Pastoral care in communities under transition: Interplay between care and culture

This article contributes to pastoral care within communities under transition. It seeks to contribute to the corpus of literature that relates pastoral care with culture and, particularly, multicultural contexts. It seeks to critically engage with pastoral care approaches that has dominated three strands of pastoral care. James, Boisen and Hiltner represent modern pastoral care in the United States of America and theologies of Tillich, Hiltner and the ‘secular’ theologians of the 1960s influenced British pastoral theology. The third strand, African perspective, lacks coherency and consistency as illustrated by the Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counselling (1988–2008), Pastoral Care and Counselling Today Manuscript (1991) and The African Association for Pastoral Studies and Counselling (1985). This article analysis narrative as a methodology for pastoral care.After an overview of pastoral care and culture, different approaches of pastoral care are discussed. A narrative approach to pastoral care in changing communities is recommended as an effective means of care. The positions of the caregiver and cared for is changed within the pastoral care so that both learns from the existential experience. The narrative approach has three interrelated aspects, namely communication, community and experience.

A capacidade de outrar-se – diferenças como desafio para a prática do cuidado e aconselhamento pastoral

Este texto tem como propósito refletir sobre um dos principais elementos que fazem parte das competências requeridas daquele(a) que se envolve na atividade do cuidado e do aconselhamento pastoral: a capacidade de outrar-se. Tal reflexão é motivada pela vivência de outramento promovida pela SIPCC (Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counselling) em seu 21º Seminário, que teve como tema: “Diferenças como oportunidade – cuidado e aconselhamento em sociedades multiculturais e multirreligiosas – o exemplo de Haifa, Israel”. Assim, o texto apresenta uma breve caracterização da instituição promotora do seminário e da programação do 21º evento para, em seguida, discutir sobre duas questões pertinentes à capacitação de cuidadores pastorais em contexto brasileiro: 1) o encontro com as diferenças e a capacidade de outrar-se, e 2) a necessidade de criação de um fórum, no contexto brasileiro, para debater questões relacionadas à prática do cuidado e aconselhamento pastoral inter-religioso e intercultural.

Intercultural pastoral care and counseling: resources from narrative therapy and brief pastoral counseling

The fascinating, but complex field of intercultural communication and pastoral care is the focus of research in this article. The authors describe the two approaches of pastoral therapy and show how it can be implemented in an intercultural setting. Although there are major differences between the narrative and brief counseUng approaches, there are also striking similarities. In both cases the pastor tries to work from a nonexpert position and is non-prescriptive in the approach. The authors are convinced that this basic approach of respectfulness makes both models usefull for intercultural work.