All of Africa. Mosotos News, July 19, 112. Murage, J. K. 2011. The Concept of Ũtugi within the HIV and AIDS Pandemic: A Pastoral Assessment of the Ecclesial Praxis of the Anglican Church of Kenya. Unpublished D Th Dissertation. Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch. 67

Nouwen, H. J. M. 1979. The Wounded Healer. Ministry in Contemporary Society. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. Nouwen, H. J M. 1998. Reaching Out. London: Fount Paperbacks. Obama, B. 2014a, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-pressoffice/2014/09/24/remarks-president-obama-address-united-nationsgeneral-assembly. Accessed: 20/10/2015. Obama, B. 2014b, http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/61475948/obama-world-atcrossroads-between-war-and-peace. Accessed: 20/10/2015. Oden, A. G. (ed.). 2001. And You Welcomed Me. A Sourcebook on Hospitality in Early Christianity. Nashville: Abingdon. Ogletree, T. W. 1985. Hospitality to the Strangers. Dimension of Moral Understanding. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. Pattrick, R. 1972. All Colour Book of Egyptian Mythology. London: Octopus Books. Plato.1946. The Republic of Plato. Translated with Introduction and Notes by F. M Cornford. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Plato 2015: The Failure of Democracy, http://faculty.frostburg.edu/phil/forum/PlatoRep.htm. Accessed: 16/05/2015. Reader, J. 2008. Reconstructing Practical Theology. The Impact of Globalization. Aldershot: Ashgate. Pohl, C D.1999. Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition. Grand Rapids Eerdmanns. Reuters Associated Press. 2015. Princeton Economist Wins Nobel for Work on Poverty. In: The Daily Journal, Tuesday October 13, Vol. XVI, Edition 49, p. 7. Rogers, C. R. 1951. Client-Centered Therapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Shuster, S. 2015. Smuggler’s Cove. In: Time. Special Report. Exodus. The Epic Migration to Europe & What Lies Ahead. October 19, 2015, pp. 38-43. SACC, Vermeulen, K., S. Lovaas (eds.). 2006. Practising Faith in the Public Arena: Advocacy and Public Policy. Marshalltown/Johannesburg: South African Council of Churches Parliamentary Office. Saddik (el), W. 2004. Das Begräbnis. In: Ägypte. Die Welt der Pharaonen. Potsdam: Tandem Verlag GmbH, 471-489. Sperry L. 2002. Transforming Self and Community. Revisioning Pastoral Counselling and Spiritual Direction. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press. 68

Street, F.J. 2014. Love: A Philosophy of Pastoral Care and Counselling. Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 35, No 2 (2014), 11 pages. doi: 10.4102/ve.v35i2.1323. Taleb, N. N. 2010. The Black Swan. The Impact of the Highly Improbable. London: Penguin Books. Tolstoy, L. 1978. War and Peace. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Tutu, D. 2004. Nelson Mandela annual Lecture. Online: http://nelsonmendela.org/uploads/files/NMF_Lecture_Book_small.pd. Accessed: 20/09/2014. Vosloo, R. 2006. Engele as gaste. Oor gasvryheid teenoor die ander.

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Caring for the Self of the Caregiver in the Global Context Gloria Marsay

Abstract: The intention of this workshop was to highlight the challenges and risks of offering care to those people who have experienced traumatic incidents and those who are vulnerable. The workshop provided a platform to stimulate conversations around effective ways to ameliorate the negative effects of CF for the individual caregiver and those who work in organisations. The workshop began with a literature review highlighting the importance of caring for the self. The constructs of Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Satisfaction were discussed emphasizing the consequences of Compassion Fatigue. Various effective approaches to take care of the self of the caregiver in individual situations and in the organisational setting were discussed.

Introduction Caregiving can be rewarding and it also has its challenges. The structure of this workshop had three parts. Firstly, to raise awareness of the advantages and challenges of ubiquitous global thought with regard to taking care of others. Secondly, to alert caregivers to the importance of taking care of self. Thirdly, to provide a platform for interactive discussion exploring effective ways of self-care within the context of different cultural needs and perceptions. The workshop did not present an exhaustive review of all the literature, but rather specific literature is reviewed using a salutogenic stance, focusing on factors that support health and wellbeing, rather than on factors that cause disease. s Globalisation and the South African Context Albert Nolan (2006:31) explains globalisation as the “spreading of something around the globe”. He highlights the dangers and benefits of globalisation, and gives the example of how the spreading of a deadly disease would constitute a serious problem, whereas, the globalisation of an effective vaccine to prevent a disease would be a distinct benefit. South Africa is a “rainbow” nation home to a plethora of different cultures and different perceptions. Ubiquitous global thought about caregiving is fraught with danger and presents some challenges. Caution needs to be exercised when the trend towards a “global culture”, founded on the 70

principles of Western societies (particularly American), is regarded as the best approach. It is not without good reason that many people are protesting against globalisation that diminishes culture and indigenous wisdom, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Nolan draws our attention to the globalisation of compassion for all people, which he refers to as “globalisation from below”. He suggests addressing the needs of the people in a practical way to suit the cultural context (Nolan 2006).Although competitive freedom is encouraged by globalisation, Roos (2008:101) warns that unhampered competitive freedom may lead to an attitude of “survival of the fittest”, which is counterproductive for those who require special needs, and contrary to the ethic of the “common good”. From the beginning of time, caring for each other has been a fundamental construct, essential for survival. The meaning of caring, is dependent on the dominant cultural discourses within his/her community and each person’s unique cultural experience. We cannot ignore the “gold” that we have in South Africa in the form of Ubuntu which means human kindness. Ubuntu is the name of the African Philosophy umuntu ugumuntu ungabantu which can be translated as a person is a person through other people. Furthermore, we cannot ignore the power of compassion which is developing in response to the narratives of injustice, violence and illness in the South African context. This contextual need for compassion has given rise to an increase in the need for caregiving, and consequently, an increased awareness of the advantages and challenges of surrounding the practice of caregiving.

Theoretical background Henri Nouwen identified the impact of helping people in his seminal work entitled The Wounded Healer. Nouwen warns that no-one can help anyone without becoming involved, without entering with his whole person into the painful situation, without taking the risk of becoming hurt, wounded or even destroyed in the process (Nouwen 1994). Assisting others without sustaining healthy self-care practices can be dangerous. Accumulated chronic stress in caring for others can extract a significant personal price, yielding a wide range of negative consequences. Who can save a child from a burning house without taking the risk of being hurt by the flames? Who can listen to a story of lone71

liness and despair without taking the risk of experiencing similar pains in his own heart and even losing his precious peace of mind? In short: Who can take away suffering without entering it? (Nouwen 1994) The biological, psychological, interpersonal, and spiritual consequences of working in stressful situations with people who have been traumatised has been well documented (Eagle and Kaminer 2015; Chandler, 2010; McDevitt, 2010; MacRitchie & Leibowitz, 2010; Smith, 2009; van Dernoot Lipsky & Burk 2009: Flannelly, Roberts & Weaver, 2005; Figley, 2005,1999; Weingarten, 2003; Hudnall Stamm, 1999; Munroe, 1999). Furthermore, literature abounds with evidence that all caregivers are at risk for developing Compassion Fatigue because of the nature of their work. Compassion Fatigue (CF) is a form of secondary traumatic stress and affects all those who are positioned to offer care to others. Caregivers of all people who have difficulties or/and who are vulnerable including educators, nurses, police officers, journalists to mention only a few. Different scholars in this field refer to this kind of stress using a variety of different expressions, such as, Empathic Stress Reaction (Weingarten, 2003) Secondary Traumatic Stress (MacRitchie & Leibowitz, 2010; Hudnall Stamm, 1999; Catherall, 1999) and Vicarious Trauma (Pearlman, 1999). During this workshop, we shall refer to these conditions as Compassion Fatigue. The onset of Compassion Fatigue is often rapid, and the symptoms are similar to those experienced in primary trauma (Figley, 1999). The symptoms of CF affect the whole person, body mind, emotions, spirit  physical (sleep and eating disorders, somatic, increased susceptibility to illness, pain)  cognitive behaviour (avoidant behavior, increased use of ineffective comforting techniques, impaired ability to make decisions, inability to find joy in life)  emotional (heightened anxiety, lack of trust, emotional exhaustion, depression, reduced self-image, difficulty with relationships)  spiritual (loss of hope, malevolent disrupted worldview, cynicism)

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Compassion Fatigue is often exacerbated by the caregiver’s own experience of trauma. Eagle and Kaminer (2015) alert us to the fact that those who are most negatively affected by working with trauma are those who usually have past symptomatology, sometimes arising from their own unresolved personal traumatic experiences. The caregiver’s own personal psychological and emotional problems need to be addressed and resolved before they are able to effectively assist others. The themes that most commonly emerge in the literature are:  awareness of impact of Compassion Fatigue is imperative  the need to learn effective skills to take care of people who have experienced trauma, as well as effective self-care strategies;  the need for caregivers to be assisted to heal from personal trauma;  the need for both personal and professional support;  the use of programmes to ameliorate the effects of CF. Figley (1999:4) states that when the caregiver is able to retain a degree of personal satisfaction, s/he is able to avoid the negative effects of Compassion Fatigue. He refers to this personal satisfaction as Compassion Satisfaction. Compassion Satisfaction (CS) balances Compassion Fatigue (CF) and is experienced when caregivers hold on to a degree of personal satisfaction from their work.

Compassion Fatigue

Compassion Satisfaction

Caregivers who feel rewarded by assisting others are less prone to Compassion Fatigue. According to Newmeyer, et al. (2014) spirituality may not only serve as a protective factor in moderating CF, but also increases CS among professional caregivers. They call this phenomenon the "Mother Teresa Effect". However, sometimes the satisfaction that caregivers feel, may become a trap in itself that leads them to do more and more work, until they reach a stage of physical, mental and emotional 73

exhaustion (Marsay 2013). There are several traps that can lead to developing CF:       

Overdeveloped sense of responsibility Putting needs of others before self Ineffective personal boundaries Ineffective coping skills A need to be needed A need to do good Unresolved psychological issues

Bloom (1999) writes about the “germ theory” which suggests that the experience of trauma is personal and individual. However, the effect of trauma is public and affects the whole of society. Thus, working with people who have been adversely affected by traumatic experiences has a propensity to adversely affect the people who offer them care and compassion. All caregivers would benefit personally and professionally by learning effective skills to deal with the difficulties they encounter. Figley identified that there is a cost to caring and he argues that professionals who listen to client’s stories of fear, pain and suffering may feel similar fear, pain and suffering because they care (Figley1995:1).

Ethical Considerations The cost of ignoring the effects of Compassion Fatigue on caregivers is high (Munroe 1999:226). There is evidence that leaving Compassion Fatigue unacknowledged and untreated results in increased rates of absenteeism, low levels of efficiency, substance abuse, high attrition rates, reduced service quality. All these difficulties have an impact on the quality of care. Munroe stresses the ethical need to take care of and train caregivers. He warns that impaired caregivers may be potentially dangerous. It would be prudent to assist caregivers to become aware of the impact of this kind of work. Not only should caregivers be alerted to their own vulnerability to Compassion Fatigue, they should also be assisted with developing effective selfcare strategies, as well as social support strategies, to ameliorate the effects of Compassion Fatigue. Despite the challenges discussed above, the good news that has arisen in the literature recently states that Compassion Fatigue can be ameliorated 74

by awareness, effective training, and support programmes. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM -5) has revisited the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and made some changes to the diagnosis. These changes imply that the condition is more manageable than previously thought (Marsay, in press). Furthermore, it is hopeful to note that according to Paris (2013:125), most people who are exposed to trauma don’t always develop negative symptoms. The most common response to adversity is often resilience. There has been a shift in recent literature towards how resilience can be developed and enhanced. However, less has been written about resilience in caregivers. Perhaps this is an area that is worthy of exploration?

Creating a personal self-care plan Clearly, it is prudent to examine ways to diminish or at least ameliorate the negative impact of CF. As discussed in the first part of this essay, the impact of CF affects the person holistically, body. mind, emotions and spirit. Thus, the workshop suggested that the intervention for personal self-care should be holistic, encouraging each person to find ways that would be effective for them as unique individuals with different specific needs. Effective interventions and further ways can be explored to maximise the caregiver’s experience of and capacity for Compassion Satisfaction. Failure to care for the self tears the fabric of the world as surely as failing to care for others, for we are someone’s other. (Nussbaum 2001) One way of caring for caregivers and improving their plight, is to provide sustained personal and professional support. It would appear that even a short course raising awareness of the effects of caregiving raises the potential for Compassion Satisfaction (Marsay & Higson-Smith, 2005). The participants of this workshop engaged in discussion and each participant was encouraged to list the ways in which they could best take care of themselves in a holistic way. The participants were also asked to identify people in their own social support system, as well as their professional network that were useful for them. As caregivers, it is prudent to take enough time out to associate with people who offer appropriate empathy, support and caring. It is also important to find ways to create protective boundaries, and to engage in 75

recreational activities. The need for respite in caregiving is of paramount importance.

Creating a caregiver plan for an organization Smith (2009) states that Compassion Fatigue not only holds the power to affect the individual, but the organisation as well. The cost of ignoring the effects of Compassion Fatigue on caregivers working in organisations is high. The organisation symptoms serve to magnify and escalate the individual symptoms, thus creating a vicious compassion fatigue cycle. When Compassion Fatigue among employees hits critical mass, the organisation itself suffers. Leaving Compassion Fatigue unacknowledged and untreated, may result in increased rates of absenteeism, low levels of efficiency, substance abuse, high attrition rates, reduced service quality, which all impact on the quality of care. Mother Teresa understood Compassion Fatigue and recognized it effects, and she wrote in her plan for her supervisors that it was mandatory for the caregiving nuns to take an entire year off from their duties every 4-5 years, to allow them to recover from the effects of their work. Herman insists that no one can face trauma alone and states that the work of recovery requires a secure and reliable support system (Herman 1992:151). Although the experience of Compassion Fatigue is universal, the environment in which it occurs is specific. Thus, it is essential that programmes are adapted to the needs of caregivers in context, and developed in consultation with them. The workshop emphasised the need for contextualized programmes that meet the needs of the caregivers in context. Kaethe Weingarten’s compassionate witnessing, approach to caring for the caregiver, is a technique worth considering since it is designed to strengthen the self of the person, bolstering resilience. Compassionate witnessing is founded on the ability to recognize and express a common bond with another. This approach lends itself to being molded to suit the needs of the people in the context. Perhaps this is an ability that is most urgently needed in this age of globalization. The technique can be used from the everyday to the extraordinary situations of witnessing. Witnessing creates a synergy of recognition, as well as support and action that is affirming, restorative and ener76

gizing. It helps the caregiver find ways to listen and act that make a difference, ameliorating the impact of interpersonal and societal common shock (Weingarten 2000, 2003) Conclusion There is an urgent need to understand the effects of working as caregivers. The results of Compassion Fatigue can have negative consequences for the self of the caregiver, and for the person who is receiving care. Thus it is prudent, for those who care for, and those organisations that offer care to those in need, to find ways to ameliorate the negative effects of Compassion Fatigue and to bolster Compassion Satisfaction and resilience. Resilience often arises in the wake of adversity. “Taking care of ourselves while taking care of others allows us to contribute to our societies with such impact that we will leave a legacy informed by our deepest wisdom and greatest gifts instead of burdened with our struggles and despair” (van Dernoot Lipsky & Burk, 2009) References Bloom, S. L. (1999). The Germ Theory of Trauma: The Impossibility of Ethical Neutrality. In B. Hudnall Stamm (Ed.), Secondary Traumatic Stress: Self-care for clinicians, researchers and educators (pp. 257 - 276). Baltimore: Sidran Press. Catherall, D., (1995). Preventing Institutional Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder. In C.R. Figley, (Ed.) Compassion Fatigue: Coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder in Those Who Treat the Traumatized. London :Brunner-Routledge. Catherall. D. R., (1999). Coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress: The Importance of the Therapist‟s Professional Peer Group. In B Hudnall Stamm (Ed.) Secondary Traumatic Stress: Self-care issues for clinicians, researchers and educators. Baltimore: Sidran Press. Chandler, D. J., (2010). The Impact of Pastor’s Spiritual Practices on Burnout. The Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling. 64. (2). Eagle, G., & Kaminer, D. (2015). Traumatic Stress: established knowledge, current debates and new horizons. South African Journal of Psychology, 45(1), 22-35. 77

Flannelly, K.J., Roberts, S.B. & Weaver, A.J. (2005). Correlates of Compassion Fatigue and Burnout in Chaplains and Other Clergy who Responded to the September 11th Attacks in New York City. The Journal of Pastoral Care and Counselling 59 (3) 213-224. Figley, C. (1995). Compassion Fatigue as Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder: An Overview. In C. Figley (Ed.), Compassion Fatigue Coping wtih Secondary Traumaitc Stress Disorder in those who treat the traumatised (pp. 1-20). New York: Routledge. Figley, C. (1999). Compassion Fatigue: Toward a New Understanding of the Costs of Caring. In B. Hudnall Stamm (Ed.), Secondary Traumatic Stress: Self-care isssues for clinicians, researchers and educators (pp. 3 - 28). Baltimore: Sidran Press. Figley, C. R. (1995). Compassion Fatigue: Coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder. New York: Brunner-Routledge. Herman, J. (1992). Trauma and Recovery. London: Pandora. Hudnall Stamm, B. (1999). Secondary Traumatic Stress: Self-care issues for clinicians, reserachers and educators. (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Sidran Press. Marsay, G. (2015). Compassion Fatigue in the learning environment: Reflection and review. Grace and Truth: a Journal of catholic reflection in Southern Africa.32 (3) 65-78 Marsay, G. (2013). Take Heed, take care. Journal of Pastoral Care and Counselling, 67(1), 4:1-8. Marsay, G., & Higson-Smith, C. (2005). Exploring Compassion Fatigue and Trauma in the South African Learning Environment. Johannesburg: Learningandviolence. Retrieved from http://www.learningandviolence.net/violence/MarsayViolence.pdf McDevitt, P. J. (2010). Ministerial Burnout: Motivation and Renewal for Mission. The Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling. 64 (4). Munroe, J. (1999). Ethical Issues associated with secondary trauma in therapists. In B. Hudnall Stamm (Ed.), Secondary Traumatic Stress: Self-care issues for clinicians, researchers and educators (pp. 211-229). Baltimore: Sidran Press. Newmeyer, M., Keyes, B., Gregory, S., Palmer, K., Buford, D., Mondt, P., & Okai, B. (2014). The Mother teresa Effect: the modulation of spirituality in using the CISM model with mental health service providers. International Jounral of Emergency Mental Health, 16(1), 251-258. Nolan, A. (2006). Jesus today: A Spirituality of radical freedom. Cape Town: Double Storey Books. Nouwen, H. (1994). The Wounded Healer. London: Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. 78

Nussbaum, M. (2001). Upheavals of Thought: The intelligence of Emotions . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Paris, J. (2013). The Intelligent Clinician's Guide to the DSM-5. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pearlman, L. (1999). Self-Care for Trauma Therapists: Ameliorating Vicarious Traumatization. In B. Hudnall Stamm (Ed.), Secondary Traumatic Stress: Self-care issues for clinicians, researchers and educators (pp. 51-63). Baltimore: Sidran Press. Roos, L. (2008). Catholic Social Doctrines. In R. H. Hasse, H. Schneider, & K. Weigelt (Eds.), Social Market Economy History, Principles and Implementation - From A - Z (pp. 100 - 103). Johannesburg: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Smith, P. (2009). To weep for a stranger: Compassion Fatigue in Caregiving. LLC: Healthy Caregiving. van Dernoot Lipsky, L., & Burk, C. (2009). Trauma Stewardship: and everyday guide to caring for the self while caring for others. San Francisco: Berrett Koehler Publishers Inc. Weingarten, K. (2003). Common Shock - Witnessing Violence Every Day: How we are harmed, how we can heal. New York: Dutton. Weingarten, K. (2000) Witnessing, Wonder, and Hope Family Process 39 (4) 389-402.

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Pastoral care within globalization as care at the in-between The dynamics of pastoral care and counselling for meaning and coping in a global context Vhumani Magezi

Abstract: Globalisation has facilitated exposure to the outside world and easy movement of people across countries. Through these movements, people are landing in countries that are unfamiliar. The people become trapped in an ‘in between’ situation where they are away from their country of origin but their desire is to be with their families and communities in the homeland. This situation creates tension and anxiety in an individual. People struggle to cope with life in this new environment. In view of this, this essay argues that pastoral care should assume a public role to provide effective care among people in this ‘in between’ space. Pastoral care within this situation entails ensuring that the care is located within an operative ecclesiology. At the same time, the intervention should adopt preventive and mitigation care approaches.

1. Background and premise - globalisation and the challenge for pastoral care Globalisation has revolutionised the world. Globalisation is an accepted reality even though it is perceived and defined differently depending on context. Al-Rodhan (2006) in his essay Definitions of Globalization: A Comprehensive Overview and a Proposed Definition indicates the various definitions of globalization by listing over thirty (30) definitions (in chronological order) in ten (10) pages (see Al-Rodhan 2006:9-19). AlRodhan (2006:8) advised that: The matter of defining globalization can be deemed useless because of its shifting nature, its ambiguity, its influence from the perspective from which one views it. But the attempt, even if it feels like an everlasting and futile task, does contribute to the debate and does stimulate discussion about globalization (p. 8). This observation is important for at least two reasons. First, the reality of the fluidity and elusiveness of underpinning globalization as a concept. Second, the utility of engaging in definitional discussion as contribution to globalization debate. Hence, Al-Rodhan maintains that “the debate 80

surrounding globalization is a large part of its lifeblood” (Al-Rodhan 2006:8). Citing Poppi, he (Al-Rodhan) added that “globalization is the debate, and the debate is globalization” (ibid). Despite the above apparent pessimism due to definition complexity and debate on globalization, there are some definitions worth noting, particularly for a discussion such as ours. These include Malcolm Waters (1995), Anthony Giddens (1990), Roland Robertson (1992) and AlRodhan (2006), just to mention a few. Waters (1995:3) described globalization as “a social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding.” Giddens (1990:64) defined globalisation as “the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.” Robertson (1992:8) in a simplified way referred to globalization as “the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole.” Al-Rodhan (2006:5) explained that “globalization is a process that encompasses the causes, course, and consequences of transnational and transcultural integration of human and non-human activities.” These definitions emphasize the highlighted tenets of globalization, namely the fusing of the world, people’s increased consciousness of the world, interplay and fusion of the happenings occurring many miles away with local happenings, and the general perceived compression of the world. This phenomenon (globalization) has consequences to human and non-human activities. Globalisation is driven by integrated markets, telecommunications, the internet age and revolutionized ways of travelling across the world. Lamb (n.d.) noted that globalization brings to mind nightmare images of a world where a single, homogenised global culture sweeps the planet, crushing whole cultures in its path. However, the world has many different cultures to have one global melting pot. As powerful global companies move into local areas they face the dilemma of adapting to local contexts. Thus the efforts to make global issues relate to local cultures resulted to glocalisation. Glocalisation is viewed as an answer to the problems of globalization. Lamb (n.d.) maintained that as the word is a melding of "global" and "local," glocalisation involves the managed meeting of the growing global arena with localised, everyday life. Glocalisation's goal is to ensure that a globalised world is a stable and integrated place, while also protecting the cultural heritage of local areas. Robertson (1992) introduced the concept of glocalisation in globalization discourse 81

from the Japanese business world. The Japanese business world referred to the process of adopting and fitting foreign products to meet the needs and taste of the local market. Robertson (1992) argued that globalisation is in actual fact a local phenomenon, and that the worldwide exchange and fusion of culture is always done in local terms. Robertson held that what is conceived as the local is in actual fact global. He maintained that global culture and local culture are not two opposing forces at odds, as the term "globalisation" might suggest, but rather cooperating concepts working together, which is glocalisation. The above overview provides a synopsis of globalisation and glocalisation. However, my interest in globalization is not to add a voice to the complex debate but to identify the developments giving rise to the contemporary challenges to pastoral care. As Al-Rodhan (2006:5) rightly noted that globalisation has consequences to human and non-human activities. The global exposure, international movement and the various aspects of life have been impacted by globalisation. The International Anglican Family Network (IAFN) (2008:1) noted that: Globalisation has transformed virtually all aspects of modern life – our jobs, our culture, and our relationships with one another. It brings new stresses, new challenges and new opportunities. For the children in well-off families, globalisation may mean more opportunities to travel, to meet people of different culture, to experience lifestyle of different countries and to get access to the Internet (p. 1) The International Anglican Family Network (IAFN) (2008) added that the problem of globalisation is that it does not breed global citizens automatically. While education can be an agent to promote global citizenship for all, we must not neglect the poor and the weak who are disadvantaged in this supposedly levelled playing field. The advice of the IAFN is very relevant. Globalisation does not automatically breed global citizens because people remain connected to their homes and communities, which are anchors for survival and existence. In this situation the church should not be passive. The IAFN (2008:1) advised that: Globalisation is probably here to stay as a dominant force in the world’s economy and society. So a key issue is how best to identify its shortfalls and address them and how to harness its potential to benefit societies’ poorest members. These are questions for

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all global citizens and particularly for those who seek to follow the teachings of Christ (p.1). 
 Glendon (n.d.) in her essay Globalization and the Church's New Challenges wisely asserted that it is part of Christian realism to understand that great social changes are the result of small and courageous daily options. She added that the Church's work in the ever-changing world is an ongoing crusade to shift probabilities in favor of what John Paul II called the civilization of life and love. Globalization undoubtedly poses formidable challenges to the never-ending task of shifting probabilities. But the resources that the Church brings to meet those challenges are formidable as well. Pastoral care therefore as a ministry of the church has to to explore and imagine innovative ways of providing care within a global context.

2. Global movements and the challenges of pastoral care in globalisation as care at the in between Globalisation has increased awareness of life on other continents. Travelling has become easier than before because of technology. This has contributed to a sharp increase in people’s movement (migration). In 2010, the total South to North and South to South migration was 34% each, North to South was 6%, and North to North was 26% (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2013). The number of international migrants increased from 214 million in 2010 to 232 million in 2013 (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2013). The United Nations Human Rights Commission – UNHRC (2015:1) reported that “the number of international migrants worldwide has continued to grow rapidly over the past fifteen years reaching 244 million in 2015, up from 222 million in 2010 and 173 million in 2000. The International Organisation on Migration (IOM) (2014:1) reported that ‘‘approximately one in seven people is migrating every day’’. In view of these challenges, The World Team International (2011:6-7), a global missions think tank, in their global overview and trend mapping on modern missions observed that migration is one of the major global developments that will impact global mission. They state that migration is a central global issue of the twentyfirst century that is shaping the current and will continue to shape future Church and its mission (World Team International 2011:6 & Campese 2012:5-6).

