scholarly journals Deficiencies in pastoral care with prisoners in Cameroon

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abraham K. Akih ◽  
Yolanda Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Care Programme ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
Care Approach ◽  
Broad Overview

Cameroon celebrated fifty years of independence from colonial rule on 20 May 2010. Major problems facing the nation are economic, social and political crises and the appalling condition of its prisons. This article focuses on pastoral care with prisoners in Cameroon. Most churches in Cameroon have no pastoral care programme for prisoners. The churches in general are not yet committed to this kind of work. The article argues that changes and reform of the penitential system will be difficult if not impossible without collaboration with other institutions and resources, which include the different faith communities and faith based organisations. The focus should be on the care and well-being of those within its walls if successful rehabilitation is to take place. Spiritual care will contribute to the general well-being of prisoners. The article gives a broad overview of the situation of prisons and prisoners in Cameroon and presents a pastoral care approach that could contribute to the overall improvement of the lives of people in Cameroon prisons.

scholarly journals The Relevance of Theology and Legal policy in South African society in connection with violence against women

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Doniwen Pietersen
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
South African ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Well Being ◽  
African Society ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Care Approach ◽  
The Church

The theological question raised in this article violence against women theologically, drawing and incorporating the South African government’s response to it in terms of legislation and policing strategies and the need for greater participation of communities to combat gender-related crimes. The caretaker approach of the church as the custodian of the Hebrew Bible was also highlighted. Even though a church-based care approach may be limited, it still has the potential to support the efforts of law-enforcement agencies. When women in communities do not feel safe and fear violence at the hands of men, they are forced to resort to the state to provide protection. Crime, including crime against women, draws on insecurities about the level of safety and well-being in communities. It cannot be prevented or eliminated by the police alone but by the concerted collaboration of the private sector, NGOs, faith-based organisations such as churches and the community itself.

Examining the Impact of Spiritual Care in Long-Term Care

2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 175-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah W. Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Care Program ◽  
Chronically Ill ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychosocial Needs ◽  
Term Care ◽  
The Impact

This project examines the effects of spiritual care on chronically ill and aging populations and those who care for them by studying the development of a comprehensive Pastoral Care Program at Episcopal Communities & Services (ECS), a nonprofit that owns two Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC) in Southern California (in 2010 ECS operated three communities). The study includes the vision, methodology, and specific steps taken to implement this spiritual care program and methods to measure its efficacy. Data is analyzed from satisfaction surveys conducted the year before the program's introduction and surveys taken 2 and 4 years after the institution of the Pastoral Care Program, along with anecdotal findings. Results indicated that spiritual awareness and satisfaction increased throughout the resident population after the Pastoral Care Program's establishment and that satisfaction levels continued to improve as the program developed over time. This study suggests that spiritual support (both religious and nonreligious) is a vital factor in well-being and quality of life at the end of life and that transdisciplinary palliative care is needed in long-term care settings to address spiritual and psychosocial needs.

scholarly journals Wounded healers: a call for spiritual care towards healthcare professionals in time of COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Joseph D Sarmiento
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Medical Community ◽  
Care Programme ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Spiritual Well Being ◽  
To Come ◽  
Wounded Healers

Abstract In recent correspondences and articles published, the role of religious and spiritual interventions has been discussed for the attention of the medical community in the time of COVID-19 pandemic and part of these interventions is to provide spiritual care. Attention has been given to provide spiritual care among COVID-19 patients. However, there is also a dire need to offer spiritual care towards healthcare professionals because they, too, are ‘wounded healers’. This paper discusses the urgent call for the medical and spiritual communities to come up with comprehensive spiritual care programme for healthcare professionals so that they may attain spiritual well-being as they serve in the frontlines, risking their lives and providing spiritual care to patients especially in this trying times of the pandemic as a public health crisis.

Faith-Based Health Education Project

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgia N. L. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Faith Communities ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Community Ownership ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Program Success ◽  
Project Sustainability ◽  
Critical Components ◽  
Pastoral Support ◽  
Volunteer Commitment

Working with faith communities in health promotion is widely acclaimed and yet not readily practiced. This article describes a study conducted among four faith communities to determine the process required for sustainable faith-based programs. Face-to-face interviews were conducted among 12 community volunteers who participated to identify their perceptions of the project. Two staff members were also interviewed to identify the process from their perspectives. Project-related documents were also analyzed to provide details and triangulate the data from the interviews. The study followed the project for 2 ½ years. Several factors were identified as significant influences on participation and project sustainability. These included value, active pastoral support, program success, and volunteer commitment. The results of this study indicate that pastoral support and faith community ownership are critical components that should be included in faith-based community building efforts.

Religion and Medicine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Levin ◽  
Stephen G. Post
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Decision Making ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Religion And Medicine ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Baylor University ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

In Religion and Medicine, Dr. Jeff Levin, distinguished Baylor University epidemiologist, outlines the longstanding history of multifaceted interconnections between the institutions of religion and medicine. He traces the history of the encounter between these two institutions from antiquity through to the present day, highlighting a myriad of contemporary alliances between the faith-based and medical sectors. Religion and Medicine tells the story of: religious healers and religiously branded hospitals and healthcare institutions; pastoral professionals involved in medical missions, healthcare chaplaincy, and psychological counseling; congregational health promotion and disease prevention programs and global health initiatives; research studies on the impact of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices on physical and mental health, well-being, and healing; programs and centers for medical research and education within major universities and academic institutions; religiously informed bioethics and clinical decision-making; and faith-based health policy initiatives and advocacy for healthcare reform. Religion and Medicine is the first book to cover the full breadth of this subject. It documents religion-medicine alliances across religious traditions, throughout the world, and over the course of history. It summarizes a wide range of material of relevance to historians, medical professionals, pastors and theologians, bioethicists, scientists, public health educators, and policymakers. The product of decades of rigorous and focused research, Dr. Levin has produced the most comprehensive history of these developments and the finest introduction to this emerging field of scholarship.