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Responses to the above global developments have been varied. There has been accommodation and integration on the one hand, and apathy, exclusion and outright violent reception on the other hand. For instance, migrants in South Africa experienced extreme violent xenophobic attacks in 2008 and 2015. Vickoluoch (2012) also observed that discrimination of migrants is rife in the US. These responses suggest mechanisms by host countries to cope with foreign people. On the other hand, the migrants have also developed systems to mitigate the impact of the challenges they encounter. One major response is the establishment of foreign or ethnic churches. Members of these churches are migrants from the same country. They use their native language during church services. The activities resemble their country of origin. The churches provide spaces for being “home while away from home” as well as support for one another in practical life issues that are necessary for surviving in a foreign land. These churches can be termed ‘glocal churches’. As described above, glocalisation expresses the way globalisation dynamics are always reinterpreted locally, leading to an interpretation of the local and global scales that creates context-dependent outcomes. Some authors go so far as to argue that glocalisation is the way that globalisation really operates (Robertson 1992). 
 Members of these churches are part of the integrated global world where the migrants have settled and yet in some respects, act and associate like people in their local and native countries (i.e. country of origin). In this challenging context, social networks and social support from familiar people such as other migrants reinforce adaptation (Thomas 2010). Religious communities such as churches are other sources of coping with life. Hirschman (2005:6) rightly observed that religious beliefs and practices “can serve as ballast for immigrants as they struggle to adapt to their new homeland”. Migrants are confronted by the existential question of “Who am I?” In a new social context, migrants could often find meaning and identity by reaffirming traditional beliefs, including the structures of religious faith that may have been taken for granted before. Adogame (2013:494) maintained that Christianity is a religion and religious belonging of people’s cultural heritage. Religious conviction can be a central motive for support of one another in exile (Adogame 2013:494). Religious identity can be a crucial resource for decision-making processes; for vitalising culture of origin; and for action within the integration processes in a host context.

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The situation presented by globalisation presents challenges and opportunities for people. For people migrating to more democratic countries from oppressive governments, this new space represents a new freedom. However, in many cases, this freedom is interpreted and lived through the background of where the people grew up. The values of the original country together with ethnic groupings in a foreign land such as ethnic or glocal churches continue to impose psychological pressure on the individual. This new space makes people float in a new in-between place where new rules and customs both constrain and empower. For instance, one may have to drive long distances to meet home country people or to find familiar foods, spend significant amount of time on social media trying to laugh at humour that is clearly becoming unfamiliar from the country of origin, always having jokes explained because of disconnection and loss of familiarity with country of origin’s trends and developments. One has to work extra hard to keep his/her identity strong as well as work hard to support relatives in the country of origin. So the inbetween space created by globalisation is both confining and freeing in equal measure. Friedman (2000) in his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization rightly noted that globalisation presents a tension between the globalization system and ancient forces of culture, geography, tradition, and community. He rightly observes that there is a backlash that globalization produces. Hence, proper balance of the various forces should be maintained. With the reality that globalisation has transformed virtually all aspects of modern life and is here to stay, International Anglican Family Network (IAFN) (2008) advises that people should identify globalisation’s shortfalls and address them as well as explore how to optimally harness its potential to benefit societies should be heeded. The IAFN added that these are indeed concerns for all global citizens and particularly those who seek to follow the teachings of Christ. Indeed, it is part of Christian realism to understand that great social changes are part of the realities of our day. Therefore, Christianity, particularly pastoral care should explore care that assist people to cope in an ever-changing world (Glendon n.d.). Sadly, pastoral care has not done well to respond to these current challenges. In Pastoral Care in a time of Global Market Capitalism, Poling (2003) noted the weakness of pastoral care in responding to emerging challenging issues and the need to incorporate new dimensions. Using gender, race and class issues, he laments that “pastoral care and counseling movement has not done an adequate job of providing healing resources 85

for persons who live with economic vulnerability and/or family violence” (Poling 2003:1). Hence he advised that pastoral care needs to improve. Pastoral care “must study the macroeconomic issues of global capitalism, we must study the Scriptures for images of an alternative economic order, and we must revise our training of pastors and congregations for healing and care” (Poling 2003:1). He recommends that the usual training in pastoral care that emphasizes empathy, personal history, family system, symptoms, and religious resources should add new topics and transform the present list to include other topics that respond to the issues of the day (Poling 2003). The above observations challenge pastoral care to provide effective care at the in-between of people’s lives. Pastoral care at the in between of people’s lives can be both a metaphor for ministry as well as denote space and context of pastoral care provision. As a metaphor for ministry, it refers to the nature of pastoral care practice. This implies that pastoral care provider provides care at an in-between of many issues that affect people’s lives. And a care provider or counsellor has to make sense of this complexity and facilitate coping and meaning. Ulanov (2007) in: The space between pastoral care and global terrorism illustrates this in between reality. She maintained that: Chaplains work with a background of terrorism, functioning as a remnant, making links between us, within us, and with God. Chaplains link up the present amputation to the whole person alive in hospital who cannot be reduced to one part. Chaplains link up the present incarceration in the prison of alcoholism or addiction to pills with the buried impulse toward remorse, toward gratitude for the gift of life that persists even now and must find a new form (Ulanov 2007:3). At the same time, care at the in-between denotes state of global temporariness, a flux space where people have no fixed positions. It refers to people who have moved from their familiar environments, community or country to new environments in search of happiness or better life (professional migrants) or those displaced by conflicts (refugees). This inbetween therefore describes a space of confusion, anxiety, temporariness, combination of loss and gain. It challenges one to ask identity questions namely, what does it mean to have a home from your home or family? It challenges one to cultivate ‘new muscles’ for coping in life.

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3. Diagnosing pastoral care needs arising from movement and migrating within a global world The poor economic situation and conflict in many countries is fuelling people’s movement while the swift movement is being facilitated by technology. Adogame (2013:506) rightly observed that people’s movement is triggered by the prevailing political and socio-economic conditions of home countries and the economic push in search of "greener pastures", transformations in the technology of communication and transportation, liberalization of immigration laws, immigrants' development of networks and activities in new destinations. However, as people migrate to other locations some of the expected opportunities do not materialise. This results in desperation. Datta, McIlwaine, Evans, Herbert, and May (2006:10) reported that there is sometimes loss of dignity and frustration. To cope with life therefore, some people in new areas adopt some community coping strategies. These community strategies include “information-sharing through ethnic networks” (Datta et al 2006:18). The social networks formed from ethnic groupings assists them to find cheap accommodation, jobs and affordable goods. Further to social struggles, people are confronted by the existential question of “Who am I?” The diagram below (figure 1) illustrates the direction of movement and some of the challenges that emerge.

Figure 1: Movement of people within global world and the emerging challenges

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Due to realisation of life elsewhere and transportation, people leave their home environments (zone A home country). Their country or home environment is familiar, has family and community support, and life is more predictable. As they move to new environments (Zone B new home environment) in another global space, familiarity is lost, there is need to develop new coping mechanisms, identity is lost, and the space is characterised by vulnerability as life is to be learnt afresh. This new space (Zone C – emotional state) is characterised by uncertainty, anxiety, living in a space of constant negotiation to survive, loss of permanency as one is temporary in a new environment and have moved away from original space. Life is in a constant state of flux without definite anchors. To cope with life in the new space in a global world, many people turn to religion. Hirschman (2005:6) noted that religious beliefs and practices serve as ballast for immigrants (people in new global space) as they struggle to adapt to their new homeland. Religion provides identity and anchor as well as a family and community. In fact, as Hirschman (2003) observed, many migrant churches make major efforts to serve the social and economic needs of their congregants, including information about housing, social and economic opportunities that facilitate their adaptation. Hirschman (2003:22) reported that some Korean ethnic churches in New York City offer language classes (both Korean and English), a full Korean lunch after services, and seminars on practical as well as spiritual topics. This indicates that there are many social and economic benefits in participating in Churches. In this sense, religion maintains a community, as well as offer community and belonging to potentially isolated people. Undoubtedly, as indicated above, churches play a critical role in providing physical access to resources, emotional support, nurturing of the feeling of home and family in new locations in the global world. However, the question that emerges is: what nature should pastoral care take in such fluid global spaces to provide meaning and healing to people who are caught in global in between spaces? 4. Dynamics of pastoral care in a global context – towards providing pastoral care at the in between (an eschatological proposal) Pastoral care and pastoral counselling are phrases that are sometimes used interchangeably in some parts of the world to refer to cura animarum even though the two are distinguishable (Magezi 2007). Whereas pastoral care refers to broad caring activities; pastoral counselling em88

phasizes pastoral caring in the form of dialogue and communication to alleviate distress within the context of pastoral ministry. Benner (1992:14-15) explains the difference as follows: “Much as pastoral ministry is broader than pastoral care, so too is pastoral care broader than pastoral counselling. And to attempt to reduce all pastoral care to counselling is to fail to recognize both the breadth of pastoral care as well as the distinctive nature of counselling”. Clinebell (1984) added that pastoral care is the broad, inclusive ministry of mutual healing and growth within a congregation and its community through its life cycle. Pastoral counselling, then, as an aspect of pastoral care, is the utilization of a variety of healing (therapeutic) methods to help people handle their problems and crises in a more developmental way. While pastoral care in the West is significantly influenced by the findings in psychotherapy, in other contexts such as Africa, there is no distinction between pastoral outlook and practice – at least at the level of practice. However, what can be concluded is that pastoral care has been consistently concerned with the caring ministry of religious communities. Notwithstanding the current contribution of pastoral care, there is growing concern that pastoral care should become more public to engage in public matters (Miller-McLemore 2004). Pastoral care should engage in public matters rather than only focus on intra-psychic matters that narrowly focus on Christians. Louw (2014) in Wholeness in Hope Care advises that pastoral care should be a life science. To be a life science, pastoral care has to engage with the challenges in the lives of people and provide guidance and hope. Within the context of our discussion of globalization and the challenges emerging from it, it is imperative for pastoral care to explore and imagine ways of providing meaning and hope. At stake is: how could pastoral care be administered to a person trapped at the in between space of the global world? What contribution can pastoral ministry make? The previous discussion on the role played by ethnic churches in providing belonging, identity, family, community and hope and meaning illustrated the functions that church community could play in care. Therefore, it should be emphasized that pastoral care should incorporate an operative ecclesiological dimension. Louw (2016) explained that an operative ecclesiology refers to performative actions of being the church within concrete contexts. It reflects on ecclesial matters not merely from the viewpoint of denominational traditions and dogmatic confessions, but within communal life systems. Being a church and providing pastoral care in a global context entails imagining new perspectives on being hu89

man in a global world as one moves and constantly shifts positions. The questions of: who am I? Who is my family? Which and where is my community? should be considered within an eschatological framework as illustrated in the diagram below (figure 2).

Figure 2: A diagnosis and intervention model (chart) for pastoral care in a global world A diagnosis chart is not about classification but a hermeneutical understanding of how existential life issues are linked and interconnected so that one can understand life better (Louw 1998, 2016). The development of a diagnostic chart is based on the presupposition that insight into the systemic networking of attitudes and paradigms, helps individuals to consider different strategic options, especially, when one has to connect the options to basic theological categories. Louw (2016) rightly main90

tained that when one sees the bigger picture it brings about a kind of soberness and realism. It also opens up options which create a sense of ‘hope’. A diagnostic chart helps one to see the bigger picture. A big picture refers to the networking dynamics of life as an existential and qualitative category. Within this framework, life is a web where the dynamics and structural interplay between various situations, experiences and relationships should be understood as part of a reality within the global village. Complexity is embraced as a norm. One has to contend with complexity and explore options to meaningfully cope within the situation. This is about what Korsch (2011:34) as cited by Louw (2016) referred as exploring new categories (“Spuren des Selbstausdrucks und Weltaneignung”). Within the above proposed model, when people move from familiar environment (A) to new environment (B), many challenges are experienced. These include physical, emotional and social (C) challenges. In view of these challenges pastoral care should intervene to facilitate meaning and hope in the situation. The arrows from two (2) to four (4) indicate recommended shift and change to the preferred eschatological zone. The operation of the model is informed by the pastoral functions: healing, sustaining, guiding, reconciling, nurturing, liberating and empowering (Lartey 1997:37-42; Clinebell 1984: 43). Arrow two (2) indicates the preparation and advice required for people before embarking on movements. It focuses on advising (educative counselling) people before departure to reduce shocks. Arrow three (3) and four (4) entails advising (educative counselling), empowering, liberating, nurturing, reconciling, healing and sustaining. Arrow two (2) therefore denotes preventive interventions for people intending to travel across the globe while arrows three (3) and four (4) indicates facilitation to assist in settling and coping with pressure. The facilitatory functions are integrated within ecclesial spaces, which makes operative ecclesiology a central part of the caring system. The shift to eschatological zone (D) entails redefinition of identity. This entails defining your identity by virtue of your Christian identity in Christ, which implies grafting with new family, community and friends. New coping skills aided by the new community are developed. The values are also evaluated in the light of the new environment. Thus Zone D (eschatological zone) represents a progressive and constructive mindset that emerges from a pneumatological state of being, a state of spirituality where family, home, community and friendships are defined by two horizons. The first horizon is a new state of being (realized eschatology). The second horizon is an anticipated ‘still to come’ reality (unrealized eschatology). Family and friends are people who are 91

fellow citizenship (Philippians 3:20). This implies that life is defined by virtue of union with Christ (realized eschatology) and not necessarily my original family or community. This mindset challenges individuals to be in a continuous state of transformation and re-imagination of what it means to live in a global village where flux is key part of life. It helps people to redefine and explore new approaches to being human in a global village. Zone D enables one to be flexible in handling life in a flux, where people find themselves in the ‘in between situations’. The above model of pastoral care locates care within church life. The church is indeed the context of pastoral care (Louw 1998). It provides both preparatory (preventive) and mitigation care. It is systemic and holistic in nature. People are physically assisted as well as spiritually and emotionally cared for. It focuses on cultivating new ways of thinking, living, relating, and etc. that suits the new environment. And the bedrock of this model/approach and presupposition is that it is based on new state of being that should influence both the carer and the cared. This approach recognizes that the constant shifts in life due to globalization is normal, it resonates with theology of homo viator (pilgrims). Thus viewing life as a journey discourages people from having too fixed positions and at the same time assists people to adjust and quickly cope.

5. Conclusion The article considered globalisation and the pastoral care challenges that arise as people move from their familiar home environments to other environments. As these people reach their new destinations they find themselves trapped in an ‘in between’ situation where they are away from their country of origin but their desire is to be with their families and communities in the homeland. To address the situation, this article argued that pastoral care should assume a public role to provide effective and meaningful care among people in these ‘in between’ spaces. Pastoral care within this situation involves establishing an operative ecclesiology where the care ministry will be located. Pastoral care intervention should be both preventive and mitigation focused. References Adogame Afe. 2013. The African Christian Diaspora: New Currents and Emerging Trends in World Christianity. London: Bloomsbury.

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Al-Rodhan Nayef R.F. 2006. Definitions of Globalization: A Comprehensive Overview and a Proposed Definition. Viewed on 20 May 2016. Online: http://www.wh.agh.edu. Benner, D.G. 1992. Strategic pastoral counselling: a short-term structured model. Grand Rapids: Baker. Campese, G. 2012. The irruption of migrants: Theology of migration in the 21st century. Theological studies, 73(1):3-32. Clinebell, H. 1984. Basic types of pastoral care counselling: resources for the Ministry of Healing and Growth. Nashville: Abingdon. Datta Kavita, McIlwaine Cathy, Evans Yara, Joanna Herbert, Jon May and Jane. 2006. Work and survival strategies among low-paid migrants in London. Department of Geography Queen Mary. London: University of London. Friedman, Thomas L. 2000. The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. New York: Anchor Books. Giddens, Anthony. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990. Glendon Mary Ann. n.d. Globalization and the Church's New Challenges. Viewed 20 June 2016. Online: http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/politics-and-thechurch/globalization-and-the-church-s-new-challenges.html Hirschman Charles. 2005. The Role of Religion in the Origins and Adaptation of Immigrant Groups in the United States. Revision of a paper presented at the conference on “Conceptual and Methodological Developments in the Study of International Migration” at Princeton University, May 23-25, 2003. International Anglican Family Network. 2008. The impact of globalization on families and communities. Viewed on: 15 July 2016. Online: www.iafn.net. International Organisation for Migration (IOM). 2014. Global Migration Trends: an overview. Viewed on: 28 May 2016. Online: http://missingmigrants.iom.int/sites/default/files/documents/Global_Migr ation_Trends_PDF_FinalVH_with%20References.pdf. 93

Lamb Robert. n.d. What is glocalization? Viewed on 1 June 2016. Online: http://money.howstuffworks.com/glocalization.htm Lartey, E.Y. 1997. In living colour: an intercultural approach to pastoral care and counselling. London: Cassell. Louw, D.J. 2016. Between xenophobia and xenodochia in an operative ecclesiology of home: the plight of refugees and migrants as challenge to a diagnostic approach in a pastoral hermeneutics of caregiving, Unpublished paper. Louw, D. J. 2014. Wholeness in hope care; on nurturing the beauty of the Human soul in spiritual healing. Zurich: LIT, Wien. Louw, D.J. 1998. A pastoral hermeneutics of care and encounter. Lux Verbi. Cape Town. Magezi Vhumani. 2007. “Pastoral counselling: towards a diagnostic and interpretational approach in Africa.” In die Skriflig, 41: 655- 672. Miller-McLemore, Bonnie J. 2004. “Pastoral Theology as Public Theology: Revolutions in the ‘Fourth Area,’” Pastoral Care and Counseling: Redefining the Paradigms, ed. Nancy Ramsay, Nashville: Abingdon, pp. 44-64. Poling James. 2003. Pastoral Care in a time of Global Market Capitalism. Viewed on: 2016. Online: www.ctr4process.org/sites/default/.../26_2%20Poling%20%20Pastoral%20Care.pdf Robertson Roland. 1992. Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. London: Sage. Thomas Fiona C. 2010. Migration Studies Unit Working Papers. Online: http://www.lse.ac.uk/government/research/resgroups/MSU/documents/w orkingPapers/WP_2010_01.pdf, accessed: 28 May 2016. World Team International. 2011. Global quick view: Trends and issues that will likely impact the mission of world team in future years (20112020). Viewed on 10 April 2016. Online: global.worldteam.org/data/sites/16/Resources/global-quickview-june2011b1.pdf 94

Ulanov Ann Belford. 2007. The space between pastoral care and global terrorism. Scottish Journal of Healthcare Chaplaincy, Vol.10. No. 2. 2, page 3-8 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. 2013. World Migration in Figures, A joint contribution by UN-DESA and the OECD to the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development, 3-4 October 2013. United Nations Human Rights Commission. 2015. Migration, human rights and governance. Hand Book for parliamentarians no 24. Published by Inter-Parliamentary Union 2015. Vickoluoch. 2012. Racism and other problems that immigrants face in the United States. Viewed on: 10 April 2016. Online: https://vickoluoch.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/racism-and-otherproblems-that-immigrants-face-in-the-united-states/. Waters Malcolm. 1995. Globalization. London: Routledge. World Team International. 2011. Global quick view: Trends and issues that will likely impact the mission of world team in future years (20112020). Viewed on: 2 June 2016. Online: global.worldteam.org/data/sites/16/Resources/global-quickview-june2011b1.pdf

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Relationship in Difference The SIPCC as a Learning Community Helmut Weiß

Abstract: The article aims to summarise essential features of intercultural and inter-religious learning based on the 20-year history of the association Gesellschaft für Interkulturelle Seelsorge und Beratung - Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counselling (SIPCC). Interpersonal encounter is presented as the most important way of learning. Intercultural and inter-religious encounters challenge us to develop a hermeneutics, formulated here as “relationship in difference” and “translational work”. Through various kinds of SIPCC meetings and processes of understanding the skills for intercultural and inter-religious care and counselling are enhanced. SIPCC is described as an “open space” where these skills and competences can be developed.

Introduction When on 17 October 1995 56 people from several countries around the world formed the Gesellschaft für Interkulturelle Seelsorge und Beratung – Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counselling (SIPCC) as a legal association in Düsseldorf, the combination of “intercultural” and “counselling” was a novelty in Germany. Many other adjectives were set in combination with care and counselling: kerygmatic (preaching); therapeutic (healing); pastoral psychological; feminist; Biblical and others. Care and counselling were connected to depth psychology, human sciences and sociology, but what they might have to do with culture or inter-culturalism, had hitherto been hardly considered. In other disciplines it was different: education, social work, economics were talking of “inter-culture”. In other countries colleagues were dealing with “cross-cultural counselling”, e.g. in the United States. But in Germany and other European countries the question was raised, “Why should we bring together culture and pastoral care?” That might be the business for missiology, but not for counselling. And the 56 people who included “intercultural pastoral care” in the name of this new association could vaguely explain what was meant and where the road would go with this society. But they were sure that pastoral care must be seen in the context of different cultures. For one thing was clear: the respective cultural environment determines people’s lives to a great extent – and therefore also pastoral work. Beside the inner dynamics that are at the core of pastoral care oriented toward psychology and therapy, the “external dy96

namics” of the cultural (and therefore social, political and economic) environment has to be recognised and understood in caring and counselling encounters with people. Today, 20 years later, the situation is completely different. Almost every aspect of life in our multicultural world has to be viewed interculturally and that is so for care and counselling too. This is a development not only in the so-called “advanced” countries of the “western” hemisphere, but all over the world in varying degrees. Everywhere the knowledge of diversity of cultures and religions grows, as part of the improvement in modern communication. Care and counselling cannot negate these phenomena. Care and counselling must learn anew to understand the culturally influenced life-situations of people and to deal with various “cultures of care and counselling”, that is, with the diversity of concepts and practices of care and counselling. In 1995 it did not come into our minds to put into the name of our association “intercultural and inter-religious care and counselling”. Only through an intensive examination of inter-culturality did we became more and more aware that the diversity of cultures and the diversity of religions are mutually dependent. Therefore the editors of the first SIPCC book in German, Handbuch Interkulturelle Seelsorge (Handbook of Intercultural Care and Counselling), published in 2002, wrote in the introduction: “We want to say that there is a desideratum in this book – meaning a separate thematic treatment of inter-religious aspects of our subject. Intercultural encounters are often simultaneously inter-religious encounters, and the question of different ‘pastoral cultures’ could be extended to the question of forms and traditions of pastoral care outside the Christian culture and religion range.” 15 In SIPCC we speak now of “intercultural and inter-religious care and counselling” with one breath, and we see that they are closely related and depend on each other, without being identical. In the last two decades, a lot has happened in the field of intercultural and inter-religious learning. It is interesting to examine these developments and to explain them not only for care and counselling but for social activities and the living together in diverse societies. To illustrate these processes, allow me to present key findings within SIPCC. SIPCC – an open space for encounters and relationships Encounter as a basis for intercultural and inter-religious learning

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Handbuch Interkulturelle Seelsorge, ed. K.Federschmidt, E.Hauschildt, Chr. SchneiderHarpprecht, K.Temme, H.Weiß, Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2002, 14.

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SIPCC is an association which creates and designs “open spaces” in which interaction among people from different countries, cultures and religions can take place in order to promote learning of intercultural and inter-religious care and counselling. In the already mentioned “Handbook of Intercultural Care and Counselling”, I wrote an article “The discovery of Intercultural Care and Counselling” describing the pathway from internationality to inter-culturality.16 Already between 1986 and 1995 we had international seminars with people from East and West, North and South, as well as rich and poor countries. Those were times of world conflicts between capitalism and communism, the time of the danger of war and the peace movement in Europe, the time of the so-called Conciliar Process for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation – a strong movement in Eastern and Western Europe. During that time many connections and relationships started through SIPCC, and the conviction was growing that they have meaning and importance for our common work in care and counselling. Through the foundation of SIPCC as a legal body these connections became stronger: members took responsibility to involve themselves in this movement. In the many years of the activities of SIPCC in several countries of the world, these relationships have continued and new encounters with new groups have arisen. There are now about 280 members from 35 countries, participants are both practitioners and educators, and there are people from different professions; there are not only Christian members of various sorts, but also Jews and Muslims as members and participants. SIPCC is trying to be international, intercultural, inter-religious and interdisciplinary. This principle of promoting encounter and exchanges is featured in all the activities of SIPCC: not only the previously mentioned international seminars (in 2015 we shall conduct the 27th) but also other meetings and conferences, study tours and training courses. SIPCC has done such training courses in Hungary, Romania, Indonesia, Slovakia, Poland, Tanzania and Germany (a course in Islamic pastoral care in hospitals). Additional courses are planned for the future.17 In SIPCC, personal encounters are understood as the basis for dealing with intercultural and inter-religious issues. Encounters challenge and stimulate new ways to deal personally and professionally with foreigners and Otherness in a sensitive, understanding and open way. Encounters enable us to see people in a differentiated manner, to enjoy this diversity, to offer more respect, value and dignity. Personally, I find that I am 16 17

Ibid., 17-37, „Die Entdeckung Interkultureller Seelsorge“. For the activities of SIPCC, cf. www.sipcc.org/.

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strengthened in my faith by realising that God is showing himself in the many faces and acts of humanity in our world. The encounters with people from other cultures and religions are often joyful as we experience each other, though sometimes it can be painful and hurtful, for such conversation discloses our limitations – so enabling us to learn humility and modesty. Intercultural and inter-religious encounters become alive in storytelling: the meetings have a narrative feature and character. People meet each other and they begin to share. And in sharing they give each other a part of their own life. In this exchange, cultural characteristics immediately stand out. By sharing with people from other cultures and religions, one realises that in communicating with others ‘understanding’ cannot be taken for granted. One is invited to pause, to reflect and to think about the assumptions and conditions of myself and of my counterpart. As we experience that both of us start at different points, we question ourselves and others. Intercultural and inter-religious encounters become alive by becoming open for questions. How does the other person live? Why does she/he live this way? How does he/she manage his/her everyday life? What makes him/her happy? What drives him/her to behave in such a way? What questions can I ask without embarrassing her/him? What can he /she understand when I tell him/her about myself? In being open for questions I show my interest, but by asking questions I expose myself to others and at the same time I show my borders and limitations. There are many ways to learn about other cultures and religions and to move into their worlds. One can study them, read about them and acquire knowledge about them, so to speak, one can learn by looking and observing from the outside – without personal involvement. But it is different to encounter “living human documents” of cultures and religions and to experience life and faith in an unmediated and direct contact with people. When we engage in a personal encounter, intercultural and inter-religious learning has a direct, even a physical and bodily basis – and that has a lasting effect. The inter-subjective encounter can be described as the ‘royal way’ of learning about other religions and cultures. If members of different religions meet on an equal level and live together as community for a while, memorable and sustainable cultural and religious learning occurs. In a dialogue of humans, mutual strangeness is breaking up, they become more and more open to challenge each other, fear is vanishing, and conflicts can be solved. In the meetings of SIPCC, people of differ99

ent cultures and religions perform a “dialogue of life” where people are of equal worth and dignity and still keep their differences. This principle that intercultural and inter-religious learning needs personal encounter as a basis has been used by SIPCC from the beginning and continues today. In order that a dialogue of life can take place, most SIPCC events are planned and carried out over five or more days so that the participants have the opportunity to live together and share over some time. Personal and institutional relationships for intercultural and interreligious learning If encounters become significant, they leave an impression in memory, so relationships grow. The more people open themselves and share with each other, the less they fear each other. Strangeness may continue – but it does not frighten or bother so much as it did before. There might be a lot I cannot agree with – but the difference does not prevent the strengthening of the relationship. An emotional bond of perpetual mutual discovery can be created. Again and again I have been impressed that through these new relationships, I perceive with fresh eyes what happens in the world. After getting to know a person from another country, news from that part of the world takes on a different quality for me. The events there – far away – come much closer, have a “face”, and become connected to specific persons. When in February 2015 a colleague from Eastern Ukraine in Morning Prayer at a conference prayed for peace, the bitter struggles and conflicts far away came much closer than even when I watch TV and see the fighting. When a Lutheran Pastor from Palestine presented in an international seminar his pastoral work with Christians and Muslims, the conflicts in the Middle East gained a different “taste” than that given by a television report of a few minutes. When in 2012 we organized a SIPCC Seminar in Tanzania with the theme Caring for Creation - Caring for People: Climate Changes and Natural Disasters as Challenges for Care and Counselling and the participants travelled for hours by bus through the parched land, then the problem of global warming becomes a more personal challenge to each one of us. When participants sit in a Seminar in Mainz in the New Synagogue, and admire that beautiful building and hear about the fate of the Jewish community there through many centuries, the question of inter-religious dialogue is much more urgent than when we meet in “theological circles” and discuss at an intellectual level. 100

In immediate personal – physical and bodily – encounter, relationships are formed that are inescapable. They set the life and the surrounding of persons in a new light. Intercultural and inter-religious learning needs this incarnational (born into) “corporality” so that encounters and relationships take place not only on an abstract and intellectual level, but in a physical, sensory, and emotional manner. SIPCC offers safe and open spaces for such relationships and for learning processes of care and counselling in an intercultural and inter-religious framework. Our association conducts all events in cooperation with other institutions and agencies. As an example: the annual International Seminars take place each year at diverse locations (2009 Israel, 2010 France, 2011 Hamburg, Germany, 2012 Tanzania; 2013 Mainz, Germany; 2014 Netherlands, 2015 Poland) with organizations from that country. We want to build up relationships on institutional levels too and to enhance the learning of institutions. Preparations with these organisations mean sharing and crossing structural boundaries without abandoning our respective institutional identities. These processes between organisations offer many opportunities of intercultural and inter-religious exchange and dialogue. But in SIPCC we always have a common interest and goal: to enhance care and counselling and to become aware of and engage to the needs of the people. We orient ourselves in our cooperation to a “third reference point” outside of ourselves and the respective organisations: people in need. They are our common objective. Not only as individuals, but also as a Society we want to learn. That is why we have set up what we call a Study Group and a Research Network to reflect on and develop this common institutional learning. At the same time, we offer our experience and expertise to other institutions. The collaboration is usually done without much difficulty, but sometimes conflicts may show up. They can begin with language differences (for example, different understanding of “Seelsorge”, “cure of souls” and “spiritual care”), different ideas about the title of the seminar, or how the social and political specificities in different countries can be taken into account (for example, differences between pastoral activity in hospitals in the Netherlands as compared to Germany). This raises again the question of how we can work together with all the existing institutional differences and interests and how we can foster communal learning. Areas of learning In intercultural and inter-religious context – in personal and institutional encounters and relationships, but also in intercultural and inter-religious 101

care and counselling – we have to adapt to new perspectives on a wide range of topics. From the experience of our activities in the SIPCC, we have learned that many issues are at stake : language, family, gender roles, authority, power, work and economic conditions, violence, values, religion, health and disease, to name only a few. All of these issues are closely tied to specific cultural and religious meanings; there is a great variety how these terms can be understood and these different understandings must be discovered and explained in conversations. All of these words are complex in meaning, and that is marked by the context. Only in context are words spoken and and only through the context do words become fully alive. Out of these many areas of learning I would like to give a short outline of just three examples: Language – Family – Religion. Language Language is not the only one, but an essential element of interpersonal communication. Again and again it is necessary to reflect the on linguistic issues in communication. This is even more urgent when people of different cultures and religions meet and have to speak in foreign languages. All who have to speak in foreign languages know that translation is an art form that succeeds more or less. Present day needs for understanding have improved the effectiveness of translation. But still: what are we talking about when we use certain words? Does the equivalent in the other language – and sometimes there is none – really match or does it transport a foreign “world”? What images do certain words produce in speaker and hearer, if they come from different linguistic and cultural contexts? Are the images compatible in speaker and listener? In SIPCC meetings we operate mostly in two languages, and it is interesting to observe the linguistic misunderstandings and how they affect the emotions. Many times it happens that misunderstandings do not originate through errors in translation, but from different interpretations of terms in the other language. Language is not static, it moves. As in care and counselling listening plays a major role in intercultural and inter-religious exchange. Both sides have to have the chance to express themselves, and tell their stories from different sides until the listener gets the impression of coming close to the meaning of the words. And the speakers have to direct themselves to the listeners; they have to stay in contact to them, relating to them. That is a good exercise and needs a lot of patience.

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Family Human beings like most animals start their life in families – and they live in one or another form through their whole life in families. But there are different family models shaped by culture and living conditions that make it difficult simply to talk about the family. When people from India, Africa or the United States are speaking about “my family,” what is on their mind? When Turkish patients in a German hospital expect the visit of “the family,” who will come? When a German patient in the hospital is telling the chaplain that he has good relationships to “his family,” whom does he include? Care and counselling with people from our own, but especially from other, cultures have to understand the respective family structures of people to understand the person: how she or he is living in community, who is sustaininghim or her not only emotionally but economically and spiritually. Of course, there is the possibility that certain family structures are poisonous and destructive, that traditional structures have become outdated, and care and counselling has to deal with that too. Quite often counselling an individual is at the same time a sort of family counselling. And family counselling in different contexts has to take many different forms and methods. Systemic and intercultural approaches are supporting each other in care and counselling. Religion When you meet people from other religions, you will encounter persons with convictions that are essential to them and part of their identity. For religious people, these beliefs are ultimate truths that are non-negotiable. How can we converse on religion and deep conviction when people hold theirs as fundamental? You can inform each other about your faith, but for most it is what is done that shows “faith”. It is very valuable to exchange information about our own religion, the contents, rituals, ethical standards and the everyday practices and how all of that was formed through tradition and how it can be understood today. But it would still be talking “about”. To go into a personal encounter about religion and truth means to share with others one’s own spiritual life, with all its joys and doubts, opening one’s own heart intimately, sharing confidence and hope, unrest and despair. We could share how faith shapes our lives. We could show what role religion plays in our personal biography, how it has become a resource for life and the points where we struggle with religious traditions. Such exchange not only requires mutual respect for the religious experiences of the other, but mutual appreciation. This is not 103

easy because religious truths always have a claim of “personal certainty”. Certainty is not meant as an ultimate “security” in oneself. Certainty and confidence is formed in dialogue and in relation to the “ultimate reality” of each religion, that is, in relation to what concerns us ultimately. These certainties become “truths” only in relationship. If truths, certainties, confidence and claims of ultimate concerns (even if we call them divine) are perceived as expression of relationships to our “ultimate reality”, they can become fruitful for inter-religious communication.

SIPCC – an open space for the development of a hermeneutics of intercultural and inter-religious care and counselling The encounters of different people with their life and faith stories, with their beliefs and cultural and religious influences, always develop a dynamic that can be full of strangeness, tension, surprise, pain and blissful togetherness. Encounters in this – especially emotional – diversity with openness and respect are often accompanied with uncertainty and in some cases even with unconscious harm. It is therefore necessary to reflect again and again on the processes of encountering. They require an intercultural and inter-religious hermeneutics. During the many meetings and discussions in SIPCC we have found this to be a key question to understand what is going on in encounters with others: how can we, being strange to each other, go into relation? How can relationship take place in difference? Our answer: in each situation of encountering, we have to build up “relationship in difference”. We have to start with recognizing that we are Others to each other. From there we can try to come closer to each other emotionally or in finding a common third point to which we can relate together. Schleiermacher (the theologian and translator of Greek philosophers) said: normally we misunderstand each other, because we come from another “world”, and we have to bring these worlds into a dialogue to come closer to each other. In SIPCC we are offering open spaces for this “translation work”: to learn to “read” the signs and the communication of others and to search for their meaning – despite diversity. Intercultural and inter-religious encounters clearly reveal what is constitutive of all work in care and counselling, namely, to become open to others and to meet them with one’s own personal being. This hermeneutical principle of difference in relationship provides an important clue for human encounter and caring action. SIPCC offers learning experiences in many forms: International Seminars and other conferences, study trips and courses and through re104

flecting on our experiences in a variety of publications. 18 In order to promote intercultural and inter-religious learning and to develop the hermeneutics and theory building in our field, as mentioned earlier, we have established a Study Group for enhancing the processes in our meetings and a Research Network to do interdisciplinary research on intercultural and inter-religious care and counselling. Understanding culture When we talk about “culture” and “religion,” some explanation is needed regarding what these terms mean in our context, since both are understood in many ways. For care and counselling and for communication it seems to me that the description of Clifford Geertz, a U.S. anthropologist and ethnologist, is very helpful. He states that cultures are “networks of meanings”.19 Without these networks of meaning, people remain animals, because we need guidance and control mechanisms for our behavior, which are not genetically given to us as they are to animals.20 Humans “spin a web of meaning” to communicate and to have orientation to appropriate behavior.21 Culture as a system of signs and symbols and as a net of meaning is continuously changing. A continuous discourse has to go on about meaning under ever-changing circumstances. Since the circumstances are different from person to person, from country to country, from tradition to tradition and so on, the search for meaning is an intercultural search in all fields of life: we have to go into relationship with others to listen to their expressions and needs and to tell them what we need ourselves. “Culture as network” means: being with others, being in communion and taking responsibility for social developments. Intercultural hermeneutics understands the expressions (words, gestures, behaviour, etc.) of others not only as individual expression, but as embedded into a collective “sign system”, which he/she shares with some 18

See http://www.ekir.de/sipcc/publikationen/. Cf. C. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, Basic Books, 1973, 5: “Believing, with Max Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs.” Page 12: “Culture consists of socially established structures of meaning.” 20 Ibid., 49: “Without men, no culture, certainly; but equally, and more significantly, without culture, no men”. 21 Ibid., 44: “Culture is best seen not as complexes of concrete behavior patterns – customs, usages, traditions, habit clusters – as has, by and large, been the case up to now, but as a set of control mechanisms – plans, recipes, rules, instructions (what computer engineers call ‘programs’) – for the governing of behavior… Man is precisely the animal most desperately dependent upon such extra-genetic, outside-the-skin control mechanisms, such cultural programs, for ordering behavior.” 19

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others and which has become a “second nature”. But at the same time his/her expressions have to be taken individually and even if they can be understood by all humans to some extent. The “system of signs” always includes different levels and is plural in itsself. Even my own expressions are to be understood as a system of signs that is ambiguous and plural. In intercultural communication we encounter diverse complex “worlds” that can only be understood when we reflect on them and go into communication with them. Understanding of religion Religion can be viewed as a particular “culture”, as “socially established structures of meaning”. However, culture and religion have to be distinguished. The theologian Gerd Theißen helps us to understand the difference when he writes: “Religion is a cultural system of signs that promises fulfilment of life by correspondence to an ultimate reality.”22 He continues: “What is so special about the religious system of signs? It can be characterized as a combination of three forms of expression that are coming together only in religion: myth, ritual and ethics.”23 However, religion is not fixed, but is formed in living myth, ritual and ethics. Every religion is based on basic stories, rituals and practice of behaviour, but religion becomes meaningless when it is not “practiced”. Religion is an interpretation of reality and life that helps us to reflect on the significance of our daily lives, provides an overall context and supplies meaning and purpose. If we accept this understanding of religion, we discover that pastoral care is a form of religious communication: it strives to bring to everyday reality of life the context of the “ultimate reality” – in Christian terms: to connect life with God, who revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. Steps of understanding in intercultural and inter-religious communication Intercultural and inter-religious communications indicate complex dynamics in the encounter between people of different cultural and religious systems. To promote cultural and religious understanding in all difference, I propose the following steps: a) sharing stories of our existential situations (i.e. not talking that is detached from the reality of life, but understanding such existential situations as a starting point for encounter; 22 23

G. Theißen, Die Religion der ersten Christen. Eine Theorie des Urchristentums, 2001, 19. Ibid., 21.

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b) exploring cultural and religious interpretations of these situations and the meaning of them; c) reflecting on the background of these interpretations (this includes addressing the cultural and religious traditions and resources and dialogue with the “fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters” who are involved); d) verifying what interpretations are currently applicable to the situations described (reality check); e) if needed, looking for new, more helpful interpretations; f) listening to how people from different religious and cultural traditions interpret the situation; g) entering with them into an open conversation, even if the interpretations are controversial. In such processes, relationship takes place – even if differences and misunderstandings remain. SIPCC – a learning experience in intercultural and inter-religious competence The activities of SIPCC enhance intercultural and inter-religious competencies. Emotional, rational and spiritual learning grows through encounters, reflections and understanding the interpersonal dynamics of people who are different from ourselves. The aim is to teach identity and relatedness as basic means of care and counselling and living together in societies. Personal and spiritual confidence and trust of oneself and the appreciation of cultural and religious convictions of others come together. In an open discourse, changes and learning become possible. To improve intercultural and inter-religious competencies means learning how to deal with the familiar and foreign, with individual and cultural weaknesses, with regressive and sometimes aggressive impulses in dealing with strangers and what is strange to us. It is about unbearable feelings of powerlessness, fear of failure, hurts and pain in oneself and in others and, if possible, to use the crises experienced in encounters with others in productive and creative ways. Crises, uncertainty and helplessness can be understood as a challenge and an opportunity of understanding and relationship. Communication becomes sensitive to intimacy and distance, to closeness and defence and to understanding and not understanding. All persons involved in intercultural and inter-religious situations can reasonably be expected to remain in conversation, even if it runs on different levels of interaction and communication. When faults occur, they do not revoke either the conversation or the relationship; if 107

we keep talking and relating,, it is possible to make the disorder itself the subject of communication. This may create a joint effort that aims to bring the process to a mutual understanding again. The aim of SIPCC is to reinforce such abilities and make them useful for care and counselling. Summary SIPCC understands itself as a “learning community”. Our association sees its task as helping people to develop their cultural and religious identity and to relate to people with identities different from our own. In an open and at the same time protected space people may experiment in dealing with others, may learn and test themselves. It is important that others may remain different from us, they do not have to adapt and to resign - and yet those others may change in the exchange with us. In this way, diversity is lived, the exercise of power is reduced and togetherness is strengthened. Differences can be seen, endured and appreciated. At the same time, it is important to seek understanding and interpersonal similarities, to show that people are equal in dignity and share valuable experiences. Thus, integration and inclusion can be learned and the cohesion of societies promoted. The learning community focuses its activities on care and counselling: Concern for people in their concrete life is the connecting reference point. The specific living conditions of people form the fundamental point of reference, which helps us not to circle around ourselves but see what is going on “outside”. Concern for others becomes the common task. The perception of the respective contexts of people and their impact on the physical and psychological conditions of those people are essential in order to go into relationship and to be helpful to them. Intercultural and interfaith care and counselling is learning with concrete people and their specific needs, difficulties, problems – and joys. Through including cultural, religious, economic, social and historical contexts, care and counselling becomes a socially relevant activity and reinforces learning in civil responsibility and participation. Inter-religious and intercultural care and counselling is learning in spirituality. It occurs in relation to an “ultimate reality” that can be named and believed in differently, but can be seen as a creative force that seeks and donates confidence in life. Caring for people is connected with this ultimate reality in practice and its spiritual and theological grounding. This leads to realising one’s own human limitations and to humbleness towards the power that “is greater than ourselves” and to the people who seek help and give help. 108

Spiritual Screening in a Secular Context Wim Smeets & Anneke de Vries

Among the many screening instruments used in medical settings, spiritual screening instruments serve to assess the patient’s spiritual situation. In the most commonly used tools, originating from the USA, some church or religious affiliation of the patient is typically assumed. For that reason, they seem less appropriate for use with patients without such affiliation. The challenge, then, is to create new tools that take into account the phenomenon of secularization. In this paper, we present some data on secularization in the Netherlands, the USA, and specifically in Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen (1). At our Research Institute for Pastoral and Spiritual Care, Radboud UMC, and in cooperation with the SPIRIT research center and with colleagues from Belgium, we have been working on a new spiritual screening instrument, to be used in a secularized context (2). We end our presentation with some questions and thoughts for further consideration (3).

1 Secularization The Netherlands For decades now, spiritual caregivers have been active in most Dutch hospitals and other medical institutions. Initially, as most patients were affiliated to a specific (religious) tradition, it was natural for them to expect to see a spiritual caregiver. However, that situation has come to change. 24 By now, ‘[t]he Netherlands is one of the most secularized countries in the Western world’, as Hans Knippenberg, a professor of political and cultural geography at the University of Amsterdam, has put it.25 Some statistics26 may illustrate this. The following tables show that in recent years, religious affiliation in the Netherlands has decreased (Ta-

24

According to Luckmann, this change already started back in the 60s. Thomas Luckmann, The Invisible Religion. The Problem of Religion in Modern Society. London: Macmillan. 1967 25

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/226127904_Secularization_in_the_Netherlands_in_its_h istorical_and_geographical_dimensions. 26 Hans Schmeets & Carly van Mensvoort, Religieuze betrokkenheid van bevolkingsgroepen 2010-2014. CBS Statistics Netherlands, The Hague/Heerlen 2015/11.

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ble 1), particulary among younger people (Table 2). Ever fewer people attend religious ceremonies (Table 3). Table 1. Religious Affiliation in the Netherlands (% of Population) None

Rom. Cath.

Protestants Muslims

Other

Total

2010

45

27

18

5

5

100

2014

49

24

16

5

6

100

Table 2. Religious Affiliation by Age in the Netherlands (% of Age Group)

2010 2014

18-25 yrs

75+ yrs

49 41

73 72

Table 3. Attendance of Religious Ceremonies in the Netherlands (% of Population)

2010 2014

Rarely/Never

< Once a Week

Once a Week

Total

74 77

16 13

10 10

100 100

Changing U.S. Religious Landscape Even if the Netherlands is an extreme case, the trend of secularization is shared by many European countries and even the United States. Between 2007 and 2014, the Christian share of the population in the United States fell from 78.4% to 70.6%, driven mainly by declines among mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics. The unaffiliated experienced the strongest growth, and the share of Americans that belong to nonChristians faiths also increased.27

27

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/pf_1505-05_rls2_1_310px/

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Table 4. Religious Affiliation in the United States (% of Population)

Evang. Protestant Mainline Protestant Roman Catholic Unaffiliated Non-christian Faiths No response

2007

2014

26.3 18.1 29.3 16.1 4.7 5.5

25.4 14.7 20.8 22.8 5.9 10.4

As these summary statistics show, mainstream Christian churches are losing momentum, whereas unaffiliatedness and non-Christian faiths are on the rise. The religious landscape is changing, becoming more volatile and less predictable.28 Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen Radboud University Medical Center is situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, close to the German border. The decrease of religious affiliation is clearly noticeable here, even if most of the patients are in the older age groups. The decreased attendance of religious ceremonies is also reflected in our weekly services. Radboud UMC has 626 useable beds and an average occupancy of 74% (in 2015).29 At the Sunday morning worship, the average attendance of patients amounts to 6. All of the spiritual caregivers at Radboud UMC have a religious affiliation. Three of us (including Wim Smeets) are Roman Catholics, two (including Anneke de Vries) are Protestants, and one of us is a Muslim. To each of us, faith is important, not just professionally but at a personal level as well. 2 Spiritual Screening Before secularization set in, it was quite common for patients to ask for spiritual care. Also, a patient would know what to expect at their bedside: a Christian clergyman (or, occasionally, clergywoman). This situation has changed dramatically: only rarely do patients by themselves seek the help of a spiritual caregiver nowadays. Many patients do not seem to be 28

Vermeer, P. (2015). Church Growth and Appealing Sermons: A Case Study of a Dutch Megachurch. Journal of Empirical Theology, 28, 1, 1-22. 29 Radboudumc Annual Report 2015.

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aware of the very existence of spiritual care as a discipline, or they may think that, as non-Christians, they are not eligible for it. We are convinced, however, that many patients, including non-believers, could benefit greatly from spiritual care. The question, then, is: how do we know which patients need spiritual care, if they no longer ask for it themselves? In view of the total number of patients in the Radboud UMC, it is impossible to go and see each and everyone of them.30 Some form of triage or ‘spiritual screening’ is needed. Various instruments for spiritual screening have been developed. To assess patients’ spiritual reactions to being hospitalized, a much-used tool is Kenneth Pargament’s Religious Coping Scale.31 Knowing how people cope with being ill, we are better prepared to take a decision about offering spiritual care.32 The underlying concept of the Pargament scale is a personal, acting God. Patients’ reactions fall into three main categories: (a) God will solve my problem and I am waiting for Him; (b) I have to solve my problem myself; (c) God and I are working on my problem together. In a secularized context, the religious character of the Pargament scale would definitely seem to make it less suitable as a spiritual screening instrument. Therefore, we have tried an alternative scale, the Receptive Coping Scale by Hans Alma, Jos Pieper and Rien van Uden. 33 This questionnaire is formulated so as to allow for patients to expect help from God or from somewhere else. The Receptive Coping Scale (Alma, Pieper & Van Uden) People deal differently with difficult situations. The following statements describe several ways of dealing with difficulties. Please read each statement carefully. Then please tick the box that best describes how often you deal with difficult situations in this particular way [never, sometimes, regularly, often, always]. 1 When I have problems, I trust that it will be revealed to me eventually why I am going through this. 30

In 2015 the hospital had 29,520 patients in the clinic, 99,574 outpatient first visits, 37,750 day care patients. There are 6 spiritual caregivers in the hospital and 5 spiritual caregivers in training. 31 Kenneth Pargament, The psychology of religion and coping. Theory, research, practice. New York: The Guilford Press, 1997. 32 Uden, M. van, Pieper, J., Eersel, J. van, Smeets, W. & Laarhoven, H. van (2013). Ritual Counseling and the Religious Coping Processes in Cancer Patients. In: H. Westerink (ed.). Constructs of Meaning and Religious Transformation (pp. 259-273). Vienna University Press: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 33 Hans Alma, Jos Pieper & Rien van Uden, “"When I find myself in times of trouble..." Pargament's Religious Coping Scales in the Netherlands.” Archiv für Religionspsychologie, 2003, 24, 64-74.

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2 In difficult situations I trust that a way out will present itself. 3 When I am worried, I have faith based on previous experiences when a way out was provided. 4 When I wonder how to solve a problem, I trust that a solution will be presented to me in due course. 5 After a period of difficulties, the deeper significance of my problems will be revealed to me. 6 In difficult situations I am open to solutions that present themselves. 7 In solving my problems I am sometimes struck by the way things just fall into place. 8 When I am in difficulty I trust that a solution will be found for me. In our experience, this questionnaire does assess patients’ coping strategies differently from what we see in rather more ‘religious’ tools. It may therefore be useful in a secularized context. However, spirituality is not just about coping. We need tools to assess a patient’s spiritual situation more broadly. Therefore Annemie Dillen, Jessie Dezutter, Laurien Schrijver and Wim Smeets, in collaboration with a SPIRIT research group in Nijmegen, have developed an alternative screening instrument.34 It is based on the well-known model by George Fitchett 35 and uses five ‘dimensions’ derived from those defined by Glock & Stark:36 cognition (convictions, beliefs), ethics (norms and values), experience (emotions, affections), connectedness (being part of a community), and ritual. To these, a coping dimension, derived from Fitchett, was added. Questionnaire Dillen, Dezutter, Schrijver & Smeets – draft version Your experience of being in hospital 34

Schrijver, Laureen, Jessie Dezutter, Annemie Dillen en Wim Smeets, “Zinbeleving in het ziekenhuis. Een pilotstudie in Nederland en Vlaanderen”, in Handelingen. Tijschrift voor praktische theologie en religiewetenschap 2013: 1, pp.64-69. 35 George Fitchett, Assessing Spiritual Needs. A Guide for Caregivers. Augsburg: Fortrass 1993. 36 Glock, C.Y. & R. Stark, Religion and Society in Tension. Chicago: Rand MacNally 1965. The dimensions are often referred to as: belief, knowledge, experience, practice/ritual, and consequences.