Hostility to Hospitality: Authors’ Response

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-152
Author(s):  
Michael J. Balboni
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Holistic Care ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Medical Institutions ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
Constructive Criticism

AbstractThis article offers a brief response to constructive criticism of the book featured in this edition of Spiritual Care. Hostility to Hospitality argues that the role of spirituality within the care of sick patients, despite clear empirical evidence demonstrating its importance, remains deeply contested because of bias against religious communities. Deeply flawed conceptualizations of the nature of religion and the secular camouflage how a society's commitment to immanence functions like a spirituality. A secular framework weakens how spiritual communities can positively influence medical institutions or socialize professional guilds in caring for the whole patient. The diminishment of communities that champion compassion as a chief end, pave a way for hostile economic, technological, and bureaucratic forces to suppress our ability to fully care for patients in body and soul. Rather than being neutral as purported, the secular structures of medicine manipulate and use pastoral care for its own immanent ends. Hostility to Hospitality argues that unless pluralism is embraced, allowing for a diversity of religious communities to influence the structures of medicine, compassionate and holistic care will increasingly become unlikely as impersonal social forces increase.

scholarly journals The impact of spousal violence on the children: A pastoral care approach

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luvuyo G. Sifo ◽  
Maake J. Masango
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Spousal Violence ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Case Scenario ◽  
Care Approach ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
The Impact

This article investigates the impact of spousal violence on children. Spousal violence in the home affects children negatively and its impact goes beyond their childhood years into adulthood. Some children become dysfunctional in life as a result of their exposure to violence between their parents. These children may exhibit symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) later on in life. A case study of a family exposed to violence was undertaken. Findings from this case scenario were measured against existing literature. A pastoral care method of responding to the victims is proposed in order for them to be healed.

From Hospitality to Hostility: Ibadan and Strangers, 1830–1904

1985 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toyin Falola
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Open Door ◽  
Equal Opportunities ◽  
Open Door Policy ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

The view that Ibadan society in the nineteenth century did not discriminate against strangers, irrespective of their origins in Yorubaland, is now firmly entrenched in the literature. To be sure, Ibadan, a new nineteenth-century Yoruba city-state, founded as a consequence of the political crises of the early decades of the century, did maintain an ‘open door’ policy to strangers, many of whom went there as adventurers, craftsmen and traders, hoping to acquire wealth and fame. This article, however, controverts the view that Ibadan society gave the strangers and the indigenes equal opportunities to wealth and power. It argues that all the key political offices went only to the Oyo-Ibadan group which dominated the city-state. Strangers were also not allowed to participate fully in the leading heights of the economy, with the result that most of the wealthy citizens were also of Oyo-Yoruba origin.In the 1890s discrimination against strangers was such that a number of moves were made to expel them. However, the British, who imposed colonial rule on Ibadan in 1893, were against the expulsion of strangers.

An Exploratory Study of Spiritual Dimensions Among Nursing Students

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary A Wehmer ◽  
Mary T Quinn Griffin ◽  
Ann H. White ◽  
Joyce J. Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
Spiritual Experiences ◽  
Daily Spiritual Experiences ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Spiritual Well Being ◽  
The Relationship

This exploratory descriptive study of spiritual experiences, well-being, and practices was conducted among 126 nursing students. Participants reported a higher level of spiritual well-being and life scheme than self-efficacy for well-being and life-scheme. Thus, students appeared to view the world and their role in it slightly more positively than their ability to affect their lives and make decisions. The students reported the most frequent spiritual experiences as being thankful for blessings; the next most frequent spiritual experiences having a desire to be close to God, feeling a selfless caring for others, and finding comfort in one’s religion and spirituality. Students used both conventional and unconventional spiritual practices. Further study is necessary to study the relationship among spiritual practices, daily spiritual experiences, and spiritual well-being among nursing students and to evaluate these before and after implementation of specific educational offerings focused on spirituality and spiritual care in nursing.

God is Doing a New Thing in the ELCA: Trends from the FACT Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-266
Author(s):  
Deborah L. Coe ◽  
Brad Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
Congregational Studies ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Protestant Denominations ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church

For decades, mainline Protestant denominations in the United States have experienced steady membership declines. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is no different, and our research team has been exploring this topic for years. Faith Communities Today (FACT) is an interfaith project consisting of a series of surveys conducted by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, of which the ELCA is a long-standing member. In this article, we examine data collected from the three decennial FACT surveys to discern where, despite declining membership, God is, to quote the prophet Isaiah, “doing a new thing.” We find that over the past twenty years, the typical ELCA congregation has had a gradually increasing: sense of vitality, belief that it is financially healthy, desire to become more diverse, willingness to call women to serve as pastors, openness to change, and clarity of mission and purpose. Because there are multiple possible explanations for these positive trends, we recommend approaching such trend lines cautiously, viewing them through a critical-thinking lens. Even though there is an increased perception of congregational well-being, overall finances and the number of people involved in the church continue to decline. There is still much work to be done.

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