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We are interested in how you feel about being in hospital. What sorts of things do you think about? What is on your mind? Please answer by circling the number that best fits your experience. 1: not at all

2: hardly at all

3: a bit

4: quite a lot

5: a lot

At the moment I am thinking about: 1. why this happened to me [1 2 3 4 5] 2. what matters to me in life 3. making choices about my treatment 4. contact with people I feel a bond with in my present situation 5. my faith, beliefs and / or other sources of inspiration 6. death 7. the agitation or anxiety I feel 8. decisions about my situation 9. things about my experience that I want to discuss with my loved ones 10. finding hope / future prospects 11. the meaning of my life 12. how others see me in my current situation 13. learning to cope with my grief 14. looking for sources of support 15. beautiful, profound experiences I have had during my life 16. why I fell ill 17. what matters to me most in life 18. what my future will be like 19. pain and suffering 20. how I can accept my situation 21. what my loved ones and I can do for each other 22. what I expect from life 23. the question: ‘Is there life after death?’ 24. whether I am accepted as I am 25. the main theme running through my life 26. enjoying the moments that make life worth living 27. the people who are important to me 28. looking back on my life 29. how to deal with my thoughts and feelings 30. the support I experience in the hospital 31. where I find support 32. what gives me strength 33. other things such as: 114

In several trials, this screening instrument – whose wording has yet to be finalized – has been seen to provide a nuanced, possibly realistic picture of the patient’s spiritual situation. As it appears, patients typically focus on positive aspects of spirituality, such as important life values, profound experiences, supportive contacts, hope. Even without religious affiliation, the experience of somehow being connected can be a source of meaning. 3 Discussion and recommendations Western Europe and the USA are going through a process of secularization, which affects the work of spiritual caregivers in health care institutions. Religious affiliation can no longer be taken for granted and patients can no longer be trusted to ask for spiritual care when they need it. Also, the existing screening instruments for detecting patients who might benefit most from spiritual care and counselling are no longer appropriate, as their wordings are strongly religious. As far as spiritual coping with illness and suffering is concerned, our first experiences suggest that the Receptive Coping Scale by Alma, Pieper & Van Uden could be a good alternative to traditional instruments such as the Religious Coping Scale by Pargament. In addition, in order to assess a patient’s spiritual situation more broadly, we are developing a new screening instrument, based on work by Fitchett, Glock & Stark, and others. This tool has yielded promising first results. Our screening experiences raise at least three questions concerning, first, the role of screening in spiritual care, second, the relation between practice and research in our profession, and third, cooperation with other health care disciplines. It is a legitimate question whether any spiritual screening should be performed at all. Shouldn’t the offer of spiritual care be extended to all patients? Indeed, if there are sufficient spiritual caregivers to go and see each and every new patient, screening is unnecessary. And in fact, during our workshop at the ICPCC conference in San Francisco, it turned out that there are health care institutions in some countries where such is the case. Of course, a personal conversation offers a better way of exploring the spiritual situation of a patient than any questionnaire ever would – even if, as we have noticed, a questionnaire may yield valuable additional information. Such fortunate circumstances, however, are rare and may become even more exceptional in the future. This is due to two factors: first, the numbers of spiritual caregivers in our societies appear to be under pressure; and second, as periods of hospitalization tend to be shorter, it becomes ever more difficult to visit each and every patient. Inevitably, therefore, spiritual care in health care institutions will increasingly focus 115

on assessing a patient’s spiritual needs, on short term counselling, and subsequent referral to colleagues in the patient’s home situation. Second, some colleagues have refrained from doing any screening, arguing that screening, as a research instrument, does not correspond to how they view their job, viz. wholly dedicated to practice. In our view, practice and research should not be separated, let alone played off against each other. Doing that would jeopardize our profession. For its continuing development, practice needs the results yielded by research, while research cannot be noncommittal but should be concerned with real-life issues. This being said, it does make sense to set up research projects allowing for the testing of elaborate instruments, while for day-to-day use, shorter versions of those instruments should be provided, so as not to place too heavy a burden on the shoulders of patients and caregivers. Third, by whom could the task of performing spiritual screening best be performed? We tend to think the ideal answer would be: one of the healthcare professionals. Nurses and doctors are with the patient on a daily basis. Integrated health care, pursued by our hospital among many other institutions, entails responsibility for all aspects of a patient’s wellbeing, including the spiritual aspect. In practice, however, this is hardly feasible, as health care professionals are generally overburdened. They lack the time, the competence, and often the personal commitment to handle this aspect of their jobs.37 This is an unresolved issue. We would like to end this brief presentation with some recommendations for the future. In our view, spiritual caregivers would be well advised to get more deeply acquainted with the practice of screening the patient’s spiritual situation. Sharing their experiences with each other, they can contribute to the continued development of this aspect of our profession. More work should be done on the development of questionnaires such as the ones presented here. In particular, an inventory of all such instruments used worldwide would be a most welcome contribution to spiritual care in the global village. ICPCC provides an excellent network to achieve that goal. Spiritual screening might also become a useful element in intercultural communication and care. How to formulate screening questions when engaging in spiritual care contacts with Muslim or Hindu patients, or adherents of new spiritual movements? Spiritual screening in the global village encourages spiritual caregivers to develop

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Pieper, J., Hijweege, N. &, Smeets, W. (2016). Attentiveness to Religious/Spiritual Coping and Meaning Questions of Patients. A Survey among Physicians in Dutch Academic Hospitals. Journal of Empirical Theology, 29, 1-23.

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a new spiritual competence, beyond denominational affilation.38 Earlier, the international network for the spiritual dimension in palliative care has identified research on screening as a top priority. Finally, the work by pioneers such as Hiltner and Clinebell contains very interesting examples of the interplay between screening/diagnosis, care, and counselling. In a very erudite manner, these scholars explored their client’s spiritualities and found ways of interacting with them. The present era needs a new erudition, using insights from spiritual care, empirical theology, and religious studies, including a fruitful dialectic between narrative and quantitative knowledge about the people we care for. According to Luckmann, this change already started back in the 60s. Thomas Luckmann, The Invisible Religion. The Problem of Religion in Modern Society. London: Macmillan. 1967 1

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/226127904_Secularization_in_t he_Netherlands_in_its_historical_and_geographical_dimensions. 1 1

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Smeets, W. & Morice-Calkhoven, T. (2015). From Ministry Towards Spiritual Competence. Changing Perspectives in Spiritual Care in the Netherlands. In H. Schilderman (Ed.), The Concept of Religion. Defining and Measuring Contemporary Beliefs and Practices (pp. 103-129). Leiden: Brill.

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Challenges, Dangers, Benefits of Attending to Social Crisis and Justice Issues in CPE Formation for Ministry Barbara Sheehan Abstract: This paper identifies some of the dynamics of present day social reality and the root causes creating major crises within it. In light of these dynamics and causes it explores pastoral identities, skills and reflections relevant to address today’s critical social and justice issues. It highlights the dangers, challenges and benefits in waking up to reality in preparing pastoral practitioners and concludes with a review of some curriculum components of the Urban Clinical Pastoral Education Consortium, Inc. program in Chicago, Illinois. This program has a specific focus on forming socially and justice-oriented pastoral practitioners.

Introduction The world we live in is fraught with critical issues impacting people and earth. There is an imbalance within our societies toward injustice and the perpetuation of pain, hurt and dehumanization. The world we live in cries out or, more adequately, screams out for those of us who profess care, train others as compassionate care practitioners, claim spiritual practices and beliefs. It cries WAKE UP! Waking up is risky, dangerous and filled with potential benefits consistent with living as persons who profess to be caring, compassionate and life-giving people grounded in love for all. It means developing a deeper spiritual base of resistance to what is happening, forming others as relevant and effective pastoral care providers, and offering direct services that build a path for right relationships and fullness of life for all. Waking up takes consciousness raising, deliberate engagement and practice. This means that the transformation of our pastoral education programs to meet the needs of today is a formidable endeavor. Yet, as the Talmud reminds us, “You are not expected to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” 39 For, “Caminante no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.”40 From the Pirkel Avot or “Ethics of the Fathers” section of the Talmud. We make the path by walking it. “Proverbios y cantares XXIX” translated by Betty Jean Craige in Selected Poems of Antonio Machado . Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, LA. (1979). 39 40

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Walter Brueggemann 41 assists in the naming and claiming of what is happening in the local and global world and how to engage in the pastoral role of transformation. He notes that first a vision of what ought to be is to be articulated. From that vision, experienced reality is critiqued and followed by imagining and fostering an alternative hope for the people of God and earth. In light of this pathway, Brueggemann purports that there are three urgent prophetic tasks for today: “the articulation of reality that is too often disguised by our ideology of exceptionalism, the performance of grief about loss in response to the denial that the ideology of exceptionalism is unsustainable, and articulation of hope in response to despair that variously produces moralism, hedonism and violence.”42 Recognizing and claiming reality, lamenting what has been lost through a critique of reality and fostering hope in new and creative ways of living into a vision of wholeness and justice for all are the pastoral and spiritual needs of today’s local and global world. Expressing a vision of how the social fabric of humanity and all creation is intended will raise up both conscious and unconscious factors impacting the life of believers and how they engage others. This vision has diverse origins. Perhaps it has been formed from religious tradition stories of all created good or from the understanding of present day cosmology of the interconnectedness and impact of all upon all or from other spiritualities or faith contexts. This expression of a vision often illustrates the concepts and theologies embedded within persons (or communities) and is the lens through which they look in choosing their actions in the world. It helps to note whether the vision is that of a just society of right relationships, of inclusiveness and equality for all or of a society in which autonomy, individual rights, survival of the fittest, and exclusion of some prevail. It may be a person’s or community’s first wakeup call about their actions, values and beliefs in their alignment with or disconnection from each other. Beginning to be more conscious of these interconnections is “risky” yet is the first step on the path toward healing and the health of society.

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Brueggemann, Walter. Prophetic Imagination. 2nd Edition Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, MN. (2011). 42

Brueggemann, Walter. Reality, Grief, Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks. William B. Erdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI. (2014), 2.

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Social reality The endeavor of transformative healing of self and society continues in the identifying and grasping, as wholly as possible, the experiences of people in a variety of social locations. This awareness demands careful listening to the stories of those within and outside of one’s particular social reality. Stories are both verbal and observable as one listens with open ears and non-blindfolded eyes. It often means being open to hearing difficult, sometimes unbelievable, stories and pushing back denial, suspicion or avoidance of one’s reality and that of others. Cultural and ethnic patterns, gender identifications, sexual orientations, economic diversities, racial constructs, religious and spiritual practices constitute the social fabric. Within this tapestry there are authentic and life-giving interactions. There are also death-dealing realities hurting people and communities. Some of the critical social issues are: violence of words, physical violence, sexual violence, violence of guns and discrimination, poverty, human trafficking, destruction of earth, war, refugees, and health care disparity. There is a disregard for the Divine as some make God in their own image with emphasis on power-over and advantage. There are oppressors and oppressed, the oppressed sometimes becoming the oppressors. There are those with privilege and those without privilege. There is a hierarchy where some are “above” and some are “below.” Some voices are heard and others are never included. Critique of reality How might we critique the reality based on a vision of justice? One of the best ways is to boldly name some of the root causes of these issues. A primary undercurrent is the use (abuse) of power to dominate and control. This relational dynamic of one group of people being superior over another group is prevalent in the “isms” of our world: classism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, homophobism, individualism, religious superiorism. The domination of thinking and acting that one group is better than another group creates a system in which some experience advantage and some face disadvantage, some belong and others by virtue of some “norm” are excluded. There are oppressors and others who are oppressed. Usually the “norm” has been set up by the more dominate group. These “isms” are not isolated as individual entities but are intricately connected in the lives of diverse people and communities. Systems are in motion with designated “gatekeepers” such as laws, ideologies and media mes120

sages that perpetuate these “isms.” Though of different origins each “ism” is a force against equal and just living for all. A second root cause that creates critical social crises is the manifestation of results of the first mentioned cause of “isms.” Systems that oppress and are managed to keep some in and some out of the life-giving dynamics of equality and inclusion set up a mentality of scarcity. Systems that are more inclusive, making decisions based on respect for diverse voices and opinions including those impacted by the decision tend to set up a mentality of abundance. The social crises of today create living with a mentality of scarcity in greater proportion to those living with a mentality of abundance.43 Neither of these mentalities is about money or acquisitions when considered within social realities. They are embodiments of thought created from feelings of fear (scarcity) and love (abundance).44 Media messages, religious and theological concepts, historical inequalities, solidarity and collaborative communities are some sources of perpetuating a particular mentality. Scarcity mentality is living from an inner core of fear. Fear of the other. Fear of punishment. Fear of life itself. This living bears a sense of “there is not enough,” of “I am not safe,” of “others cannot be trusted.” Scarcity mentality creates competition as the source of survival in a life of isolation and individualistic existence. Anger, judgment of others and self, and attacking behaviors are common elements of a scarcity mentality. Cultures that are individualistic and prone to individualism are often (but not all members adhere to it) cultures with a scarcity mentality who perpetuate living fearfully. Scarcity is often set up in social structures and language (“pull yourself up be your boot straps,” survival of the fittest, messages of life isn’t safe, be afraid, be aware of the other). Competition where some lose and few win and where some are better than others is prevalent in the social fabric. One needs to check out media messages,

43

Scarcity and Abundance Mentality concept was first coined by Steve Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In using this concept I am not aligning myself with the manner in which he spoke of the people with these concepts. For me, Covey’s narratives have biases that I do not share and lack an awareness of the systemic underpinnings that assist in creating these mentalities. Nonetheless, I am grateful for his raising it up for us. Also, Robert White, “The Laws of Scarcity and Abundance,” Living an Extraordinary Life (2008), 34-35. 44 See charts at end of this article.

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social guidelines and other sources as well as personal language used for near-home examples. A mentality of abundance is based on love and communal concepts where one has confidence that there are resources in sharing creatively and justly what there is to have. This mentality creates a sense of “there is enough,” we are a community, together we will not only survive but we can thrive. Love and inclusion are the basis of a mentality of abundance. Abundance is often set up in social structures that foster a winwin situation, a sense of “we are sisters and brothers, what happens to one happens to all,” we instead of I statements and a sense of together we can make this happen. A third root cause is an embedded lived theology in which power-over by some and subservience to that power by others is a constituent element in living God’s creative purpose of creation. Unexamined or unreflected religious/spiritual practices that collude with, give meaning to or spiritualize oppression and dehumanization create great imbalances and injustices. An example of this sort of lived theology is equating suffering for the poor as God’s special care for their way of earning heaven. To spiritualize God’s “option for the poor” as God’s desire for the suffering of those in poverty sets up a dichotomy that dehumanizes. This concept often includes the thinking that those not suffering poverty are God’s chosen ones. This dichotomy diminishes and divides God’s equal desires for all people. This critique of our social reality reveals that injustice is alive and well. This reality contradicts a vision of all people created in an image of the divine, with dignity, value, worthy of respect and shalom.45 We are a people who hurt, disenfranchise, and cause harm and suffering to others and ourselves. We are oppressors and oppressed. Much is good and yet much is out of focus from the vision God has inspired.46 The interlocking pastoral issues of such a societal assessment are: 1) Fear brought on by experiences of isolation, dismissal, and power-domination of “isms”; 2) Loss of respect, self-worth, identity, belonging, and loss of 45

A Biblical meaning of Shalom is meant here; that is, that all may have what they need to live fully. 46 Micah 6: 8 “{He} has told you, O mortal, what is good; and, what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” In Christianity the life of Jesus tells of living the vision. Each sacred text and tradition has an expressed vision as well.

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community, family, comrades, body parts and functions from war; 3) Disempowerment of voice, value, and personhood. A deep “scream” for healing abounds! Awakened pastoral care practitioners are needed! How ought we to respond to reality in light of this assessment? Alternative hope Bonnie Miller McLemore identifies today’s pastoral responsibility as “Resisting, Empowering and Liberating.”47 Development of such pastoral integrity is the hope that will transform societal ills into a better future where all will have what they need (shalom). This pastoral responsible practice is about joining in the world in freeing ourselves and others to become individuals and communities of justice. Many might argue that these pastoral responsibilities of resisting, empowering and liberating and the prophetic tasks of Brueggemann are not within the realm of pastoral care and education. These are for prophets and only few are called to be prophets some may respond. Yet, is not a prophet’s “task” to nurture, to nourish, to evoke a consciousness and perception that is an alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture from which one suffers? Is that not pastoral care? Is this not the healing for which our world is shouting? Is this not what we as pastoral care providers and pastoral educators ought to be about? Indeed. Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) has a prominent place in the healing needed as a response to the social crises and injustices of our time. The outcome of the stated mission of ACPE, Inc. is to “heal a hurting world.” Application for formation in pastoral education As a formation program for pastoral practice, Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) aids in the development of mature persons as caring practitioners. CPE is called to offer programs to assist the integration and competence of persons to hear the cries of those caught in the realities of social crisis and injustices.

Bonnie Miller McLemore, “Revisiting the Living Human Web: Theological Education in the Role of Clinical Pastoral Education,” Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling, 62, nos. 1-2 (summer 2008), 12. 47

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Awake to a crisis of physical illness as a potential signpost to social disease, today’s practitioners also need to expand their social and self awareness, their pastoral identities, their competency skills and their theological reflective skills for change. We are in a different world of need than in the founding days of CPE. The hurting world is our social milieu wherein crises of pain and sometimes horror abound! We are in a world in which science has opened us to the interconnectedness as well as the smallness of the human in the cosmos. Autonomy alone will not suffice. Mutuality is what we have learned from our study of the universe and its life-perpetuating forces. Isolation or blindness to ourselves and others as relational beings is out of sync with our knowing the impact of our actions on others. We know the devastations of broken fidelity to God, self and others. CPE programs that focus on developing pastorally responsible persons to meet today’s needs offer hope within a world fraught with social crises and injustices. It is in this focus and in those who mature as compassionate broad-based care-givers that the voices of those who cry WAKE UP have been listened to. And people thrive with healing hope. URBAN CPE CONSORTIUM, INC, focus and components Urban Clinical Pastoral Education Consortium, Inc., a fully accredited ACPE Center, is a not-for-profit consortium of social agencies and theological schools in Chicago, Illinois. 48 Its mission is the formation of compassionate persons whose care includes the spiritual, systemic and personal issues impacting an individual or group. Its values are respect, dignity for all, mutuality of power, quality experiential growth, nonviolence and the justice of right relationships. Its “table of organization” is a tree (no hierarchical sticks!) rooted in the city whose base of students, supervisor, and committees is nurtured by the city and whose member branches are nourished by and give nurture to the trunk, the Center. Urban CPE Consortium (UCPEC) seeks to educate the whole person to be awake, socially aware, sufficiently integrated with skills and a sense of pastoral identity and reflection to be a justice-based community leader.

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The consortium has an open application process for CPE and is not limited to applications from its members.

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Urban CPE students serve with those at one of the consortium agencies. They care primarily with those on the margins. A sample of those cared with are homeless adults, isolated elderly, uninsured persons with HIV/AIDS, immigrants without resources, LGBTQ homeless youth, underserved mentally and physically ill, and domestic violence victims. The students and site supervisors (mentors) are involved in the site selection process through interviewing and priority setting. The final assignments are made by the ACPE Supervisor, the match-maker of priorities! The ministry work generally begins a few days prior to the direct CPE group orientation. UCPEC has examined the traditional concepts of preparing persons solely for the functions of sustaining, shepherding, or guiding. Based on McLemore’s pastoral responsibilities and its own reflections and grasp of the pastoral needs of today, UCPEC forms persons equipped to become Ministers of Lamentation and of Reconciliation, Community Shapers of Mutual Empowerment, and Persons-In-Community. These pastoral identities are a necessary shift that impacts the curriculum that engages in the formation of effective pastoral practitioners. Engaging and reflecting on social reality “straight on” through this direct immersion is “dangerous.” It affects the system of ACPE, the Center system and may disrupt the CPE student’s concepts and protectiveness. A letting go of the denial of the inconsistencies of beliefs and practices within CPE programs (and ACPE and the Center) and a letting come the grief of loss of certain pastoral and supervisory identities is risky and life-giving. One must claim one’s participation in the critical issues observed as both oppressor and oppressed, as victim and perpetrator directly and indirectly and come to a place of vulnerability and cultural humility that fosters life for all. The CPE Supervisor takes on these dangers as well as students. Yet, we are not free to abandon this work. Identifying Reality in Urban CPE Group and Ministry Sites Formation of group in the Urban CPE program sets the stage for ministry development that includes social context and concerns. Introductions among the CPE peers center on sharing of one’s social location, cultural identity and spiritual values/vision of life. Later in the orientation phase of the direct CPE work, students share their unique story through collages that enable both audible and visual listening. The group milieu becomes more contextually defined at this time. A mapping exercise provides the students with the opportunity to explore the sociological and perhaps relational realities of the people served, the neighboring environment of their ministry site. This mapping is con125

structed from a walking observation that includes attentiveness to who is present, what public and private services are available, what is the economic, cultural, racial, and gender make-up of those served and the neighborhood. It also includes conversations with various folks to hear the stories of their perceptions, history and hopes within the context. A similar observation is required of the students related to their present social location. During this mapping exercise and continually throughout their ministry students are encouraged to listen for how those being served are expressing a mentality of scarcity or a mentality of abundance. This begins the students’ attentiveness as caring persons to the stories of how those served feel and think about themselves and how they perceive themselves within the relational life of society. It is the beginning of identifying issues of isolation, dismissal, lack of respect for one’s embodiment or that of others, and dignity as a person. Initial reflections on the “findings” from this exercise consider what is similar and what is dissimilar between their social location and that of those being served, between those served and the surrounding neighborhood, between those serving and those receiving services. As they share their discoveries with each other from this exercise, students are invited to articulate thoughts and feelings that surfaced (or were just about to surface) within them including questions, insights, prejudices that they noticed. Some are free to share their fear, their desire to deny and/or their philosophical rationale. Others are able to express “What does this all mean for my ministry?” Some tell stories of similar experiences wondering what happened as well as stories of what they call “blessings” of their life. Others may be filled with emotions and some may “numb out” into thoughts and semi-denial. More often than not there is an amazement that lingers with some students of the mentality of abundance among the most deprived. There are numerous expressions of care for one another, bonding and community building, and expressed gratitude for what some might think of as a very small “thing” as they begin to practice in the ministry reflective listening and building empathic connections with others. These early weeks of both direct service and the group work begin the maturation process of removing “blinders,” numbness and/or denial, claiming one’s stereotypes and prejudices. These actions open the students to the needed skills, the art of healthy curiosity, and the development of an attitude of “I do not know and am here to walk with and learn from others.” This is a real challenge and “danger” to those whose identi126

ty is based on being all knowing as well as to those whose experiences have been similar to those on the margins. One’s concept of “parishioners” or “congregants” or “church” is called into review alongside one’s perceived notion based on a more traditional role of what it means to be a faith-spiritual leader today. Reframing and examining one’s vision and values for life in light of what is can be unsettling and a force for new life and new direction for students and their call to serve. Additionally, this mapping exercise teaches CPE students that a first step of good pastoral care is to know the sociological context of peoples’ lives. This involves knowing the dynamics one brings into a relational encounter and the breadth of experiences of those served. Mapping followed by reflective sharing helps the students to grasp experientially that ministry is beyond what they see, think, understand, and theologically conceptualize. Ministry is about what happens between the minister and the seeker of care. Ministry is listening nonjudgmentally, being curious to hear the others’ full story as they wish to tell it and inquires beyond an individualistic perspective. Critiquing Reality Critiquing the experiences of those on the margins has challenges as well. These challenges go beyond the students’ struggles to “fix” which are very real and internally disturbing at times. It promotes crossing boundaries into the lives of “the others” and making space for receiving new insights and shedding prejudices, privileges, self-concepts as “better than” and “blessed.” It can “crack open” (words of a former student) the learned walls and fear of “the other” in discovering one’s own participation in the social suffering and disease. Growth as an integrated practitioner involves naming and claiming one’s privilege and disadvantage, oppressions as well as being oppressed, one’s domination of power as well as subordination, one’s desire for liberation and one’s bondage in community. These disorienting dilemmas offer challenges for growth in seeing oneself in contrast with one’s vision. Reflection challenges the conceptual boundaries of who God is and who humanity is, of what it means to be a faith-based leader, and of the dynamics of the use of power. It is always a challenge to realize one’s impact on others by moving to community thinking and awareness and away from individualistic thinking. The CPE Supervisor reflecting on her/his approach to supervision is challenged equally with the CPE students concerning embedded identity, relational concepts, use (and abuse) of power and active “isms.” Three elements of the program’s syllabus assist in critically assessing experiences. These are understanding of social systems and their func127

tions, the dynamics of “isms” including one’s personal participation and the collective outcomes, and the learning and practice of conflict transformation skills or community organizing skills. Social systems are for building a healthy, vibrant social context for all to thrive. Systems are patterns of interrelationships that exist between individuals, groups and institutions. Within each system there are specific “gatekeepers” whose spoken and unspoken responsibilities are to maintain the given system structure. There also exist decision-makers and persons with power that impact the functioning of the system and the benefits to be derived from it. Analyzing a social system in light of values of equality, inclusion, and well-being for all, questions such as who makes the decisions, who has the power, who doesn’t, who benefits and who is left are questions needing to be asked. The answers to these questions help frame a greater awareness of the pain and hurt and assist in the pastoral plan to aid in empowerment and liberation. A person who focuses on systemic education from a justice organization teaches the basics of social systems and the methods of social analysis to the UCPEC students. The students become involved in analyzing briefly certain systems relevant to the city of Chicago. In this workshop/didactic students gain access to skills in identifying root causes of their experiences. This lays a foundation for further analysis as the students become open to and curious about the root causes of poverty, homelessness, violence and other social injustices. They discover the underlying causes within systems that created injustices. They become aware of the systemic “gatekeepers” in actions, laws, verbiage, media messages that help benefit some and disenfranchise others. The students begin to move from the perspective of ministry with isolated individuals to a perspective of the multiple systemic dynamics impacting a person’s life. Persons can’t pull themselves up by their boot straps when there are gatekeepers making sure they stay down. The UCPEC program also explores this in ministry encounter reports as well as theological reflection sessions related to the theological constructs and systems. Concepts and attitudes that view one group as better than another group or the norm put forth by one group as superior to another create “isms” of power-domination. Racism, classism, sexism, homophobism, heterosexism, theological superiorism have diverse roots yet are about superiorityinferiority. Many students are able to name their privilege and their victimization to oppression yet are not as aware of their participation as oppressors. Naming privilege and victimization, however, doesn’t always help the movement toward greater embodied solidarity with those on the margins. A solidarity of ministry can be the leaven for transforming the social systems of domination. 128

Awareness of the role of the self as an individual and as a part of group within the social fabric of experience enables the student to listen more attentively, to be mutually empathic and to competently act with those in social crisis toward greater dignity and healing. Equally important is for the student to garner a glimpse at his/her responsibility and duty as a citizen to advocate for and participate in organizing for systemic change. The inclusive curriculum exercise first formulated by Rev. Dr. Cameron Byrd, ACPE Supervisor Emeritus, when he was at Howard University is used in UCPEC.49 This exercise invites the students to reflect on their experiences of certain “isms” through family of origin messages about who they were in relation to others, what they were taught about those not like them, through jokes, media, political messages, their sacred rituals, preaching, messages, texts. This exercise attempts to raise consciousness of the ingrained actions and attitudes of oppression and oppressor in each person. Because of the nature of the CPE group membership and that of the contexts of many of the ministries, the group often engages in greater depth the issues of homophobism, sexism and racism50 than other “isms.” It is imperative for students to realize the ongoing systemic dimensions of racism as well as the enormous historical and present pain impacting all people of color that cries for reconciliation of peoples. This is a humbling exercise and one that continues to broaden the scope of skill base in the least to the greatest moments of care and compassion. These exercises along with the practice of mapping and reflective engagement enable greater awareness of those dynamics impacting the relationship with individuals and/or groups. This awareness assists not only in identifying pastoral needs within the social context but also in expressing appropriate and sensitive caring responses. UCPEC offers only single Units of CPE so it is difficult to provide a depth of formation that it desires and perceives as a need in CPE formation programs. Thus, it offers interchangeably a focus on conflict transformation or community organizing. For those students who are in a 2nd CPE Unit or Level II with UCPEC all of the components are deepened with new dimensions of understanding and practice. Conflict transformation comes out of the model of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. The students learn the tools of conflict mediation, helping themselves and others in the ministry to listen 49

See a brief reflection exercise at the end of this article. The roots of racism are quite distinct from other “isms.” The impact of “isms” are not of equal weight yet all are significant and need to be addressed. Many “isms” intersect in persons’ experiences. 50

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to the other, to be responsive to what is heard, and to articulate their needs to be heard. This model aids the students to let go of fear of conflict in general but also in particular among those not like them or those whom they have “learned” are “dangerous.” Community Organizing principles are taught by a religious leader and alum of UCPEC who works as a community organizer for systemic change in the city of Chicago. These principles are outlined and integrated with theological values as part of the role of pastoral leader. Among our alums some now serve in community organizing agencies and are quite involved in the practice of advocacy and local empowerment. Alternative Hope Walter Brueggemann identified grief as a second urgent task on the journey toward hope, liberation and empowerment of all. This prophetic and pastoral task of grieving is in response to the denial that ideologies of privilege or exceptionalism are unsustainable. The amount of denial through ignorance, avoidance, lack of connection managed by the structural “gatekeepers” is widespread within many societies. When denial is broken open by facing and critiquing reality one confronts the gap between the vision of a just society of right relationships and the reality of how people treat each other through a multitude of social and systemic practices. The recognition of what has been lost results in a need to grieve in order to discover creative ways to shape living in liberation and hope, a life of communal healing. Including grief in the UCPE syllabus goes beyond the focus of grief in response to the passing of one’s physical existence. Student grief histories and their reflections on losses of those ministered with include loss of self-respect, dignity, possibilities, security, and educational opportunities. The losses of those on the margins of society also comprise losses of home, of acceptance, of belonging, of freedom to be who one is, of an expected future life, of trusted protection from agencies designed to care for citizens. Facing the realities of these losses can bring one to the edge of the abyss of despair, oppression, and inhumanity. The grieving or lamenting process of individuals and groups of people is painful and liberating. It requires the naming the loss and bravely expressing the emotional response to that loss. These early dynamics of lamenting lead over time to a capacity to live internally freer even in the midst of external injustices. Grieving appropriately (not reacting violently or oppressively in response to violence and oppression) provides the possibility for a person to change from a response of despair to hope, from internalized oppression to living with a sense of worth and dignity. Lamenting enables a clearer perspective on the hurts of the world and opens the imagination to creative healing strategies. Grieving transforms 130

personally and makes way for persons to act together to heal the hurts and injustices among them. As the students engage in the grieving process they are being formed to be ministers of lamentation. More experientially attuned to their broader grief needs, students strengthen their sense of solidarity with those on the margins who live on the edge of life-giving and death-taking and practice empathic skills that foster companioning the other’s appropriate grieving. Instead of perceiving persons whose behavior is violent or otherwise abusive as persons out of control, they see that person as someone who has lost a lot and is deeply crying out for someone to understand and help them yet not to condone their behaviors that harm themselves or others. The same is true of persons dominating others; the losses are very different however. Hope comes from many avenues. Hope brings the possibility of dreams, of sense of empowerment, of liberation. In addition to what this article has addressed so far, hope comes uniquely from the relationship that is built. It is dangerous and enriching to be relationally aligned with a person on the margins. To build such connections demands awareness of one’s use of power in attitude, words, and actions. UCPE is intentional in guiding students to reflect on power dynamics related to their development of pastoral authority in building empathic alliances with those on the margins. As the students reflect on the total context of their ministry encounters (traditionally identified as “verbatims”) they attend to their expressions of power in the relationship. Is it a power of superiority (“you need me to tell you what to do and who you are because you are not capable”), a power of individualism (“I know what is best for you”), a power of religious righteousness (God favors me over you because of I am good). Now, there are always times when we are called to totally take care of someone. Yet, as Rev. Wayne Oates often said, everyone needs to be totally taken care of briefly at times. In contrast to these unilateral power dynamics, mutuality of power dynamics breed hope in respect, dignity, sense of value and worth. Students examine the skills practiced in their encounters. Were they invitations for the other’s story to be told? Were they affirmations that identified the assets of persons and not the social dehumanizing identifiers; e.g. affirming gang members in their sense of community belonging or the homeless in their gifts of resourcefulness and resiliency? In what way did the student express the positive contributions the persons gave to them right here and now? Mutuality of power dynamics aids in a mutual gift exchange of ministry in empowerment and resistance to dehumanization. The force of justice is born through mutuality. 131

Conclusion Benefits abound in WAKING UP and attending to formation for today’s pastoral needs. The overarching benefit is the expansion and solidarity of an awakened community that gives hope in the midst of reality. In this community people are passing on summons and encouragements through sermons, direct action, different living habits, leadership that include more voices and conversation groups that awaken others toward greater justice. There is an aliveness in the midst of facing reality and a greater ongoing reflective process of living faithful to one’s values and spirituality within the social milieu. More people are saying “no” to violence and having confidence that their beliefs call them to serve together for social change. More are aware that as people of spirituality and/or faith they are one key to healing society and bringing about justice. UCPE alums are serving social agencies, congregations, hospitals, synagogues, community organizing entities, advocacy groups, those on the streets, and among families at home. They report greater consciousness, passion and compassion as partners with others for the healing of today’s hurts. They also report the UCPE focus is one of the best formative experiences for staying awake and attending to people’s hurts and healing needs. Let’s embrace the dangers, challenges and benefits of WAKING UP and educate as participants in the healing of injustices within our world!

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URBAN CPE CONSORTIUM, INC. REFLECTING ON RACISM, SEXISM, HETEROSEXISM OUR LEARNED PARTICIPATION & INTERNALIZED MESSAGES IMPACT ON IDENTITY, USE OF POWER AND EMPOWERING ABILITIES Reflect on and share: 1. What was the dominant message you received from your home environment regarding a. Your racial and cultural identity? b. Your abilities as a girl or boy? c. Sexual identity – yours and others? 2. How would you describe your racial identity? a. What does this identity mean for you 3. When did you meet someone that was a different race and/or culture than you? a. What feelings did you have when you met them? b. Did you assume you knew about them or did you approach them another way? c. What did you learn about yourself from being with them? 4. When did you meet someone of a different sexual orientation than you? a. What feelings did you have when you met this person? b. How did you continue/discontinue engaging them? c. What questions did it raise for you—personally, theologically, emotionally? 5. Who were you told has power in the society in which you grew up? a. What then did you believe about your power? b. What experiences have you had of using your power? c. What experiences have you had of another’s power and you being powerless? 6. In what way(s) do you identify as being a participant in the inequality and oppression of others? 134

7. What in your religious/spiritual belief system reinforces inequality and oppression of others? Discussion: What are the implications for building mutually empowering relationships in ministry?

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Tweeting God: An autobiographical Twitter-theology Jan-Albert van den Berg Abstract: There is a possibility for traditional expressions of the Christian faith of becoming irrelevant due to the increasing challenges a fast-paced life created by an evolving digital world. Facilitated through a practical theological inquiry, employing a qualitative empirical research methodology, personal expressions of the Christian faith on Twitter are traced down and presented as possible examples of a relevant digital autobiographical theology. Through the contribution of these empirical realities, new hermeneutical outcomes and a strategic involvement are facilitated. With the documentation of these new and relevant articulations of the language of faith, a contribution is made to a meaningful digital autobiographical theology.

1 An autobiographical mapping of the research A narrative hermeneutical interpretation made me suspicious regarding the so-called notion of objectivity with the result of viewing generally valid truths with greater scepticism. In the place of these I developed a sensitivity towards the meaning of individual, subjective and contextualised descriptions. This also fitted in well with the acknowledgement of biographical and autobiographical descriptions in qualitative research. With this orientation as background, I can offer the following autobiographical mapping of my research: After eight years of congregational service and 10 years in a professional academic career I started re-evaluating the relevance, dynamics and influence of theology. Personally I had the feeling that traditional Church practices and stereotypical theological formulations were increasingly coming under pressure, as well as slowly losing its influence and meaning. It also occurred to me that a substantial part of the world does not even pay attention to these words, and I started asking myself critically whether anyone would in fact take note if these voices and words become completely quiet. Apparently, so it appeared at times, not many people (including theologians and ministers) paid much attention to this. At times I gained the impression that the formulations in, for instance, church services became longer and more ponderous with fewer people understanding them. This made me think and read about the future look of theology and the Church. This was during the period that the phe136

nomenon of social media, by way of example Facebook and Twitter, grew hand in hand. In the course of time I started wondering about the possible meaning of social media as context for the actualization of theology. Questions that came to my mind were: Would the distinguishable characteristics and dynamics of the social media world have any implications and meaning for theology? Would the medium and dynamics of social media offer traditional theological language the opportunity to sound more clear and relevant? 2 Searching for a new (relevant) theological space and language…. Changes experienced by the world today are like the movement of tectonic plates resulting in earthquakes and tsunamis (Clayton 2010:9), the size and extent of which was never experienced by previous generations (Gore 2013:n.p.). The result and implication of this is rightly summarized as follows by Clayton (2010:9): ‘But what church means in practice has always been deeply affected by its age and culture’. As far as my own tension in this changing world is concerned I often wonder whether the language that I know and use has not become for the world around me at times unclear and unintelligible. In this regard, sounding and resonating my exact fear, is the Dutch practical theologian, Ruard Ganzevoort, who writes as follows: The hermeneutic chasm is not only between the theologian as reader and the old text, but more so between the theologian as speaker and the modern public … What is to be done if the words that we use have no more relevance with life’s reality for many people? … In daily practice the complication in dealing with this theological change is experienced (Ganzevoort 2014:20-21). Based on the observation and personal orientation that theological language has become mute in many (nót all, to avoid a gross abstraction!) respects and that many people have become deaf regarding the articulation of these truths, questions can be asked regarding possible alternatives and already existing practices for the translation of faith and theology towards a more understandable language. To facilitate this, I will, firstly, through this article debate spheres of theological existence, with special reference regarding the facilitation thereof through technology and the social media. Secondly, in the investigation of the Twitter space in particular, I will empirically seek pathways, tracing down some prominent individual users, which could lead to new possible vistas in the formulation of faith and theology. From these perspectives I will thirdly, 137

in the end, demonstrate Twitter messages for consideration in the reformulation of faith and theology. As an introduction, as well as serving as an ongoing reflection on each of these three perspectives, an autobiographical account and description indicated in italic indented form, will be offered, embodying the classical circular practical theological movement between practice and theory. 3 Theological spheres of existence – New spaces require a fresh language David Tracy’s (1981) classical expression of the so-called three ‘audiences’ of ‘publics’ for the theologian, namely, the church, academia and the society is well-known in theological thought. Although the expression of different audiences is helpful for the creation and practice of theology, I suspect that it is strongly based on the encyclopaedic understanding of theology. Within an encyclopaedic understanding of theology a three-way distinction is normally made between the study of texts (for example in biblical sciences), the formulation of ideas or concepts (for example in systematic theology) and, lastly, a direct involvement with the empirical practice as, for example, in practical theology (Ganzevoort 2009:n.p.). The existing hermeneutic lens is, in my opinion, challenged by the understanding of human existence as an integrated ‘living human web of life’ (Osmer 2008:16). To my opinion, an integrated, systemic, networked and holistic way of human existence (Louw 2014:10-11) is conceptualized in an exceptional manner by Tim Bernes-Lee’s ‘World Wide Web’, which was 25 years old in 2014 (Hinton & Hjorth 2013:10). The evolving internet, connecting individuals and their worlds in the most intimate but also in the most global sense of being with each other, therefore serves as metaphor for an integrated living human web of life. Taking into account the history of the World Wide Web, the so-called Web 1.0 technology initially directed the user of the internet towards linear and one-way web pages, but this developed early in the 21st century towards the so-called Web 2.0 technology, which was the basis for the interactive use of the internet as embodied by the creation of social media (Flew 2008:17). Expressions of social media like, amongst others, Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp put in place a landscape within which new vistas of meaning are unlocked. A new demography of existence and meaning is constantly being formed by a growing membership of the social media landscape. For example, Facebook-‘country’ is currently regarded as the largest country in the world based on the number of its 138

‘inhabitants’: If Facebook were a country, it would be the most populous nation on earth. The huge social network said Wednesday that 1.39 billion people log in to Facebook each month to scroll their News Feeds, communicate with friends and look at photos. That’s more than the entire population of China, the world’s most populous country… (Stenovec 2015:n.p.). Despite the various advantages opening up through these digital gateways of existence, it is, in fact, the dynamic and growing sphere of communication through information technology which presents the following multifaceted challenges for theology: Mastering the new communication technologies is not enough, though it’s essential; it’s also crucial to understand what it means to be religious, and Christian, in a technology-dominated age (Clayton 2010:9). In an attempt to document some of the ways in which these challenges may be addressed and as a possible expression of a relevant articulation of the Christian faith, Twitter was chosen as the social media platform for investigation. As a primary exponent of social media in this technologydominated age, Twitter is a so-called micro-blog platform and which became known as the so-called ‘sms’ of the internet by its use of only 140 characters (Wagner 2012:120; Murty 2013:n.p.). The abbreviated character of Twitter, forms part of the rationale and motivation in making the research choice for this platform as the terrain of practice. Twitter has about 320 million monthly users who daily participate in the sending of approximately 500 million tweets (Smith 2015:n.p.). Through the use of this platform meaningful social and political dynamics such as the socalled ‘Arab-spring’, ‘Occupy Wall Street-movement’ and the recent ‘#feesmustfall’ campaign by students in South Africa, are, amongst others, unlocked (Fuchs 2014:196; Nicholson 2015:n.p.). Conventions, which are associated with the platform, amongst others the ‘hashtag’, is an indication of the popular cultural influence of innovated language and symbol use within the new sphere of human existence (Van den Berg 2014:n.p.). With this orientation as background, the challenge of articulating a relevant theology in a new theological sphere of existence, facilitated through the development of social media, and in particularly on the Twitter-platform, is expressed by Neels Jackson, the editor of Kerkbode (the newspaper of the Dutch Reformed Church in Southern Africa), in a col139

umn which he had written for the South African newspaper Beeld (2013)51, with the title “Would Jesus also have tweeted?”: Supposing that Jesus lived on earth as a human being in this day and age: would he have tweeted? This question recently came to my mind while I was reading yet another tweet from a theologian. I had realised that an ongoing theological discussion is being conducted in the Twitter world. Something within me immediately wanted to say ‘No’. After all, one cannot cram great theological truths into the 140 characters that are allotted to one on Twitter. But then I remembered that Jesus himself did not preach lengthy and ponderous sermons. After all, did he not tell people stories? Was he not, precisely, a master of the aphorism, the short, powerful maxim? Maybe this is one of the things that went wrong with the church over the centuries. We have subjected the gospel to long and weighty arguments, whereas Jesus uttered truths that were briefly stated and easily understood. It is, therefore, in a theological discussion, negotiating the meaning of thís space important to not only be sensitive about the dynamic character of social media, and more specifically the Twitter-platform, but also torethink the possibilities provided by these new spaces of theological discourse. Pearson writes as follows in this regard: In terms of a public theology what might be the implications of Facebook, Twitter, and whatever emerges next is nevertheless an unexamined script. The standard pattern of the discipline is to comment on a range of occasional issues and seek to be bilingual in discourse and audience (Pearson 2015:188). It is precisely the aim of this contribution to seek theological articulations, which are relevant, benefiting the facilitation and embodiment of a contextual sensitive discourse and audience. Although I am sensitive regarding the over-optimistic understanding of the influence and role of social media, it seems that this new space already presents an important orientation for the translation of newer accentuations of theology and faith. In order to trace and map some of these new articulations, especially those with a strong autobiographical emphasis, the following results of some qualitative empirical research that was done, can be presented.

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Beeld, 6 June 2013 [translation from the original Afrikaans].

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4 Autobiographies portrayed on Twitter I only have the proverbial toe in the ocean of the digital world as far as my own participation in social media is concerned. Although I’ve a Twitter profile (@javdberg with the following profile description: Practical theologian / Tracing lived spirituality in the digital world / University of the Free State (@UFSweb) / Mentions and retweets are not endorsements), my activity regarding the sending of tweets are low. My low profile on Twitter is also visible in a relatively small follower-base. However, I’m very much interested in the presence and activity of other users on the Twitter platform. I’ve opted to start with an enquiry regarding theologians as well as users associated with religion actively involved on Twitter and with a prominent presence quantified by more than 500 followers, which is 300 users above the average number of followers on Twitter (Smith 2015:n.p.). For the sake of this article, and focusing strongly on the autobiographical orientation of the research as well as the personal stories of participants, I’m going to introduce only three of the autobiographical portraits of these conversational partners. As part of this introduction to each participant, I’ve opted to portray their own biographical descriptions as indicated on their personal Twitter profiles, unmistakable linking life, theology and faith with each other. One participant is an Australian, giving an international voice and flavour to the research (although the world of social media doesn’t know demographic borders), while the other two users are from South Africa, with one of them not a formal theologian, but actively involved with religious affairs: 4.1 Father Bob - a prophetic voice from Australia Father Bob (@fatherbob): On his Twitter profile, Father Bob describes himself as ‘The Larrikin Priest, patron of the unloved and unlovely...’ (@fatherbob 2014). This clergyman’s active and legendary role in the public domain has led, to the establishment of the ‘In Bob we trustmovement in Australia’ (Fr Bob Maquire Foundation 2014). Having been part of the Twitter community since 2007, Father Bob has sent some 34 000 tweets: and he has built up a following of approximately 103 000 persons. According to the influential analytical instrument of the Twitter platform, Twtrland52 (2014), Father Bob is regarded as a ‘super 52

During the initial research the online analytical social media-measuring instrument, Twtrland, was used. In the meantime the name of this instrument was changed to Klear (Klear 2016:n.p.).

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active’ user with about 138 tweets per day and an amazing 612 retweets for each 100 sent. Assuming that a retweet by other users and followers indicate the importance of a message, I therefore also supply the tweet from each of those who retweeted the most. For Father Bob the most popular re-tweet (838 times) on 22 March 2014 was the following: ‘Why, in God's/Good's name, does the biggest, richest, emptiest place in the region beg, bribe, bully the poorest to "take" our refugees?’ (@fatherbob 2014; Twtrland 2014). 4.2 Neels Jackson - reporting on the actuality of religion Neels Jackson (@neelsjackson): As the editor of Kerkbode (Church Messenger), a well-known newspaper of the Dutch Reformed Church in Southern Africa, Neels Jackson is involved in church-related and religious reporting on a daily basis. Having been on the Twitter platform since 2009, he introduces himself as a ‘Christian, husband, father, reporter, birder, photographer’, He currently has 1 053 followers and has sent 377 tweets. Twtrland indicates Jackson’s Twitter activity as a low average 0.2 tweets per day with a good 69 retweets per 100 sent. His tweet which was retweeted most was the following on 6 October 2013: ‘Welfare theology says that to receive one must give. The gospel says you have received to be able to give’53 (@neelsjackson 2013, Twtrland 2014). 4.3 Stephan Joubert – actively tweeting difference-making theology Stephan Joubert (@stephanjoubert): Stephan Joubert has been part of Twitter since April 2009. With approximately 4 600 tweets and 4 600 followers, he is one of the leading theologians in South Africa. He also has a public voice on Twitter, and introduces himself on his profile as follows: ‘Jesus follower. Catalyst. Author. Part of the amazing echurch/ekerk & Joubert tribes’. Joubert, who is involved with various national and international universities, is a professor in New Testament studies, and is also the founder of the e-church in South Africa, which focuses, inter alia, on an internet ministry. With an average of 2.3 tweets per day he has an impressive 295 retweets per 100 sent (Twrland 2014). His most popular retweet (61) was the following on 8 July 2013: ‘90% of all prayers are requests. The sad result: God is judged on his response time & people's faith on the number of answers they get’ (@stephanjoubert 2012; Twtrland 2014).

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Translation from the original Afrikaans

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5 Autobiographical theology articulated on Twitter As part of the focus of this article and in considering the meaning and relevance of theology for today, the following described trajectory by Ford is helpful in providing a text to reflect on: Christian theology is thinking about questions raised by and about Christian faith and practice. That thinking is almost unavoidable in some form by anyone who tries to live a Christian life or who for some other reason is interested in Christianity. Theology by this broad definition is open to all and is part of ordinary life whenever any of a vast range of questions is raised… That is why the key word for the goal of theology is wisdom, which unites understanding with practice and is concerned to engage with the whole of life (Ford 2011:1). Tracing the link between (auto)biography and theology (Müller 2011:2) and in search of ‘… the question that all Christians ask and the kind of answers that ordinary people give, no matter how hesitating and uncertain’ (Clayton 2010:12), I’ve engaged with my three conversational partners in order to map down their own autobiographical understanding of their presence on Twitter. In mapping down their words, insights and wisdom, deriving from email conversations that I’ve had with them over a period of time, I concur with Ford that theological wisdom, born out of the understanding of practices, emanating the whole of life, contributes to a relevant Christian faith and practice. In the following three autobiographical accounts each of them reflected on their personal presence on and use of Twitter: 5.1 Father Bob – ‘… using the same method as Jesus and the prophets’ Father Bob has described and motivated his presence on Twitter by firstly indicated that he once personally ran a blog, but that it eventually took up to much of his time and attention. Twitter offered a more dynamic and quicker alternative. This alternative, coupled with the fact that he regards his function as serving within a ministry without borders, made Twitter his ideal and primary choice for his presence in the social media. Father Bob has motivated his presence and use of Twitter further with the following rationale: Twitter uses the same method as Jesus and the prophets namely parables. Having to be short, sharp and to the point, a sort of speak143

ing in tongues, requires a theology built on personal experience of the Other, not others' experience (Maquire 2014:n.p.). 5.2 Neels Jackson –‘… Twitter is all about following’ Neels Jackson has indicated that he did not tweet a lot, but that he actively uses Twitter to follow other individuals and organisations in which he has an interest. By following individuals like the Pope, or organisations like the World Council of Churches, the important most current news or information can therefore be obtained to be used on other platforms. Twitter can also be a source of information regarding personal interests like sports. Neels has also indicated that his faith is extended to and reflected in his daily interactions on social media (Jackson 2014:n.p.). 5.3 Stephan Joubert – ‘… all about social connectivity and belonging here’ Stephan Joubert has indicated Twitter as his primary means of social interaction in cyberspace because of its simplicity and the 140 character limitation. With the following personal explanation Stephan is motivating his use of Twitter in tweeting a relevant and meaningful theology: On Twitter people are forced to tweet their information, opinions, truths and ideas briefly, yet with great clarity and relevance. Twitter forces those using this form of social communication to reflect about their content beforehand. Endless ramblings of egotists, attention seekers, melancholic personalities, etc, stand no chance here of attracting or keeping attention here on the long run. It's all about social connectivity and belonging here. Marshall McLuhan taught us the medium is the message. Twitter forces us to rethink our faith on the cyber squares amongst non-religious people and non-professional followers of Jesus. It could even force that ageold institution called the church out of the ‘safe’ space of irrelevant meetings to encounters with present-day issues and questions. Hopefully, a new generation of young marketplace theologians will also rise up to become our mentors, coaches and teachers in this fascinating new digitally connected world. Monologues in cyberspace; long sermons; naming and shaming of others in the name of God, etc, just won't survive here. Neither will long discussions about theological dogmas and local church matters fly here. It's all about relevant connectivity now, not only about more religious information (Joubert 2014:n.p.). 144

5.4 A connected life-theology In his article ‘(Auto)biography as theology’, Julian Müller not only provided a description of, but also emphasized the importance of context, connectivity and tradition as important characters in the documentation of autobiographical theology (Müller 2011:n.p.). As were seen from the autobiographical commentary and accents coming from the three conversational partners, the hermeneutical correlation between context and text is of extreme importance. It would then seem by word of the three conversational partners-and many more others-that Twitter provides for the opportunity in 140 characters to sound out theological meaning for contextual issues and by doing that, have meaning for the whole of life in a networked society. A good practical embodiment of this and serving as an example of the interplay between the (auto) biographical stories of connected individuals and societies, is probably the following story regarding Father Bob’s public theological involvement: On Tuesday morning, 10 June 2014, an enormous hot air balloon in the form of the famous statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro, soared over Melbourne, Australia (ABC News Radio 2014). This giant balloon was released on the eve of the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil as an initiative of a lottery company, and bore the words, #keepthefaith. Various churches immediately lodged objections against the balloon. In the midst of this controversy, Father Bob, tweeted the following: ‘The offended churches could send up a competing inflated balloon with "CHRIST SAVES" emblazoned on it’ (@fatherbob 2014). Father Bob, reached many more persons through his message than a minister or pastor at a traditional Sunday morning church service. As a demonstration of the manner in which Father Bob actively uses Twitter he later that same day, as part of the discussion that followed these events, retweeted the following message that had been sent by a woman called Sandy: ‘My six year old saw it on the news and said “That doesn't look like Jesus Mummy, he lives at my school” (@fatherbob 2014). 6 Expressions of God-talk on Twitter To be able to travel and talk theologically in new spaces it seems that the following coordinates of degrees of longitude and latitude are required. I think that as far as longitude is concerned, thought should be given again regarding the type of theological formulation. The articulation of public theology where acknowledgement is accorded to, amongst others, dialog145

ic, practical, integrated, specialized and culturally orientated theological emphasis of, amongst others, empirical truths, seems to me important to be able to create a new and fresh style of inspiring theology (Ganzevoort 2014:20-30). In order to develop a vocabulary for fresh theological formulations, the focus of a public practical empirical description should not only encompass church practices, but also, in particular, daily life. In this regard Ganzevoort and Roeland write: The concepts of praxis and lived religion focus on what people do rather than on ‘official’ religion, its sacred sources, its institutes, and its doctrines. As such, practical theology has much in common with what in disciplines like anthropology, sociology, and media studies, is known as ‘the practical turn’: the turn away from institutes and (cultural) texts to the everyday social and cultural practices of ordinary people (Ganzevoort & Roeland 2014:93). On the basis of my awareness of, and quest for, ‘convictions about the nature of reality and the larger world’ (Campbell 2013:n.p.), I am of the opinion that it has become a matter of priority to reflect on the creation and existence of a digital autobiographical theology. In the development and description of aspects of a digital autobiographical theology, I am convinced that ‘life on the screen’ cannot take place without acknowledging important autobiographical accents of meaning making. Heidi Campbell, in her book, Digital religion. Understanding religious practice in new media worlds (2013), has already pointed to the challenge of meaning making within this screen-context: ... when lived religious practice and digital culture meet, a “third space” emerges, a hybridized and fluid context requiring new logics and evoking unique forms of meaning-making. Digital religion as a concept acknowledges not only how the unique character of digital technology and culture shapes religious practice and beliefs, but also how religions seek to culture new media contexts with established ways of being and convictions about the nature of reality and the larger world. (n.p.) As far as latitude orientations are concerned, it seem that the following markers could assist in establishing coordinates. In my article, I dovetail with the contributions of Clayton (2010) and Sweet (2014): Firstly, the theological audience has changed. This has specific results for the formulation, method of work and the application of a curriculum for theology, so that the character of theology is not only understood as a noun, but also, in particular, as a verb; it is not only talked about but actively acted upon. Secondly, theology is not experienced in a centralized manner, but 146

rather created in a cooperative way in which emphasis of context, relevance and actuality, as well as a dynamically changing character and connectivity is definitive. Thirdly, theology, after Google was created, is not authoritarian, but rather personal, biographical and autobiographical. By implication this has the result that theological truths are not presented in a linear fashion, but that spaces are facilitated towards the creative articulation of a variety of perspectives. In this regard Pearson justly said, ‘How a tweet is heard and received points to what lies beyond that which is online’ (Pearson 2015:192). Finally, these few perspectives lead to further reflection and orientation in the formulation and articulation of an (auto) biographical theology on Twitter. As seen clearly in every tweet above, it is my plea that theologians desist from focusing one-sidedly on the reading of tradition, while not heeding the hermeneutical communication with popular culture. This may result in the overlooking of ‘signals of the transcendent, the presence of grace, rumors of angels’ (Vanhoozer 2007:33). In thís orientation there is not an alienation of tradition, rather a search for the possibility towards new and relevant expressions of old truths. Clayton expresses this sentiment when he writes: To pursue ‘theology after google’ does not mean to gleefully destroy all traditional Christian beliefs, to abandon the church, or to advocate a post-Christian worldview. On the contrary, it does, however, mean entering in good conscience into a new kind of open and exploratory discourse - a discourse in which one’s conversation partners are not committed in advance to landing where past theologians have landed. Many of them do end up with a vibrant Christian identity, but that’s no longer a pre-condition for theological dialogue (Clayton 2010:20). 7 Tweeting theology in autobiographical mode… The search for a relevant expression of the Christian faith can in fact be embodied in the 140 characters of Twitter. The concise expressions are so dynamic of nature that they can, in the new era of digital connectivity, be adjusted, strengthened and applied contextually. In addition, these expressions also present scope for the expression and description of God’s presence. My expectation is that, in the ongoing search for expressions on Twitter associated with the Christian faith, new, relevant, compact and meaningful articulations of God’s presence in our world will be found. In order to do so, and as part of my own autobiographical theological tweeting, 147

I’ll be remembering Len Sweet’s words when busy formulating my next tweet: When I look for something to tweet about, I find myself paying attention to life in heightened ways. With Twitter every day is an awakening to things that never would have registered before. Twitter gives me openings through which I can dive into newly discovered depths Sweet (2012:n.p.). Reference list: ABC News Radio, 2014, ‘Outrage over Jesus hot-air balloon floating over Melbourne’, viewed 11 June 2014, from http://abcnewsradioonline.com/world-news/outrage-over-jesus-hot-airballoon-floating-over-melbourne.html. Campbell, H.A., 2013, ‘Digital religion: Understanding religious practice in new media worlds’, Routledge, London Clayton, P., 2010, ‘Theology and the church after Google’, The Princeton Theological Review, 15(2):7-20. Flew, T., 2008, ‘New media, an introduction’, 3rd edn., Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Ford, D.F., 2011, ‘The future of Christian Theology. Blackwell Manifestos.’ Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford. Fr Bob Maquire Foundation, 2014, viewed 16 June 2014, from http://www.fatherbobsfoundation.com.au/ Gore, A.L. 2013, ‘The future’, W.H. Allen, London. (Kindle Edition). Ganzevoort, R.R., 2009, ‘Forks in the road when tracing the sacred. Practical theology as hermeneutics of lived religion’, Presidential address to the ninth conference of the International Academy of Practical Theology, Chicago 2009. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 24 April 2010, http://www.ruardganzevoort.nl/pdf/2009_Presidential.pdf Ganzevoort, R.R., 2014, ‘Hoe leiden we anno 2014 goede theologen op?’, Handelingen, 41(3), 20-30, Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 7 September 2015, http://www.ruardganzevoort.nl/pdf/2014_Opleiden_Theologen.pdf Ganzevoort, R.R. & Roeland, J., 2014. ‘Lived religion: the praxis of Practical Theology’, International Journal of Practical Theology, 18(1), 91-101. Hinton, S. & Hjorth, L., 2013, ‘Understanding social media’, Sage, London. Jackson, N., 2013, ‘Would Jesus also have tweeted?’, Beeld, 6 Junie. [translation from the original Afrikaans]. Jackson, N., 2014, Personal email communication July 2014. 148

Joubert, S.J., 2014, Personal email communication July 2014. Klear, 2016, ‘We measure the social web, Klear is a social intelligence platform that helps you do smarter marketing’, viewed on 1 May 2016, from http://klear.com Louw, D.J. 2014, ‘Icons: Imaging the unseen, On beauty and healing of life, body and soul’, SUN Media, Stellenbosch. Maquire, F., 2014. Personal email communication July 2014. Müller, J.C., 2011, ‘(Outo) biografie as teologie’, 
 HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies 67(3), Art. #1113, 5 pages. http:// dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts. v67i3.1113 Murthy, D., 2013, ‘Twitter, social communication in the Twitter age’, Polity Press, Cambridge. Nicholson, G., ‘#FeesMustFall: Wits splits - the beginning, not the end, of a chapter’, Daily Maverick, viewed 2 February 2016 from http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-10-27-feesmustfall-witssplits-the-beginning-not-the-end-of-a-chapter/#.VsLXzYTWXUo Osmer, R.R., 2008, ‘Practical Theology. An introduction’, Wm, B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids. Pearson, C., 2015, ‘Twittering the gospel’, International Journal of Public Theology, 9:176-192. Smith, C., 2015, ‘By the number: 116 Amazing Twitter Statistics’, viewed 16 August 2015, from http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/march2013-by-the-numbers-a-few-amazing-twitter-stats/#.UvRW0vmSzHQ Stenovec, T., 2015, ‘Facebook is now bigger than the largest country on earth’, Huffpost Tech, Huffingtonpost, viewed 2 February 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/28/facebook-biggestcountry_n_6565428.html Sweet, L., 2014, ‘Twitter theology: 5 Ways Twitter has changed my life and helped me be a better disciple of Jesus’, viewed 28 April 2014, from http://www.leonardsweet.com/article_details.php?id=55. Tracy, D., 1981, ‘The analogical imagination. Christian theology and the culture of pluralism’, Crossroad, New York. 
 Twtrland, 2014, ‘Leave your mark, Twtrland helps you build your online presence’, viewed on 12 July 2014, from http://www.twtrland.com Van den Berg, J.A., 2014, ‘The story of the hashtag(#): A practical theological tracing of the hashtag(#) symbol on Twitter’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 70(1), Art. #2706, 6 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ hts.v70i1.2706 Vanhoozer, K.J., 2007, ‘What is everyday theology?, how and why Christians should read culture’, in Kevin J. Vanhoozer; Charles A Anderson, Michael J. Sleasman (eds.), Everyday Theology: How to Read Cul149

tural Texts and Interpret Cultural Trends, pp. 15-60, Grand Rapids, Baker Academic. Wagner, R., 2012, ‘Godwired, religion, ritual and virtual reality’, Routledge, Hoboken. @fatherbob, 2014, FatherBob, The Larrikin Priest ... patron of the unloved and unlovely, fatherbobsfoundation.com.au, viewed 11 June 2014, from https://twitter.com/search?q=Father%20Bob%20%2B%20inflated%20ba lloon&src=typd @javdberg, 2014, Practical theologian/tracing lived spirituality in the digital world/University of the Free State (@ufsweb)/Mentions and retweets are not endorsements, viewed 21 July 2014, from https://twitter.com/javdberg @neelsjackson, 2014, Christian, husband, father, reporter, birder, photographer, viewed 31 May 2014, from https://twitter.com/NeelsJackson @stephanjoubert, 2014, Jesus follower. Catalyst. Author. Part of the amazing echurch/ekerk & Joubert tribes, viewed 31 May 2014, from https://twitter.com/stephanjoubert

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Reflection on Pastoral Care and Creation Perspective of a Lay Person Annie Sow Chin Wong

The biblical creation narrative had it that God transformed a dark, cold, lifeless and shapeless environment into a vibrant and orderly, yet magical and mysterious heaven and earth. That He had synchronized and orchestrated the entire creation in heaven and on earth in such perfect harmony that He Himself was pleased with His handiwork. He showed His delight of this indescribable beautiful earth by frequently walking in that paradise that He had created and to meet His prized creature Adam and Eve, whom He had appointed as stewards of His beautiful paradise. Adam and Eve were supposed to live worry free lives surrounded with abundant physical sustenance. They were to have a care-free life with only one condition; and that is, to be in close relationship with their Creator and to obey God. The simple, uncomplicated manner in which God interacted with Adam and Eve, seem to indicate that God, the Creator of all humankind, is very loving, caring and protective. As a Father, He understands the limitation of His children. It is His intention for humankind to live lives as trusting children, feeling loved, be relaxed, natural, creative, safe, confident, courageous, protected, and accepted. I cannot fathom the discontent, doubt, or restlessness of our forebears. What was their legitimate reason to tilt that perfect physical and spiritual equilibrium? However, this self-inflicted destruction was extremely costly. It had caused the disruption of the covenant and close relationship between humans and their Creator. Thus, leaving humans to feel ashamed, guilty and fearful, and blaming each other for our own failure to observe God’s rule. We lost our immortality. We lost the privilege of royal stewardship above all creations, and our rights to paradise. Living as a castaway from Eden and paradise is harsh and chaotic. It grew increasingly tragic, complex. But that didn’t stop humans from endlessly searching for God and that lost garden because our souls are innately oriented toward God. We are the only creatures having His living breathe and bearing His image. God cares. His acts of forgiveness and compassion can be seen when He made garment of skin for Adam and Eve, to extend His acceptance, to restore their dignity and to reconcile them back to Himself. Throughout 151

the exile from the Garden of Eden and Paradise and all through human history, God journeyed alongside humans no matter what the situation. When humankind was so lost and scattered, and in their desperate attempt to search for the meaning of life, and salvation, God, in His selfgiving love, once and for all, taking the form of man in the person of Jesus, dwelt among us, performing healing on all sorts of spiritual malady, pointing the direction which will lead humankind back to God’s kingdom, renewing man’s estrange relationship with God, liberating burdened souls, restoring humans back to their original spirituality that God had intended them to be, which is the childlike simplicity, trust and dependency. So that this new creature could once again, be in good terms with their Creator, with their environment, and with their fellow creatures. Christ’s willingness to suffer along in our reality to bring upon the spiritual rebirth and renewal, indicated that He wished no one perished in one’s own peril. Pastoral care functions on the assumption that this creation belongs to God; that God's kingdom already is dawning among us; that the humanity exemplified by Jesus can break through in the lives of people and triumph on our planet; that in Jesus the fulfillment of it all is firm and secure. He, the first-born of creation, who has given us the first fruits of the Spirit (Rom. 8:23), is the guarantee that in the fullness of time the ripened fields will be harvested in the new creation. (Rodney H.) The story of Jesus is not just limited to His birth and persecution. It is about His day-to-day life. It details how Jesus in his short life on earth, seizing every single moment and opportunity to do God’s will. Doing God’s will need a lot of courage to confront the cultural aspect in His time, the social injustices, the distorted view on God with humankind’s little tedious self-made rules and regulations, and to direct human being’s focus and emphasis back to the true God. Doing God’s will means Jesus has to exercise tremendous patience, endurance, energy, love and compassion on helping the endless stream of sufferers coming to seek help and healing from Him. Doing God’s will means He has to make effort to go to find the lost sheep because these creatures are going around in circle in the wilderness. Doing God’s will means reaching out to care for the body, mind and souls of God’s creatures. He has to listen to endless lamentations and carry the emotional burdens of the sufferers on top of His own physical exhaustion. Doing God’s will means He will invariably attract rumors, gossips, jealousy, accusations, misunderstanding that He is out there wooing attention and creating a little kingdom for Himself. He also found himself at odds with both the secular and religious authori152

ties of the day. But doing God’s will is the sole purpose and the meaning of His existence on earth. God loves and cares dearly. As such, the Living Model of pastoral care for the Christian minister is the person and work of Jesus as revealed in the Gospels. In Matthew 9:35 – 10:8, when Jesus sent the twelve disciples out to carry on his mission and ministry, they were to preach that the Kingdom of God was a present potentiality waiting to be realized in human lives. They were to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. In other words, they were to deal with the profound needs of human beings as they had seen Jesus dealing with those needs (Carroll A. Wise). My very first meaningful experience of pastoral care and its connection with the concept of pastoral care and creation was when my overtly healthy looking father was diagnosed with last stage lung cancer after coughing incessantly for a week. He was shocked beyond words and would not accept that his life was in danger. His reaction to his health condition was very much like the “stage theory” Dr. Kübler - Ross (1971) presented. Some of these stages are shock, denial, anger, bargaining, and eventual acceptance. These stages do not necessary follow one another neatly. As he was ordered to immediately receive radiation and chemo therapy treatment, he was angry and reluctant because there weren’t any prior counseling service which the oncologist should have arranged to help him to mentally acknowledge his illness and that he needs immediate treatment. As his daughter, I found myself equally naïve and poorly informed about the grief of cancer patient. So, other than dutifully accompanying him for his treatments, taking care of his physical comfort and need, I find it hard to console him. In the process of treatment, he had slipped into depression which jeopardized the month long treatment. While my dad was in his emotional upheaval, bitter and hopeless, I found myself making desperate attempts to preach salvation to him because he was then practicing folk religion. Our conversation mainly centered on getting him to make petition to Jesus and seek a miracle cure. My father was not convinced that he should accept Jesus. To him, Jesus is a foreign God. His concern was that if he goes ahead to accept this foreign God, it would mean that he would be forever cut off from his ancestors who had gone ahead of him. The thought of this permanent separation from his ancestor burdened him. As he was waiting for his dying moment aimlessly at home, I found in his neighborhood a small Baptist Church and I went to make a request with this young pastor in charge to come over to visit my dad because my 153

siblings and Iwere loss with words to address our father’s predicament. This pastor came, every morning, from Monday till Friday. Dutifully, he spent an hour sitting with my father. I hardly heard them engaging in conversation. What I did notice is that this young pastor came to my father as a friend and a son. He took time to create a relationship with my father. He didn’t forcefully seize the opportunity to “save a soul.” He didn’t morally reprimand the gods that my father was worshiping. He was there journeying with my father. His being at my father’s deathbed was manifestation in action that he acknowledged my father’s grief on the loss of health and imminent death, even though the pastor didn’t say much. It was his act of kindness, understanding and acceptance which had opened the spiritual eyes of my father that Jesus came in a form of this stranger, a person whom he didn’t know, journeying and suffering alongside him. It was in this caring relationship that this young pastor had established with my father that guided my dad home to the Creator whom my father had all these while in his life, mistook as a foreign God. This spiritual rebirth, the renewing of my father’s mind (as in Roman 12:2), transformed my dad’s anxiety regarding the permanent separation with his ancestor, and to accept and to hope in Christ that nothing is impossible to those who love the Lord. In John 3:3, Jesus declared to Nicodemus: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born gain.” Dad, in his final life’s journey, reclaimed his creature’s right and went home to be with his Creator. My personal experience of pastoral care that profoundly influenced my current vocation was when I was struggling with alienation and despair in my failed marriage at the turn of the millennium. I was in my spiritual wilderness, feeling vulnerable and disconnected with God. I could not make sense out of my own situation as to why would a loving and just God allowed such tragedy to come to me as I have always been exercising fidelity to the scriptural teaching. Dr. Hwa Yung, who was then the principle of STM, on his monthly STM fund raising meeting in the place where I used to work, had consistently shown concern to me and my children’s emotional wellbeing. The former Anglican Bishop – Bishop Cheng Ean and his wife Deaconess Amy had been reaching out to me even though at the time of my predicament I was still a Methodist. Whenever they harvested rambutan and banana in their yard in the former Rumah Bishop, due to the close proximity between the former Rumah Bishop and my working place, they often brought fruit to my children and me. The pastoral care from these few individuals, are outreach of compassion and accompanied by action of care (Jeanne S.). Even 154

though in my drowning moment, I experience Jesus walking towards me and helping me to stay afloat in that raging sea of emotions. As divorce is a lonely, disconcerting, unsettling, and chaotic time, compassion shown by members of the Church family can have life-altering implications down the road. The fact that they, being the leaders of their respective denominations and reaching out to me, had lived out their role as chief shepherd and continued the Church’s age-old ministry of pastoral care to the burdened. They also helped to reinforce the importance for ministers (lay and ordained) to engage and participate in helping those who are troubled personally, interpersonally and socially (Matthew 25:31-46). While I was wallowing in my own suffering, their action and ministry toward me, inspired me to ponder about the meaning of my own existence, the fact that I have been fortunate to be given the salvation by God’s grace, have I done enough to participate fully in the continuation of God’s creation? To be the hand, feet and mouth, to be the channel for the Holy Spirit to funnel His redemptive love and His restorative power to suffering people around me? All these while, I was like the fool as described in Luke 12: 18-19, busy gathering and accumulating earthly possession, and having the distorted worldview that pastoral care is the sole prerogative of the pastors, because they are the one wearing the shepherding mantle, as a lay person, my duty is to just passively attending Church services, helping out a little here and there where needed. This awakening call helped me to comprehend the reinstatement of Simon Peter in John 21, which is to continue tending to the need of God’s creation, like what Dr. Hwa Yung, Bishop Cheng Ean and Deaconess Amy have done to me, I am to do likewise, which is to also participate and to contribute the compassion that I have received to others I meet down the road. In the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) training that I am involved since 2006, I witness in awe how God’s redemptive love finds its way to liberate and renew the life of many trainees as they learn to render pastoral care to those encountering challenging situations in their lives. In the beginning, most of these trainees have a fuzzy idea about pastoral care. Most liken pastoral care as seizing the opportunity to preach and evangelize and bring people to God. While there is some merit in using pastoral care as a means to evangelize, however, the minister needs to know that pastoral care is the concern shown for the needs of individuals in every walk of life; whether in prime of health or incurable diseases; in good times or bad. The clue to the need is the recognition of the point where life’s stress and strain affect body and soul. It deals with people but par155

ticularly it deals with people in trouble. Pastoral care is shared compassion. (Russell Dicks 1963) Along the learning process, these CPE trainees discover a reason, among others, that they have not been effective in caring for their Church members, is because they themselves are dispirited and disconnected with God. They are, themselves, in desperate need to reconnect with God and establish a meaningful relationship. Here are some examples how the Spirit moved amongst the trainees and brought about restoration and help them to reconcile their estranged relationships with God. The story of Trainee “A” Trainee “A” grew up in a loveless and abusive family where all the girls need to participate in endless chores in order to earn their keep or risk being brutally beaten or endure emotional assault. The deprivation of love, of being loved and positive relationships in early development had severely incapacitated her interpersonal ability. As a Church worker of more than a decade, she had encountered a lot of rejections and alienations from fellow co-workers. Her colleagues generally perceived “A” as a hostile, aloof, cold, distant, and uncaring person. As “A” responded to these comments with an indifferent attitude, the more she confirmed her co-workers’ beliefs that she is truly a difficulty person to have a relationship with. This negative relational dynamic always spirals down to a disastrous level that caused “A” to feel deeply wounded and to leave her job. “A” was in this vicious, self-perpetuating cycle of dysfunctional relationship for nearly two decades. The failure in developing meaningful relationship with others robbed her self-esteem. When she came into the pastoral care training, she was very much beaten by the crises and tragedies in her life. She felt lonely and isolated. She was also behaving suspicious of anyone who tried to come near her. She surrounded herself with a very thick and high protective wall in the form of unfriendliness and unapproachable-ness, believing that might shield her from getting more hurt. Unfortunately, this spontaneous reaction created more misunderstanding for herself. No one in the Church bother to find out what caused her to behave the way she behaved. While Church members were busy distancing themselves from her and passing their judgment, little did they know that behind the hostile and unfriendly mask, is a very lonely and vulnerable soul yearning for love, friendship and acceptance. 156

Loneliness is a feeling of isolation and disconnectedness that can affect and infect any age and gender. People who suffer from this kind of loneliness, is like a walking dead. It is a painful ailment of the soul. Loneliness caused by the sense of disconnectedness leaves the person feeling like there is no one who knows the real person within; and, more frightening still, no one appears to care to know the real you. (Jeanne S.) Her image on God was one who only expects result and will not accept any emotional complaint. So, in order to show that she is a faithful servant, she fought very hard in the battlefield to bring in people to the Church. She is not supposed to complaint or share with God about her personal loss and tragedy. Otherwise, she would not be fit to be in the ministry of soul saving. In the very first pastoral care classroom session, “A” reacted furiously on my feedback to her assignment, stunning all her peers. We brought the issue to her individual supervision session with me, to explore what might be the cause of her outburst and strong reaction. As she shared, I came to understand that her anger was not directed at me. It was the years of rejection and condemnation making her very cynical and weary of other’s feedback, especially feedback with negative connotation. Added to this feeling was my position as supervisor triggered in her the unloving mother image of her childhood. It was this unconscious projection (“transference”) of her rejecting, tyrannical mother figure that caused her to react to my feedback in the manner she did. After this big catharsis, “A” found the cause of her inner block. She was very courageous to work on liberating herself from the many years of agony in her relationship. As her peers gradually warmed up to her because she learned to venture out and trust them, “A”, at last, experienced love and being lovable. The years of bitterness, the thick layer of self-erected protective wall, came crashing down rapidly. We witnessed her liberation, her rebirth. The story of “B” Trainee “B” grew up in a family where she was the eldest child and as a girl in a traditional, “old-school” Chinese family she had to take on the role of a pseudo-mother to look after all her younger siblings. She was also denied the opportunity of a proper education. She was the object of severe corporal punishment whenever her parents lost control of themselves, especially when her younger brothers suffered minute injury from falls while playing. Relating one of her ordeals during a peer group training session, of how her mother sat on her and furiously punched her as if 157

she was an animal, we all cried along. It was really hard to comprehend why would parents treat their children with such cruelty. “B”s tragedy didn’t end when she became an adult. She became paralyzed immediately after giving birth. She was in living hell for years until she met the Lord. However, she remains timid and fearful. Besides growing up with parents who hardly showed any love, the loss of her mobility brought in its train the loss of her sense of mastery and control. Illness and injury brings a sense of powerlessness to our wellbeing. You need to be prepared for the wellspring of fury that can arise when a person loses control of his or her life. That person will be extremely vulnerable and exposed, and a form of regression or childlikeness can occur. (Jeanne S.) It is no wonder “B” is afraid of authority figures. She didn’t even dare to have eye contact with a person in authority. It was really a distortion of reality. The fact is that when “B” joined the pastoral care training, she was already in her 60s, but she appeared to be relating in a childish manner. It was as if a child existed in an elderly body. It took “B” several months to get to and to understand the core of her problem; and she had since been liberated from the bondage of her pass. God has restored and renewed her to be the person of God’s creation and whom God had intended her to be. That is to relate with God with childlike trust, affection, courage and creativity. Today, “B” is a confident and fully functioning adult. She is “born again,” a “new creation.” She is flourishing in her pastoral care ministry. The story of “C” Trainee “C” grew up in a very traditional family that emphasizes the prominence and dominance of males. Despite being the only daughter in the family, she was still completely rejected by her parents’ right at birth. Not only does she not experience love and to be loved, the constant cursing from her parents literally robbed all her sense of worthiness. Furthermore, her failed marriage had made her feel even more worthless. All the time she feels the world is crashing down on her. Cognitively she understands God loves her, but she cannot feel the love of God with her gut. This lack of a steady supply of love in her early development caused her to keep on looking out for meaningful relationship with those she really cares. Unfortunate, these relationships that she had been investing had not turn out to be as intimate as she wishes them to be, she felt incomplete. She was unhappy and feeling delusional.

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Dysthymia is a mild, low-lying depression, or depressive neurosis. You may hear the phrase, “I feel blue.” This form of depression can be tied to a situation or circumstance, a loss or grief, or a disappointment or change. It is to be taken seriously. Dysthymia responds most readily to compassionate outreach, skilled listening, catharsis or the expression of feelings, and companionship through the difficult period. (Jeanne S.) In the process of her training, “C” was vulnerable and had constant outbursts of anger. But her peers were very supportive. They understood that this anger has nothing to do with them. They learned to journey with “C” in her personal weariness and strain. They empathized with her in her internal turmoil. Their ability to accept the expression of “C’s” anger has been a great healing in itself for “C”. “Where there is no guidance, a people falls; but in an abundance of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14). It is in this supportive presence that “C”, after six months into the process, understands that the incarnation of God, in the person of Christ, suffered along at the moment when her earth parents rejected her. He was in this hell together with her, and the victorious Lord has come to lead her out from this emotional imprisonment. She is now a new being in Christ, loved and secured. The trainees mentioned above share some common characteristic in their suffering. All are born in feudal family. In their early development, they were deprived of dependable supply of love from parents. As they didn’t receive, so, they cannot give. As there was no opportunity for them to practice mutual caring and respectful relationship with their parents, so they feel stuck in their efforts to establish meaningful relationship for themselves and in their shepherding function in ministry. As culture placed them to insignificant position within their family, warm and accepting relationships within the family system was grossly absent. As such, they do not feel the inner freedom to be themselves (Clinebell). The Malaysian culture also reinforces this when it indicates that it is inappropriate for one to publicly display one’s emotion, and disclose one’s not so glorious past experiences, these beloved trainees, had no suitable venues to unload their bitterness and hurts except to carry it along on their lives journey. It was under this misconception when they answered God’s calling into the ministry of “pastoring the sheep,” and brought along those unresolved issues in their lives to the ministry, unaware of the lasting impact their early experiences had on their personal and pastoral functioning. Even their perception and relationship with God were affected by their childhood experiences with their parents. Cognitively they know God is loving and benevolent. Feeling-wise, God to them is 159

distant, fierce, no-nonsense, demanding, who sets conditions and has a serious image. They also have a blurred and distorted self-image and constantly live with the sense of worthlessness. Through pastoral care, they discovered the root of their problem. Through the pastoral care training (CPE), a purposefully designed setting which is safe, warm, mutually supportive and non-judgmental, loving environment, that the trainees finds a platform to freely express themselves, explore the hurts and injustices of their past, and review their distorted ideas on relationships. In the process of this introspection and retrospection, the omnipotent and omniscient God meets each of them in this candid atmosphere and camaraderie of fellow peers on the same pilgrimage. God restored their spiritual sight and helped them to discover and recover the lost human characteristics that God their Creator had intended them to be – trusting, creative, affectionate, warm, courageous and hopeful; and, thus, ending their years of emotional torments. They were liberated. They were born anew spiritually. This renewal helped them to heal their estrangement from themselves, their family, their fellow church members, and experience a growing relationship with God their creator. In conclusion, pastoral care is modeled after the ministry and works of our Lord Jesus. The unconditional self-giving love of Jesus, exemplifies the compassionate nature of God as Creator. The Holy Spirit dwells among us, initiating interventions to heal broken spirit and reconciling estranged souls back to Himself through all kinds of pastoral care settings. God cares enough to save His creation from going extinct despite human beings own self-inflicted destruction. When we participate in God’s creation through pastoral care, we become the hand, the feet, the mouth and channel for the Holy Spirit to funnel God’s presence in all crisis situations. Pastoral care is Christ’s mission for all followers of Jesus. It is one of the many ways for God’s redemptive love to reach the troubled souls. The fact that God chosen to allow creation to continue and had covenanted with Noah indicates that God had planned to sustain the whole of creation on planet earth. God would not once again wipe out all that He has created in His wrath. The providential care of God, as Genesis 8:22 indicates, will again be extended to all people. Such a concept of covenant does not therefore take into account particular historical circumstances under which it may have arisen. It is clearly not contingent upon human reaction to it nor even dependent upon human knowledge of it. In the most general terms it proclaims the lordship of creation and the care of the creator for what has been created. It is thus an indication that behind the unchanging laws of nature to which Genesis 8:21-22 made reference and whereby the sun will rise upon the just and the unjust there stands the personal Lord of creation himself. (William D.) 160

Bibliography 1. Kenneth Barker. The NIV Study Bible, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, USA 1995 2. Carroll A.Wise. The Meaning of Pastoral Care, Harper & Row, New York, 1966. 3. Rodney J. Hunter, General Editor. Dictionary of Pastoral Care, Expanded Edition, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2005. 4. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. On Death and Dying, MacMillan, New York, 1971. 5. Jeanne Stevenson-Monessner. A Primer in Pastoral Care, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2006. 6. Russell L. Dicks. Principles and Practices of Pastoral Care, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA, 1963. 7. Howard Clinebell. Basic Types of Pastoral Counseling, Abingdon, Nashville 1966. 8. William. J. Dumbrell. Covenant and Creation: A Theology of Old Testament Covenants, Thomas Nelson, Nashville, USA, 1984.

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Cultural narratives and nonverbal presentations in Clinical Pastoral Education Noel Tiano Introduction

Studies on nonverbal communication have become more prominent lately, particularly in regard to human resources and workplace interactions. Some have estimated its meaning in communication to constitute by as much as 66% to 93% (Burgoon, Guererro and Floyd, 2016). These may include facial reactions, posture, body language, gesture, appearance, touch, proximity and distance, timing, decorum, formality and others. Hence, actual words that people say may only communicate between 7% to 34% of their meaning. Is it any wonder that Facebook, tweets, instant messaging, Twitter, email and other forms of social media can be prone to errors and inaccuracies? Carney, Cuddy and Yap (2010), experts on nonverbal behaviour recommend that “power posing” can influence others and even one’s brain. They conclude that changing physical posture can prepare one’s mental and physiological systems which can “improve confidence and performance in situations such as interviewing for jobs, speaking in public, disagreeing with a boss, or taking potentially profitable risks” (p.5). Of course, nonverbal forms of communication existed before humans developed the capacity for language. Nowadays, different cultures around the world have accepted various forms of greetings such as the handshake or kiss on the cheek. The thumbs up generally means “ok” and the “V” sign usually means “victory” or “peace”. The “shaka” which signifies “hang loose” is commonly practiced in Hawaii whilst the traditional “hongi” which is pressing noses together is a common respectful greeting amongst Māori in New Zealand. This paper is a qualitative study of former Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) trainees in Wellington, New Zealand and their reflections on their silent presentations. The centre prefers the term ‘silent’ instead of ‘nonverbal presentations’ in that they encourage the use of written instructions as in silent movies, but without music or CDs. The sessions consisted of exhibiting the highlights of their CPE journey using visual instruments, art work, props, mime, charade, interpretative dance and others, 162

except the spoken word. Most found these presentations highly beneficial as they discovered novel ways of expressing their cultural upbringing, experiences and learning. A nonverbal presentation model The nonverbal presentation model we used came from Allison Whitby, Australian CPE Supervisor. She began working on this innovative approach task as part of a Bachelor of Theology course in Culture and Community. Allison sees the nonverbal process to be connected with the wisdom tradition (Whitby, A. pers. comm., 2015). During an Australian and New Zealand CPE Supervisor’s conference they featured a silent verbatim where a supervisor acted out nonverbally her struggles in coping with losing her eyesight. Participants were very moved by how powerful the presentation was in helping them observe and notice facial expressions, body language, use of silence and passage of time. From there, Kath Maclean and Ros Sims, NZ CPE Supervisors adapted this model for all their trainees to do nonverbal presentations encompassing their whole CPE journey at the end of the unit. In a nutshell, this activity provided an opportunity to creatively explore and present one’s experience of CPE without the speaking in a space of about one hour. Trainees could use visual instruments, art, family albums, ‘selfies’, collage, written instructions, banners, symbols, do sign language, cook/bake, include food items, candles, incense, aromatherapy and others. They could utilise all the rooms in the CPE flat including the kitchen, bathroom and the outside yard space. Member trainees were given the following instructions: each one was to take note about their own thoughts, feelings, reactions --- and not interpret the presenter’s materials. At the end of the session, the group goes outside the flat where the presenter announces, “this concludes the presentation”. Thereafter, members are given an opportunity to revisit the displays and photo talking will only be allowed at this time. They would then gather together to share feedback about the experience. After each member had shared, the presenter provides his or her reflections and learning. Methods Qualitative study. I interviewed six former CPE trainees regarding their silent presentations through telephone and an online questionnaire, Survey Monkey. Demographic questions such as gender, age, ethnicity and church affiliation were ascertained. Open-ended questions consisted of CPE and cultural sensitivity, reflections about their nonverbal presenta163

tions and cultural narratives, as well as feedback they received from other trainees. I co-supervised four of the trainees. The major ethnic groups in New Zealand (2013) were distributed as follows: European 74%, Māori 15%, Asian 12%, Pacific peoples 7%, Middle Eastern/Latin American/African 1%. There were three males and three females, aged in their 40’s and 50’s. One was an Anglican priest, a Catholic nun, a Presbyterian minister, two Seventh-Day Adventist ministers and a Brethren ecumenical chaplain. Their ethnic backgrounds included, Māori-Irish, Filipino, Tongan, Samoan-American, ScottishSouth African, European-New Zealand. The names were anonymised and being an avid “Star Wars” fan, I used the movie’s characters, namely, Poe, Solo, Leia, Rey, Maz, and Finn. Their “names” were not paired with their culture or profession to avoid being identified. To ensure confidentiality, some of the interview statements presented in this article have been truncated. Due to space limitations, photos, graphics and other visual media could not be included in this article. This qualitative study is largely based on social constructionism which emphasize postmodernist approaches and use of critical reflection on language and meanings (Healy, 2005). It highlights its contextual nature, as well as the interactive, dialogic, and multiple perspectives (Fook, 2002; Parton and Byrne, 2000). The narrative approaches and Appreciative Inquiry which are strength-based have been helpful in unpacking how different CPE members experience the silent presentations. Lastly, as interviewer, I took on the stance of being a “more informed notknower” (Dean, 2001), where the emphasis is not the accumulation of cultural knowledge but rather on the carer’s curiosity, openness, respect, and ability to engage the other in their story. In doing the narrative analysis, I adapted the methods described by Riessman (2008) and Wells (2011). Both of them drew from Labov’s (1982) early conception of the function of clauses in narrative. Identifying the clauses sheds light on the overall structure and thus illuminating key elements of the interview. This way of unpacking the data makes it easier to trace the relationships between functions of clauses and overall themes. The main focus is on the interviewee not the interviewer. The vignettes will be classified in tabular form as outlined on Table 1 below.

164

Function

Clauses from Interviews

ABSTRACT COMPLICATING ACTION EVALUATION

Summary of story Presents a turning point(s) Narrator’s commentary

RESOLUTION

Resolve the plot

Table 1: Function of clauses Each section contains three parts: Summary of presentation, Narrative analysis of the interview, and a “Take away” message. The latter concludes each section as a way to engage readers to reflect on the implications of the trainees’ stories for today. Poe (Māori-Irish) Summary of presentation: Poe began with a haka (a Māori ceremonial dance) to welcome the CPE group. There are different types and purposes of haka --- rituals of encounter, transmission of social and political messages, reception of dignitaries and visitors; celebration of great achievements; commencing of sports, honouring the deceased during funerals; and in the past, performing a war dance called peruperu (Ka’ai, Moorfield, Reilly and Mosley, 2009, 106). Māori performers would usually dance vigorously, shout and express with their faces, eyes, and mouth. However, in this case, Poe presented a silent haka with a warm welcome to the CPE trainees. Everyone knew the significance of this ritual and was awed by the special reception. Motioning the group to come into the flat, Poe led them into the lounge where books and religious literature were placed on the table. In the next room were photos of his ministry colleagues taped on the wall and different hats hung on a string in the middle of the room. In the second room, he had sports equipment, his paintings and other art work. He then led the group to the garage and showed his classic light blue car still in pristine shape and invited the group for a ride around the hospital campus. My interview with Poe revealed more insights regarding his cultural identity and practices as he unpacked more of his CPE experience. Narrative analysis of interview Function ABSTRACT

Clauses from Interviews “With the silent haka I was welcoming the CPE group ...” 165

COMPLICATING ACTION EVALUATION COMPLICATING ACTION EVALUATION COMPLICATING ACTION RESOLUTION

“...you can trust me with your life...bring your waka (boat or vessel) ... bring it into this space, a peaceful space... you can bring who you are and share this space” (As the group entered the flat there were several hats, paintings, symbols regarding church activities, social outreach) “... This is me, complex, full on... “ “I need to delegate more...I need to balance aspects of Māoridom with paddles on both sides.” “...I took the CPE participants on a road trip in my “Mach 3 car” which I called the Blue Thunder” (smiles) “Trust me as we take a ride around the hospital grounds”

Table 2: Poe’s silent haka Poe’s supervisor shared with me that previously when he talked about his church, he had to put aside his Māori heritage and be more European. There was a huge pressure for him to conform to the dominant culture and “his CPE journey took on a hugely cultural aspect in that he wanted to refine himself and his roots” (Maclean, K. pers. comm., 2015). During the midcourse, he travelled with his mother to visit their Māori relatives and graves. He also took photos and taped stories of his mother’s family which made a profound impact in him. In his silent presentation, he embraced both his Māoridom and European descent and powerfully demonstrated without words, “this is who I am”! Poe explained the significance of his silent haka as a gesture of welcome and an expression of trust. Bringing one’s waka (canoe, vessel, or car) meant a sharing of resources on the front yard. In the Māori culture, the front yard of the marae (meeting place) was considered tapu (set apart) and hence, Poe described it as a “peaceful space”. The creative placement of hats on a clothesline and church activities were clearly instructive regarding the need for balance. Take away message: welcoming others means trusting them to bring their waka (including their emotional baggage) and fellowship on a shared local space. Solo (Filipino) Summary of presentation 166

Solo presented a silent verbatim where he played the role of a patient suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). He dressed up as a patient and arranged the furniture to recreate a typical rehabilitation hospital room. On top of the TV were family photos, and memorabilia. On the wall was the November calendar with a highlighted date. The window blinds were open so that he could peer outside anticipating the arrival of his family. He sat on a chair next to a table anticipating a meal time. Narrative analysis of interview: Function Clauses from Interviews ABSTRACT “My silent verbatim... is about the life of a patient with MS” COMPLICATING “I was not able to eat properly... my hand was ACTION shaking... I went into a quiet space... I looked at the parts of the room, looked outside the window waiting for visitors to arrive. I looked at the calendar, encircled the date... looked at a card that read ‘Happy Birthday’” EVALUATION “It was very emotional for me...” COMPLICATING “I had a picture doing parasailing... picture with ACTION my family. I had a picture in an Air Force uniform. And now I was wearing a bike helmet...” EVALUATION “It was very emotional for me... It made it possible for me to portray what people with disabilities struggle with....” (he stopped sharing his feelings and explained more about his chaplaincy work) -“It would be very different had I just written a verbatim or case presentation about it....I’m not a good writer anyway... I think it was easier for me to act it out because for me I’m not good in writing... acting it out is probably more universal” RESOLUTION “... It added a dimension in expressing the story... in the end, the presentation was better than any other medium” Table 3: Solo’s silent verbatim In his silent verbatim, Solo demonstrated his propensity to the helping professions which is predominant in his culture. At the start of his CPE, he tended to be anxious, spoke fast and was difficult to understand. Through the group’s reassurance, however, he became more relaxed and 167

open. In his presentation, he portrayed in detail what the world of his patient was like. And he did all of it without the spoken word. With English as his second language, he admitted his limitations in writing verbatims. Nevertheless, he found his “voice” and ability to communicate through mime. More importantly, he was able to see clearly his tendency to over identify and realise the need to develop his pastoral identity. Take away message: role playing often brings home the importance of setting professional boundaries. Leia (Tongan) Summary of presentation Leia arranged different pots with dying rose plants on top of a table as well as dead leaves and flowers around the floor. There were dried red rose petals near the kitchen sink where all the windows and doors were shut which made the room very dark and little bit eerie. One of the group members struck a match to see what was in the dark room. Around 15 pairs of cut out foot prints on white paper lay on the carpet which directed participants into another room. There were more dead petals and a can tipped on one side exposing the soil. Inside the tub in the bathroom was another dead plant with its dried up twigs, dirt and flower pot. However, at the end of her presentation, she led the group into a bright room where the curtains were drawn, the fluorescent light was on and the mood was definitely celebratory. There was another pot on the table but this time, noticeably, the rose plant was alive, healthy and blooming with a bright dark red rose flower. The pot had some colourful wrappings, the plant looked very healthy and the garden soil was well watered. During her CPE, Leia narrated about the symbolism of water in that while she grew up near the beach, she almost drowned as a child. But now she embraced her experiences of drought and loneliness with a renewed sense of identity and expanded circle of friends. Narrative analysis of interview Function Clauses from Interviews ABSTRACT “I really liked it (silent presentation)” TURNING POINT I had the courage to approach conflicts instead of bottling up... I am grateful to have CPE; - -(For confidentiality purposes, some of the interviews were omitted) COMPLICATING AC- “...my suggestion for CPE is to share a bit TION more about culture... (Islanders usually)... 168

EVALUATION

put their heads down, don’t look into face; bow head.” “Some interpret this as a lack of confidence and struggle with self-esteem but actually it is not.

Table 4: Leia’s suggestion for CPE Leia speaks English well but when preparing her written material, she thinks first in her native language and then translates in into English. We talked further about how generally westerners prefer to look at someone “in the eye” and face to face to signify interest and trust in social transactions. It is a common conception that those who do otherwise may be shifty or untrustworthy. However, this gesture might have a slightly different meaning for many Pacific Islanders and Asians. In fact, Thomas (n.d.), King, Knott and McCane (2003) argue that direct eye to eye contact for Māori, Samoans and other Polynesians may be considered impolite and even aggressive. Others prefer to look at the floor or sideways and raise their eyebrows when affirming. Māori often use implicit communication, body language, silence, and less verbal feedback. At our hospital, we have numerous clients who originally come from the Pacific Islands. Instead of the usual “front to front” and “eye to eye” body language conversation, many prefer talking “side by side” or sit alongside. Chaplains have found this posture more effective because it is not confrontative, clients can share their story at their own pace, have a sense of control and it allows the carer to see things from their perspective. Take away message: conversations with other cultures can be enhanced by noting subtle facial expressions, body language and use of silence. Rey (American-Samoan) Summary of presentation Rey made use of the yard and garage areas to portray her multicultural background with her mother from the Pacific Islands and her father from Europe. She was raised in the U.S., had a career in the military, travelled extensively and completed a doctorate. Rey’s theme was “I’m good enough!” with reference to Winnicott’s “Object Relations Theory”. Early during the unit, we discussed that one of the main goals of CPE was to provide a safe, holding environment so that trainees could later train themselves in pastoral care. Inside the flat, she had several yellow post it notes with the phrase, “I’m good enough!” On the lounge table were photos of her lovely family, candles and other religious symbols that were significant to her. A sheet of paper was taped from the top of the ceiling 169

to the floor with footprint outlines which seemed like a stairway to heaven. With a resourceful and imaginative mind, she led the group to a dark room with a black light to symbolise how the CPE journey can be hazy at times. She then and instructed us on a sheet of paper to draw our self portraits! Surprisingly, even in such conditions most of us did a pretty decent sketch. To make things even more interesting, she led us to another room and made us follow instructions such as sitting and placing our feet on designated positions while the fog machine was turned on. The group quickly saw her point about how foggy the CPE experience can be especially at the beginning of the unit. Narrative analysis of interview Function Clauses from Interviews ABSTRACT “I don’t think I have had as much fun in a learning environment for eons.” COMPLICATING “...the meal, especially, was one of ACTION triumph and feeding together. Who can forget his (patient..)? I enjoyed C... ‘Einstein’, whirlwind, twister and display as well...” EVALUATION “Each of these was rich and poignant. I enjoyed ... sharing a piece of myself and my own journey...” RESOLUTION “... I found so much internal exploration and growth (in ways that ‘talking’ presentations can’t quite create)” Table 5: Rey’s internal exploration Rey worked hard and put a lot of resources in letting the group in on her CPE journey. The group enjoyed her playfulness, new sense of freedom and especially her claim of being “good enough”. She began the training with plenty of self-doubt in spite of her impressive educational and professional experience. When she saw how the process worked, (it clicked) she claimed her self-worth and helped her integrate and apply the principle. Take away message: silent presentations can be a powerful tool in demonstrating the relationship between theory and practice. Maz (European-New Zealander) Summary of presentation Maz’s theme was about transitions. Her professional background was in science having worked in government and in healthcare. She recently transitioned in ministry and became an assistant priest. The experience 170

has been enormously challenging but it has also opened opportunities for her to take on new leadership roles. Like the other presenters, she welcomed the CPE group with a smile and bid them to enter the flat. In one of the rooms, there was a white piece of blanket that hung from the ceiling to the floor in a cone shaped fashion. The top portion was wide and bottom portions became narrower having been tied down with ribbons. Group members could touch and see this white cone-shaped blanket turn around like a whirlwind. Participants played the “Twister” game briefly in the next room. On the dining table were different cards, memorabilia and the “Einstein mask” --- which looks like the face of Albert Einstein except the optical illusion made it seem like the front and the back were in 3-D. Maz prepared the last room for her finale. Very simply, she laid out her priestly garments and a bible. While her presentation was really creative and received high marks from her CPE peers, Maz felt unsure that she did her job well. Her response in the interview was short and succinct. Narrative analysis of interview Function Clauses from Interviews ABSTRACT “Finding self amidst chaos“ COMPLICATING “I found it (silent presentation) very ACTION scary” “Level of satisfaction of CPE: Silent Presentation: least satisfied Cultural sensitivity: very satisfied Sense of Safety: extremely satisfied Encouragement: extremely satisfied” EVALUATION “It is probably too far outside my comfort zone” Table 6: Maz’s comfort zone Maz may have found her silent presentation least satisfying because it was scary and outside her comfort zone. Nonetheless, her supervisor and co-trainees validated her emerging confidence and pastoral identity. The room with her priestly garments and symbols captured the pinnacle of what she wanted to be and do at this time. In her journals, she often reflected about Elijah, the whirlwind and significance of stillness. Towards the end of her CPE unit, she was assigned to be the priest of a local parish which was her greatest desire in her ministry. Thus, as she described above, she was “finding self amidst chaos”. 171

Take away message: transitions though chaotic can be manageable through mindful reflections and support. Finn (Scottish-South African) Summary of presentation Finn had a dummy lying in one of the beds with a spiderman mask and a thermometer in his mouth. The “patient” seemed like a child with a light blue jacket, gloves, a black beanie and ‘Winnie the Pooh’ blanket. There was a whiff of freshly baked muffins in the oven and on the stove top was a kettle with plastic vegetable refrigerator magnets. He decorated a room with assorted items: different coloured children’s socks left on the floor, some sliced onions on top of a table, and a plastic skeleton inside the cabinet (i.e. ‘skeletons in the closet’). At the end of his presentation, he prepared some refreshments on the dining table and the group “broke bread” as each one shared their reflections. Narrative analysis of interview: Function Clauses from Interviews ABSTRACT “My presentation followed a linear progression of the learning journey that CPE had formed...” ORIENTATION “...I enjoyed putting together the ‘menu’ of what I was to offer the group” COMPLICATING “I experienced feelings of nervous enerACTION gy, anticipation, and joy in offering my presentation.” EVALUATION “In many ways it provided a tangible expression of my thanks for the course participants for their role in my journey, and so the end meal was really a banquet of celebration and thanks” COMPLICATING AC- “In terms of new insights, I was able to TION present ... in complete silence apart from words – both written and spoken.” EVALUATION “This was significant for me because my default setting is word based and along the lines of rational, intellectual thought, and so to convey meaning through exhibitions which used sight and smell and taste (and touch to a small degree) without sound revealed a largely untapped side of my abilities” RESOLUTION “The insight for me is that using creativi172

ty and forms other than words can convey deep meaning for others. I will carry this insight into my pastoral planning for sure.” Table 7: Finn’s creative expressions Initially, Finn did not intend to portray the patient (Spiderman) as dying. Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, narratives can have multiple perspectives (Fook, 2002; Parton and Byrne, 2000). The group’s feedback helped him realise that he just presented a very creative picture of the death of a superhero (i.e. his rigidity, legalism, perfectionism). And interestingly, the whole mood of the hour was light hearted, fun and celebratory. It summarised how by the end of the CPE unit, he had loosened up, trusted himself and the group, engaged in the process and hugely benefited from the training. Take away message: culinary expressions can definitely tap the use of other senses (sight, smell, touch, taste) and reinforce experiential learning. Concluding thought As mentioned by the CPE trainees, the silent or nonverbal presentations can expand cultural narratives to a new level of awareness. Furthermore, the discipline of silence encourages participants to hone in their skills in noticing, observing, sensing, listening with their eyes. We can take a lesson from our pets. Our cat, Padme, meows when she warmly greets me as I arrive home from work, which sounds like, hey how was your day? She has a different meow when she is hungry, whinny and impatient. It sounds more like noww!!! Not tomorrowww!!! And then there’s another meow tone when she is asking for attention. Nevertheless, veterinarians note that adult cats generally don’t meow to other cats (Houpt 2011). Kittens say mew to their mums when they are hungry, or hiss at another cat or dog. But basically, for adult cats meowing is a new language specifically in relating with their humans (ASPCA, n.d.). I would imagine if I could read Padme’s mind, she would complain: you know my human Noel? He just doesn’t get me. I leave my scent around when I walk up close to him and rub against the furniture or mark my territory... while I can read his facial expressions, he can’t read mine or my body language. He also needs to understand that when I wag my tail, it’s not because I am happy like those drooling dogs do! 173

What if humans learnt from cats by talking less and noticing each other’s nonverbal communication more? We would probably be much better in listening and understanding people’s feelings as well as become more spiritually aware about our interconnectedness. The inclusion of activities such as nonverbal presentations can deeply enhance creative expressions and add a vital element to CPE and pastoral training.

References ASPCA (n.d.). Common Cat Behavior Issues. Retrieved from https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/cat-care/common-cat-behaviorissues/meowing-and-yowling (accessed on 2 Jan. 2016). Burgoon, JK, Guerrero, LK, Floyd K. (2016). Nonverbal Communication. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Carney, D., Cuddy, A. and Yap, A. (2010). Power Posing: Brief nonverbal displays affect neuroendocrine levels and risk tolerance. Psychological Science, 20(10), 1-6. Connolly, M., Crichton-Hill, Y. and Ward, T. (2006). Culturally Reflexive Responses in Abuse Work in Culture and Child Protection. London: Jessica Kingsley Pub, 29-42. Dean, R.G. (2001). The myth of cross-cultural competence. Families in Society, 82(6), 623-630. Fook, J. (2002). Social Work: Critical Theory and Practice. Australia: Sage Publications. Gardiner, W. (2010). Haka: Unique New Zealand. New Zealand: Hatchette. Healy, K. (2005). Postmodern Approaches in Practice’ in Healy, K. Social Work Theories in Context: Creating Frameworks for Practice. Hampshire: Palgrave McMillan. Houpt, K. (2011). Domestic animal behaviour for veterinarians and animal scientists. USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Ka’ai, T.M., Moorfield, J.C., Reilly, M.P.J. and Mosley, S. (2009). Ki Te Whaiao: An Introduction to Māori Culture and Society. New Zealand: Pearson Education. King, S.A., Knott, A. and McCane, B. (2003). Language-driven nonverbal communication in a bilingual conversational agent. Retrieved from http://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/staffpriv/alik/papers/casapaper.pdf (accessed on 31 Dec. 2015). Labov, W. (1982). Speech actions and reactions in personal narrative. In: Tannen D (ed). Analyzing discourse: Text and talk.. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. 174

Parton, N. And O’Byrne, P. (2000). Constructive Social Work: Towards a new Practice. London: Macmillan Press. Riessman, C.K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications Riessman, C. and Quinney, L. (2005). Narrative in social work: A critical review: Qualitative Social Work, 4(4), 391-412. Statistics New Zealand (2010). Demographics of New Zealand’s Pacific Population. Pacific Progress 2010. Retrieved from http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/paci fic_peoples/pacific-progress-demography.aspx (accessed 10 September 2015). Statistics New Zealand (2013). Major ethnic groups in New Zealand (2013). Retrieved from http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013census/profile-and-summary-reports/infographic-culture-identity.aspx (accessed on 24 March 2016). Thomas, D.R. (n.d.) Understanding Cross-cultural Communication. Retrieved from http://spjp.massey.ac.nz/books/bolitho/Chapter_16.pdf (accessed on 31 Dec. 2015). Victoria University of Wellington (n.d.) Cultural Identity. Retrieved from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/centres-and-institutes/language-in-theworkplace/research/cultural-identity (accessed on 31 Dec. 2015). Wells, K. Narrative Inquiry. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

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Toward the General Theory of Inter-Faith Spiritual Care The dimensional projection model A perspective from Japanese Experiences T. David Ito

Spiritual Care as an academic and practical discipline is at a crucial moment in its development. Care of the soul of the sick and the troubled has always been with us from the very early stage of our history. It is mostly done by religious people on the basis of the recognition by the society. For a long time, this recognition has been part of culture. Unlike those traditional situations, spirituality is the key concept of healthcare in the modern society, where the multiplicity of legitimate religions and traditions are the reality. Coexistence of different world views and different sense of beauty and goodness are at the core of the vision of our democratic society. In other words, a modern person lives with “others”, whereas in a traditional community a person lives with ones of “ours”. Pastoral Care needs to re-establish its identity by stepping out from one’s faith community where the members are “brothers and sisters,” and by going out into the public sphere to care for “others” where the care is accountable to the public and needs to prove its efficacy. Pastoral Care remains an important aspect of lives of the faith community. But the professional code of conduct of spiritual care in the public sphere must be established. In the welfare society, in order to provide necessary medical and social care, it is important to establish an insurance system, public or private, so that the member of the society can prepare for the situation where they need help. Social welfare and healthcare stand on this financial basis and they require the fair benefit. Insurance pays only for the recognized service to the recognized condition. The service needs to be effective and legitimate. This same system requires the spiritual care to be effective and legitimate, if it is to find the place within the healthcare. Hence, the strong need of research that provides the evidence of its importance in healthcarei. 176

This small paper is intended to be an invitation to the collaborative construction of the guideline theory for the inter-faith spiritual care, namely the care for the “others.” After a short description of the recent movement in Japan, the outline of the “dimensional projection model” of spiritual care is introduced. Much deeper discussion is necessary to build up a theory that can lead our developing research and practice of inter-faith spiritual care. Critical assessment is deeply appreciated. To minimize unnecessary terminological argument, I use the BCE (the Being Cared For) for the patient and/or client or any other who are in need of care; and the SCP (Spiritual Care Provider/Practitioner/Professional) for chaplains and other trained spiritual care practitioners. The way the SCP tries to understand the spirituality of the BCF inevitably defines the nature of the spiritual care.

Japanese Experience

During the isolation of the country from overseas for more than two hundred years from 1639, Japan had developed a social infrastructure, communication system, political stability, basic education structure, and so forth within the country. This is also the period for many aspects of Japanese culture to flourish. When Japan had resumed communication and trade with the West in the second half of the nineteenth century, modern technology and industry, philosophy and thoughts, social and political structure that had developed for past two hundred years in the West, had rushed in. People enjoyed the interaction with new culture and knowledge until the burst of the propagation of ultra-nationalistic and militant imperial ideology that took a religious form just before and during the wars in the twentieth century. After the unconditional surrender of Japan in 1945, the General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers 177

(GHQ) prepared the democratic polity on the basis of division of religion and state. Japanese society took the principle literarily and chose even to taboo talking about religion in the public sphere to backlash against nationalistic Shinto religious ideology that had guided the nation toward militarism. Since then, for the past seventy years, Japan has been a society where religion is confined to private sphere and its public quality is discounted. The role of religion began to change in Japan when the discussion of the spiritual aspect of humanity in healthcare started at the last decade of the twentieth century. The healthcare professionals, namely, physicians and nurses, showed their interest in human spirituality. Some religious professionals who had trained in Clinical Pastoral Education in the USA responded, and The Professional Association for Spiritual Care and Health (PASCH) was established in 2005 and started the Program for Spiritual Care Chaplains in the following year. This program intended to be the CPE program adjusted to Japanese culture and social needs. The Japan Society of Spiritual Care was organized in 2007 by researchers and practitioners in Spiritual Care. The first congress was held in 2008. After five years of intensive preparation, the society started certifying professionally trained spiritual care practitioners in 2013. In 1995, we had a huge earthquake in Kobe, in Western Japan. In 2005, the Japan Rail West had a derailing accident that killed 107 and injured 562. Responding to those social grief, The Institute of Grief Care was founded in 2009, and it became one of the affiliated research organizations of Sophia University in Tokyo. The Great East Japan Earthquake, 11th March 2011, and the melting down accident at the nuclear reactor in Fukushima had further changed the circumstances of care in Japan. Probably for the first time in post-war Japan, religion took social initiative in caring. Japan Religion Coordinating Project for Disaster Relief (JRDR) started in November that year as the centre for the public responsibility of religion in relation to the disaster relief.

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The devastating experience of the earthquake kindled the hearts of the local religious leaders. The sense of regret is at the core of their mind. They have had to face the reality that they could not provide the care to the spirit that was shaken from the foundation, because of their lack of training and education for caring. The movement of the Inter-Faith Chaplain (Rinsho-Shukyo-Shi 臨床宗教師) is for the restoration of a sense of compassion and mercy, mainly among Japanese mainstream Buddhists. The movement is for the clinical education of caring and for rebuilding the religious identity of the ordained monks. How can we understand those caring activities of different origins as the same spiritual care? Outcome studies are required in relation to healthcare. The new Inter-Faith Chaplain rushes as the movement of the monks. The Japan Society moves on building the clinical spiritual care, trying to match the international development of the discipline. All of them are efforts to care for human spirituality. In this paper I would like to present an integrative perspective that makes sense of those caring activities. Outlining the dimensional projection model The aim of the rest of this small paper is to invite as many researchers and practitioners of spiritual care as possible to the discussion seeking to build the general theory of inter-faith spiritual care. The model I present in this paper is characterized by “dimensional projection.” Projection is our intellectual way to make sense of Reality. We cannot speak of spirituality per se. We all discuss about spirituality that is projected upon one of the dimensional models, in terms of the needs and interests of the situation. The difficulty in building up an apt definition of spiritualityii proves that we are still in the developing stage of the study. One of the most important functions of the dimensional model is that it equips the care practitioners with levels to see the spirituality of the BCF. The same person and 179

the very same issue can be approached from different level of perspectives in order to clarify the required level of care.

The definition of “projection” found in Oxford Dictionary of Englishiii includes: the presentation or promotion of someone or something in a particular way; the legal profession’s projection of an image of altruism. a mental image viewed as reality; monsters can be understood as mental projections of mankind’s fears. the unconscious transfer of one’s desires or emotions to another person; we protect the self by a number of defense mechanisms, including repression and projection. All of those connotations are included in our practice of projecting spirituality. We need to be aware of our own mental process of projecting. I classify the projections of spirituality into four dimensional frameworks, namely, one dimensional, two dimensional, three dimensional and four dimensional, analogous to coordinating axes in mathematics. Each dimensional projection (or reflection) sketches limited image of spirituality. Those images have their unique quality, meaning and authenticity corresponding to the “light” cast. It is important to know the relation, or “function”, of the shed image and the reality of spirituality. This is, in fact, the most difficult part of “outcome” research of spiritual care. But I do not discuss much about the “outcome” research in this paper. I focus on the framework itself. Briefly speaking, the one dimensional projection is for scientific research. The two dimensional projection is for religious care. The three dimensional projection makes psycho-social approach possible. But it is the four dimensional framework that is fundamental to spiritual care. All other dimensional approaches must come with this. In spiritual care no one can overlook the four dimensional projection even if the SCP works mainly with another dimensional projection. 180

One Dimensional Projection of the Spirituality On the one dimensional framework (fig.1), spirituality of the BCF is projected one-dimensionally as a line, more properly, as a measurable length. If we want to measure the degree of something in relation to spirituality, the one dimensional framework is to be applied. A quantitative research is carried out on the basis of the one dimensional projection. Maybe it is the researchers’ dream to measure iv happiness, hope, and despair on scales. Once we were successful to do so, we could develop the way of intervention to give a guaranteed impact on them. I understand that the recent development of studying the “generic spirituality” is about the one dimensional projection. In the one dimensional model, the researchers are required to establish modes of the projection. They, first, have to identify a symptom or expression that correspond to some important aspect of spirituality, and they, secondly, have to establish the way to measure the degree of the symptom or expression. Only the piles of data from such painstaking clinical research constitutes the concrete evidence for hands-on spiritual care. The researcher-practitioners in human care, such as in nursing, social work and in clinical psychology, are the trained people in this field. They try to attend to the spiritual needs of the BCF on the basis of the data. Professional chaplains in healthcare are those on the frontlines of the practice, too. They are, however, the least trained in the one dimensional research. They are not very good at understanding the BCF quantitatively. They focus on other dimensional projections. They need to make efforts to become proficient in a projecting elements that they feel essential for spiritual care to one dimensional framework. That leads to the “outcome” research of spiritual care. We need to develop a method of quantitative research in humanities which is distinctive from the research in natural or social science. The characteristics of the one dimensional projection is its objective nature. The data should not be conditioned by the human relationship between the researcher and the BCF. The communication 181

for the research must be rational. Relationship is usually not mutual but one directional. The one dimensional projection of spirituality is possible only by extreme reduction. The danger is its oversimplification and its heavy dependency on the mode that makes the one directional projection possible. The projection can show only a side of reality of the BCF and his spirituality. The understanding gained through the one dimensional projection, therefore, must be complemented with other dimensional projections. Two Dimensional Projection of the Spirituality In the two dimensional framework (fig.2), spirituality and its issues are projected onto the tradition and the narrative that forms the culture behind the BCF. This two dimensional projection provides the fundamental structure of the meaning seeking activities of humanity. Unlike the one dimensional framework, it requires the active involvement of the SCP in relationship with the BCF. The quality of personal encounter between the BCF and the SCP is definitely very important in the actual care situation. We will discuss about the relationship in detail in the four dimensional framework, later. The presupposition here is that the tradition structures, overtly or covertly, the meaning and value of self and of events for the BCF. Even our individually unique spirituality develops on the basis of the tradition. We become a member of the community through the process of getting familiarized with underlying tradition that has inevitable affinity with religion. There is, certainly, a standpoint disagreeing with this perspective and saying that the spirituality is an innate capacity of humanity to have direct connection with the supreme being and does not require tradition. But following Hans-Georg Gadamerv, I would rather argue for the inevitability of the relationship between spirituality and the tradition. The most powerful tradition is language and our thinking is linguistically bound. Therefore, whatever discussion we elaborate, we remain within the realm of tradition. This philosophical situation is known as the hermeneutical cir182

cle. The same arguments can be presented in the social constructionist theory. We are socialized by absorbing the norm, culture, value, senses and language of the society where one is born. The spirituality is a part of tradition, in a large sense. Religion, including its teaching, myth, stories, world view, image of life after death, sense of purity and pollution, aesthetics and so forth, also constitutes a large part of tradition. The BCFs find their suffering and agony, as well as hope and happiness, in relation to the role and place in the traditional story. It is also within the traditional story where one finds the ways to be in connection with the transcendent or the holy one. Even an ascetic who renounces social life finds the reference of his lifestyle in the cultural tradition. As Gadamer discussed, it is almost impossible to be independent from one’s tradition. The religious leaders, the typical SCP in the two dimensional framework, are the interpreters of the traditional and (therefore) of sacred story and liturgists of prayer. The BCF visits a religious community and its leaders to confirm and to reconfirm the ground of their existence. Even just an annual festival can assure the world view of the community. The BCF often find the meaning of their suffering in the story retold, community assured and ritual celebrated. The religious leaders have the role to connect the personal issues of the BCF in the current culture and society with the tradition. In orders to provide the connection, a functioning SCP must be a good listener. Guided by Gadamer again, the horizon of the personal experiences of the BCF and the horizon of tradition or culture need to be fused as the process of the two dimensional spiritual care, and the SCPs are the catalyzers. Mainstream religions can always offer stories for the rising and ebbing tides. The fusion has nothing to do with imposing and applying traditional story or religious teaching upon the BCF. In the fusion, both the tradition and the BCF are enhanced. The SCP has to be trained in the narrative competency, as Rita Charon emphasizesvi, in order to understand the depth of hearts of the BCF. Careful listening helps the BCF to make sense of what is going on in his mind, or to grasp the inner dynamics. The power of listening is the most important tool of the SCP. It is often the devas183

tating or end-of-life situation where the SCP is invited or visited by the BCF. The SCP should sense the core of the highly personalized suffering, and be creative to respond compassionately as the representative of the tradition. They have the culturally entrusted authority to offer the BCF the story that is the reference for him to make sense of the crisis. The danger of the two dimensional projection and the care comes, ironically, from the narrative competency of the SCP itself. As the ritual theory, religious studies and depth psychology have taught, experiences of the individual are unique, yet, they are all the same as varieties of the traditional narrative. The more the SCP is wellversed in narrative and tradition, the more she can see through the deep structure of the people’s experiences. Individual experiences are the aspects of tradition manifested or actualized. The SCP should not try to elucidate the concrete experiences of the SCP in terms of the tradition. The religious story cannot be the interpretation of personal issues. The BCF in deep personal experiences needs to taste the feeling and the texture of them. The SCP should not anticipate the experiences of the BCF. The failure of this reservation causes paternalism. It is also the danger of the SCP to enable a premature verbalization by the BCF. It is important to wait until the experience is ripe so that the BCF finds his own expression to narrate. The SCP is often obliged to stop the premature narration. In modern clinical setting, there may be the situation where other human care professionals, such as nurses, social workers, or clinical psychologists, are expected to provide spiritual care. They have no other choice than working with their own common sense and maturity as a person equipped with emotional intelligence. Training program to build up their narrative competency is essential to all the healthcare professionals. The Eastern tradition has always been sceptical to this standpoint, since they do not believe in the capability of human language to describe the truthvii. In order to balance with those critical evaluation, the successful spiritual care in the two dimensional projection must 184

be complemented by the four dimensional aspect, discussed later, that is to do with the quality encounter between the BCF and the SCP.

Three Dimensional Projection of the Spirituality The three dimensional image (fig.3) consists of layers of independent horizon of the tradition and of the narrative that affects the individual BCF. This is, in a sense, a critical perspective to the conservatism that can be advanced by the two dimensional framework discussed above. For example, Jürgen Habermasviii is more interested in “life world” and rational discourse to build up the public norm beyond tradition. The three dimensional projection is a more realistic approach. Living on multiple traditions at the same time is the reality of a modern individual, especially one with global activities. We have learned about the intricate relationship of an individual and the tradition in terms of the hermeneutical circle in the previous section. It is, indeed, very important to know the basic mechanism of our tradition. But the actuality of our daily life has already gone beyond the framework. The hermeneutical circle in the modern society is extremely complicated. It is no longer possible to discuss the nature of spirituality ontologically. Spiritual care in the three dimensional projection is more of communication and decision making. We may illustrate the life of the modern individual as follows: The BCF may have had his family with a certain strong ethnical background. He may have grown up in the area where a majority speaks a different language from his mother tongue. He may have spent some time in, say, a Catholic school, and he may have received higher education in a Western country, and he may be working as an executive in a Tokyo office of a Chinese company. At home, he could be the father of a daughter who goes to an international school and have an Indian wife. In spare time, he may practice Zen meditation. The thickness of those layers of traditions that he concurrently belongs to makes the framework three dimensional. The projection of the spirituality of the BCF is shed not upon a single horizon that 185

can provide one systematized set of values, world views, aesthetics and so forth, but upon many. Three dimensional projection seems to be a very realistic way to describe the struggles of the modern human spirituality. Prioritizing the values and goals that often contradict each other, is the spiritual issue of an individual. The three dimensional projection is a social and psychological approach to spirituality, because it deals with inter- and intra-personal struggles. It must deal critically with the layers of values in a society and interpersonal relationship together with the inner process of the BCF. The SCP has to listen to the spiritual struggle of the BCF who does not have a single authoritative guidance to his life. Multiple values and visions guide the BCF. No one, but the BCF himself, can know them. Even the BCF himself may not be sure of what he wants. He has to create his own unique narrative so that he can makes sense of the suffering. With active listening based on the quality encounter, which we discuss later in the four dimensional projection, the SCP will facilitate self-examination, self-acceptance and self-determination of the BCF. The goal of the SCP is that the BCF is empowered to establish his priority and gain control over his own issue. In order to facilitate the journey of the BCF in the labyrinth of the traditions, it is essential for the SCP to be well informed with various traditions, sacred and profane. At the same time, they are trained in critical analysis on society. We have to be aware of the theoretical, as well as practical, difficulties of the SCP. The SCP often has a professional level education in a religious tradition. At the same time, the SCP cannot escape from the same difficulty as modern individual, namely, the multiplicity of traditions and values that affect her. The typical danger of the three dimensional projection and its care is the conflict of interests. Without very acute sensitivity to the discrepancies of layer of the BCF and that of SCP, the care may be experienced as invasive and controlling. For the SCP, ability to put one’s own “faith” and “creed” in relative level is necessary. Loss of the system to rely in order to reach to “the right answer” is the background of the BCF. The SCP needs to share the same agony. 186

The three dimensional projection provides the theoretical structure for rational care, such as the reconstruction of “belief system.” But the three dimensional projection is spiritual only when it comes with the four dimensional perspective. The Four Dimensional Projection of the Spirituality Mathematics and physics have their way to talk about the four dimensions. But it is refractory for the ordinary person. The four dimensional is beyond our imagination. But, this very refractoriness seems to provide the most fundamental character of the spiritual care. The four dimensional projection (fig.4) seems to be a relevant and appropriate illustration of the reality of spirituality. Without this aspect, care cannot be spiritual. In physics, the fourth dimension could be regarded as the time axis. Looking at spirituality as being still and inactive is reduction and contradicts even to the etymological root of this English word, the “wind”. One fundamental aspect of spirituality that we have not touch so far in this paper is its dynamism and generativity. Spirituality fosters growth and change. Spirituality itself flourishes at the moment of human encounter and has the lasting impact not only upon the BCF but also upon the SCP. Understandings of care through the one, two and three dimensional projections are “spiritual” only if they are experienced at the space and time that has distinctive quality, the moment of “here and now.” The care built on those projections can be spiritual, depending on the quality of relationship between the BCF and the SCP. Martin Buber has introduced a very powerful notion of “Ich und Du.” It is certainly the guiding principle of the human encounter. This notion itself has spiritual quality. Buber’s thesis was not that of epistemology. It was an invitation for humanity to be in the divine/spiritual relationship. He saw the divinity in human encounter with the “Ich und Du” mode. Likewise, the active engagement with the “Ich und Du” mode is the first step of the spiritual care. The four dimensional projection does not allow the SCP to be just an outsider 187

who observes or analyzes the BCF. Hilary Putnam further articulates the nature of this quality encounter by introducing the discussion of another thinker of Jewish tradition, Emmanuel Lévinas. Contrary to Buber. Lévinas emphasized the otherness of another human being in the following ways: A genuine ethical relation to another presupposes that you realize that the other person is an independent reality and not in any way your constructionix. I know the Other [l’autrui] is not part of my “construction of the world” because my encounter with the other is an encounter with a fissure, with a being who breaks my categoriesx. In the “face [visage]” of the other, Lévinas finds the incomprehensible abyssal depth that humanity owns as the resemblance of the divine. He invites us to embrace the contradictory or paradox nature of encounter with the other, that corresponds to the four dimensional projection of spirituality. The projection refracts in this dimension. It is not the relationship led by resultative conjunctions such as “therefore”, or the relationship based on the probability. Spiritual care does not stand on the crafted rational relationship between the BCF and the SCP. The quality encounter does happen in the relationship often led by conjunctions such as “in spite of” or “no matter what.”

The fundamental obligation we have, Levinas is telling us, is the obligation to make ourselves available to the neediness (and especially the suffering) of the other personxi In Levinas’s image of man, the vulnerability of the other is what is stressed, in contrast to what Levinas sees as the Enlightenment’s radiant image of the human essencexii. 188

The SCP offers herself available to the BCF and vice versa. Those moral actions constitute the quality encounter for the four dimensional projection. The quality encounter has potentiality to heal, or to restore the wholeness. One, two and three dimensional projections are the result of the “dimensionality reduction” from the four dimensional projection. It is within the larger framework of the four dimensional, that each subordinate projection has its own goal and specific function. In the one dimensional projection, it is the quantitative representation of certain aspects of spirituality. The care is to assess spirituality that is immeasurable and indeterminable in essence. The two dimensional projection is for qualitative or narrative representation of spirituality. The care is to connect the infinite dynamism of spirituality with our capacity of mind that is linguistically constructed. The three dimensional projection deals with the prevalence of spirituality. The care invites the BCF to existential commitment. In the four dimensional projection, we confront the fissure between humanities, and the fissure between humanity and spirituality. The care is trying to induce “the moment” when and where humanities, as well as humanity and spirituality, encounter. We need all dimensional projection in order to develop the research and practice of spiritual care. Conclusion In the local level, uneven elaborations of several movements in spiritual care in contemporary Japan call for the guiding theory. The urgent world-wide call for the “outcome” research also requires the framework. In the time of important transition for the discipline and practice of spiritual care, a general theory is necessary. The dimensional projection model in this paper is intended to be a seminal contribution for the further development of the discussion for the theory building. This is only one way to generalize spiritual care.

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i Gray E. Myers (ed). An Invitation to Chaplaincy Research: Entering the Process. John Templeton Foundation / Healthcare Chaplaincy Network, 2014. (https://www.healthcarechaplaincy.org/docs/publications/templeton_research/hcc_re search_handbook_final.pdf) and European Network of Healthcare Chaplaincy: Statement – Healthcare Chaplaincy in the Midst of Transition.2014 (http://www.enhcc.eu/2014_salzburg_statement.pdf) ii Christiana M. Puchalski. Religion, Medicine and Spirituality: What We Know, What We Don’t Know and What We Do, in Asian Pacific J Cancer Prevention, Vol. 11, 2010, MECC Supplement, 45-49.; Christina M. Puchalski et al. Improving the Spiritual Dimension of Whole Person Care: Reaching National and International Consensus. in Journal of Palliative Medicine Volume 17, Number 6, 2014: DOI: 10.1089/jpm.2014.9427 iii Oxford English of Dictionary, Third Edition2010, 2013 (digital edition) Arndt Büssing. “Measures”. In Mark R Cobb, Christina M Puchalski, and Bruce Rumbold. Oxford Textbook of Spirituality in Healthcare. OUP 2012. DOI: 10.1093/med/9780199571390.003.0044 Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method (Wahrheit und Methode, in: Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 1, Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1990) vi Rita Charon, Narrative Medicine: honoring the story of illness. OUP 2008. iv

Westerhoff, Jan Christoph, "Nāgārjuna", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = . Jürgen Habermas, On the Logic of Social Sciences (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought) MIT 1988. Pp.162ff. Hilary Putnam, Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life: Rosenzweig, Buber, Levinas, Wittgenstein. Indiana University Press. 2008. P.78. vii

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Putnam, 2008. P.81.

xi

Putnam, 2008. P.74.

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Putnam, 2008. P.83.

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Authors Jan Albert van den Berg Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Practical Theology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa Ulrike Elsdörfer Dr., Theologian, Religious Scientist and Supervisor, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Secretary of ICPCC Linda Graham Author and Workshop Leader on connection, connectivity and virtual reality, Keynote speaker of the 10th ICPCC Congress, San Francisco, USA Takaaki David Ito Prof., Chair of the Program on Death and Life Studies Graduate School of Applied Religious Studies Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan President of ICPCC Klaus Kießling Dr. Dr. Dr. h.c., Professor of Practical Theology, Director of the Department of Pastoral Psychology and Spirituality, Catholic University St. Georgen, Frankfurt/Main, Germany Daniel J. Louw em. Professor of Practical Theology, Stellenbosch/South Africa, Keynote speaker of the 10th ICPCC Congress, San Francisco, USA President of ICPCC 2011-2015 Vhumani Magezi, Dr., Professor, North West University, Faculty of Humanities, School of Basic Sciences, South Africa Gloria Marsay Dr. Educationalist., Psychologist in Private Practice, South Africa

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Barbara Sheehan SP, M. A. in Theology, Executive Director/ACPE Supervisor of the Urban CPE Consortium, Inc. in Chicago, IL (USA) Wim Smeets Dr., Spiritual Caregiver and CPE supervisor at the Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Noel Tiano Th.D., MSCW, M.Div., Chaplain, Forensic & Mental Health Interchurch Council for Hospital Chaplaincy, Aotearoa, New Zealand Anneke de Vries Dr., Spiritual Caregiver and CPE supervisor at the Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Annie Sow Chin Wong Supervisor, Convener of the 2019 ICPCC Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Helmut Weiß Reverend, Teaching Supervisor, President of SIPCC (Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counselling), Düsseldorf, Germany

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